Parts of A Show That I Never Got

[rmusic11322]

I thought I would make a thread to help people out. :)
"In (SHOW NAME,) I never got the part where (STATE EXAMPLE.)"
And then the next poster would explain and/or give their example.

Here is my example;
In Wicked, I never got the part where Glinda says, "POOF!! OH LOOK!!! IT'S TOMORROW!"

*feel free to ignore

[aasjb4ever]

I think because she wanted to get off the subject with the convenient fact they were out all night
maybe....

[MusicSnob1]

"*feel free to ignore"

That made me LOL'ed. Sorry, I just couldn't ignore the request to ignore.

[Sheila2]

In Company. I never get the part where Peter says (sings) "The kind of girl you can't send through the mails".
In the number Have I Got a Girl for You. What does "send through the mails" mean?

[qolbinau]

Maybe http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Mail-order_bride - hehe.

Or a general kind of metaphor that the girl is special .

[jasonf]

What the heck does "I'm buying gravity" mean?

[Mattbrain]

Some of those lyrics in Wicked are so bad that I'm too busy cringing to decipher them.

[morosco]

"The kind of girl you can't send through the mails".

Pornography so steamy that it's illegal to send it through the postal service.

[Phyllis Rogers Stone]

Yeah, that Company line means she's so dirty she'd be considered obscene.

[Pgenre]

Is it just me or does "Waiting For the Girls Upstairs" from FOLLIES sound like it doesn't belong in FOLLIES because of the orchestration and style of the song... something about it just hits me wrong and I think Steve could have written a superior song for this spot, as lyrically brilliant and musically interesting as it is. I feel like there is something I am not getting about the music for this song, it feels too much like a THE GIRLS UPSTAIRS murder-mystery-musical style reject (which it is). I always feel like "All Things Bright And Beautiful" should have been incorporated with "Waiting..." somehow, sort of like (and I also prefer) "Who Could Be Blue?/Little White House" for the Young Couples. That song is the only part of the score of FOLLIES that I really just don't love, perhaps someone could shed some light on it for me.

P

[winston89]

Is it okay for me to say all of the lyrics in Wicked. Only because of the fact that a majority of them just don't seem to work or make sense.

[rmusic11322]

"Is it okay for me to say all of the lyrics in Wicked. Only because of the fact that a majority of them just don't seem to work or make sense."

I'm somewhat starting to think that too. Any in particular?

[givesmevoice]

I *always* think it's a mistake in Gypsy when Rose says "They want their train tickets back? Give them their bus tickets back!" I still don't understand why that's the line, and it always sounds a little awkward to me.

[MusicSnob1]

You're just now starting to?!? Dear God, have you been living under a rock?

Some of the worst lyrical material to ever grace the Broadway stage. False rhyming all over the place... Making up words just so that a rhyme will fit.... Breaking a number of writing rules.... Etc.

What a mess. Music is catchy, though!

[iflip4musicals]

In Shrek, in "I Know it's Today" when adult Fiona sings "I'm a very gifted bowler". I know it rhymes with "bipolar", but really? She complains about having "only bare essentials", where is all of this room to go bowling?

And I second all of Wicked, if not just the "buying gravity" lyric.

[rmusic11322]

" Music is catchy, though!"

That was my distraction before I actually listened :)

[Drunk Chita Rivera]

I never understand why Mother's younger Brother is not just her son. The actor always seems to be too young to have a middle aged sister. I don't understand why it can't just be her older son.

[givesmevoice]

Well, in the late 19th and early 20th century, it would not be uncommon for a woman to start having children at 20 and have, say, 10 children within 20 years. Mother could therefore be 40 and her younger brother could be 20.

(I don't know why he's her brother and not her son, but I know it's not unusual for the time period. Maybe they want to show generational differences between siblings. I don't know.)

[Yankeefan007]

Because E.L. Doctrow wrote it that way.

[givesmevoice]

or that.

[adamgreer]

Mother is supposed to be in her 30's. She's not "middle-aged." She has a son who's not even 10 yet. Younger Brother is in his mid-20's, hardly young enough to be Mother's older child. You're making it sound like she's in her 50's or something.

[peerrjb]

Pgenre, re: 'Girls Upstairs'. In the original, this moment in the show was the first time you saw the Young'uns in full color (not in the grey-silver "ghost" makeup and costumes) and the staging went from a memory-of-ourselves to a "40's movie musical" sendup. Physically and musically, it was breathtaking. (I'm talking the 1971 original here.) The fact that it doesn't resemble most of the other tunes (particularly up to that point) has always seemed to be very pointed. When the tune returns to itself at the end with the "older" folk singing it, you were never quite sure if they'd actually SEEN the younger ones singing...you had to suspect that. Dunno, but maybe its success was because of what it did (brilliantly, thank you Mister Bennett) rather than just how it sounded.

[strummergirl]

When Glinda comes to the castle where Elphaba put Dorothy did she come by bubble or did she somehow get through the army of flying monkeys to confront Elphaba? How she got there in the first place seemed odd when I saw Wicked last Saturday. I just assumed that the bubble broke since that show occasionally has technical issues.

I wonder why there was no reconciliation with Benny or was he just could not be redeemed in Rent since he took Mimi from Roger (and being the most immoral person in the show for cheating).

[Harpz2006]

Haha, ok, here's mine. In Legally Blonde, when Emmett gives Elle her Christmas gift of shampoo and conditioner in one, she screams like CRAZY and Paulette mouths something to her. Now, is Elle like shocked/disgusted by this present because I've seen a few TV shows where really looks-conscious girls are like, never use combined shampoo/conditioner, EW. So, is that the case here, or is she maniacally overjoyed by the present?

[PalJoey]

I agree with peerrjb.

"Waiting Around for the Girls Upstairs" was a perfect concoction of Sondheim's writing and Bennett's staging. Past and present intertwined and the result was dazzling.

I saw the original 6 times and I was obsessed by it. I can only see that a huge grin would come over my face each time that song began. It still happens when I listen to the OBCR.

Lines like "Weren't we chuckle-heads then?" and "Life was fun and oh-so intense. / Everything was possible and nothing made sense" and "Very young and very old hat, / Everybody has to go through stages like that" are Vintage Sondheim: at once epigrammatic, paradoxical and perfect expressions of character.

"All Things Bright and Beautiful" doesn't belong there. If you listen to the lyrics, the song is another candidate for the "Too Many Mornings" slot, in which Sally falls in love with Ben all over again while Ben recalls his failed promises to her. The lyrics don't belong in the opening.