The Book (or Lack there of) in a Sung Through Musical

[fashionguru_23]

Posted: 7/5/20 at 10:21pm

Watching Hamilton this weekend, and it made me think about the "book" in the sung through musicals. Does Hamilton, Les Mis, etc. really have a book? Or in their instances is it more of the plotting and the structure of the show?

[dramamama611]

Posted: 7/5/20 at 10:30pm

The "book" of a musical refers to the story line and structure, regardless of whether there is spoken dialogue.

[TheGingerBreadMan]

Posted: 7/5/20 at 10:48pm

Not to mention setting descriptions, character descriptions, stage directions, etc - things which the audience won't hear spoken or sung, but that influence what they see.

[JBroadway]

Posted: 7/5/20 at 10:49pm

This is a common, but very frustrating misconception. As Dramamamma said, the book doesn't just refer to the dialogue, it also refers to the structure, the storyline, the character development, the themes, etc. It can even refer to the strategic placement of songs within the story. When it comes to a sung-through musical, the book-writer (usually also doubling as the lyricist) still has to do all of that dramaturgical work, even without writing dialogue. To use Hamilton as an example: Lin made a lot of those decisions, like which major events in Hamilton's life to emphasize, who narrates the show show and when, which historical figures were included and which were excluded, which themes to highlight in Hamilton's story, and so on, and so forth. All of these are the decisions of a book writer. So when he won the Tony for Best Book, it was these decisions that they were awarding. 

This is such a common misconception that Charles Isherwood (the second-string critic for the NYTimes at the time) made a comment about Hamilton not having a book. Isherwood was (is) a total hack, so it's not surprising that he would make a mistake like this. But the fact that a major critic from the NYT made this mistake demonstrates how widespread it is. 

[Alex Kulak2]

Posted: 7/5/20 at 11:17pm

TheGingerBreadMan said: "Not to mention setting descriptions, character descriptions, stage directions, etc - things which the audience won't hear spoken or sung, but that influence what they see."

A lot of the story in American Idiot is told through the stage directions. That's why most productions end up really muddled. They can't effectively tell the story through performance and subtext, as they're conditioned to use dialogue like other musicals.

[SouthernCakes]

Posted: 7/6/20 at 1:08am

Having read a few things about Hamilton and then watching it is interesting what things were included and It’s theater so there’s a big say from the director and choreographer.

[binau]

Posted: 7/6/20 at 3:40am

I suppose Hamilton is a little different because it was all written by the same person, but reading Sondheim's book it does seem obvious to me that the bookwriters sadly can be underappreciated. I was a bit shocked to find that some of my favourite lines and ideas from the title song of "Sunday in the Park With George" were at least inspired by or in some cases almost completely lifted and shifted from Lapine's writing. I can only imagine it being even more common in sung-through musicals. 

[nasty_khakis]

Posted: 7/6/20 at 8:27am

Sondheim almost always asks his collaborator to write a scene or monologue with no intention of it going into the actual show, but he'll lift lines, character. and mood from it. He's always said if you say "write a torch song here" he's terrible but if you wrote him a little paragraph about a woman in a bar wearing a red dress and drinking a grasshopper he could write something. 

Another famous example is when Harvey Weinstein wrote Albin this beautiful but quite long monologue in La Cage Jerry Herman asked his permission to steal 5 words from it and per him wrote a song that took the place of a few pages of dialogue.

Book writers are the last to get credit for a good musical, but the first to get the blame for a bad one and I've always found this unfair.

[Alex Kulak2]

Posted: 7/6/20 at 8:47am

nasty_khakis said: "Sondheim almost always asks his collaborator to write a scene or monologue with no intention of it going into the actual show, but he'll lift lines, character. and mood from it. He's always said if you say "write a torch song here" he's terrible but if you wrote him a little paragraph about a woman in a bar wearing a red dress and drinkinga grasshopper he could write something.

Another famous example is when Harvey Weinstein wrote Albin this beautiful but quite long monologuein La Cage Jerry Herman asked his permission to steal 5 words from it and per him wrote a song that took the place of a fewpagesof dialogue.

Book writers are the last to get credit for a good musical, but the first to get the blame for a bad one and I've always foundthisunfair."

That's common with musical theatre collaborators. It's kind of the idea that you have to rob Peter to pay Paul; you have to take your most evocative monologues and spoken scenes and turn them into songs.

[JBroadway]

Posted: 7/6/20 at 9:55am

nasty_khakis said: "Harvey Weinstein"

 

Given the circumstances, I feel compelled to make sure everyone knows you meant Harvey FIERSTEIN, not Harvey Weinstein. 

Harvey Fierstein has said before that people confuse him with Harvey Weinstein, and given Weinstein's crimes, that must really suck for Fierstein. 

[Valentina3]

Posted: 7/6/20 at 12:07pm

Fierstein said this about Kinky Boots too, that Lauper would often get inspired by his writing and completely replace a scene with a new song and then he'd have to restructure the book so a small throwaway dialogue can now become a central plot point (because the song was too good to let go).

[darquegk]

Posted: 7/6/20 at 2:23pm

Sondheim almost entirely cannibalized the Christopher Bond play version of “Sweeney Todd.” Take a look at the sample for licensing online- it’s so close, line by line and beat by beat, that the masterful musical has rendered the play entirely obsolete.

[ImaginaryManticore]

Posted: 7/6/20 at 2:49pm

I sometimes wonder if the lack of appreciation for book writers keeps a lot of talented playwrights away from musicals. Why bother if your contribution can go completely unrecognised?

As others have said, the specific dialogue is only one part of a book (or indeed a play). Even beyond the storyline, it needs to propel the drama in every scene. Boublil and Schönberg are both credited as the book writers in all their musicals. Schönberg has said it means structuring the show so that he knows what every character is singing about as he writes each line for them, even before Boublil writes the lyrics.

[James885]

Posted: 7/6/20 at 5:04pm

Yeah, unfortunately book writing is an much-too-often-thankless job in musical theatre. If the musical is bad, the blame is usually heaped on the book. If the show is good, the book / book writer is often ignored while people rave about the songs. 

Updated On: 7/6/20 at 05:04 PM

[fosterfan2]

Posted: 7/6/20 at 5:19pm

JBroadway said: "nasty_khakis said: "Harvey Weinstein"



Given the circumstances, I feel compelled to make sure everyone knows you meant Harvey FIERSTEIN, not Harvey Weinstein.

Harvey Fierstein has said before that people confuse him with Harvey Weinstein, and given Weinstein's crimes, that must really suckfor Fierstein."

Thank you. I nearly did a double-take! Kept thinking,"This CANNOT be right!"

[pathman2]

Posted: 7/7/20 at 8:54am

qolbinau said: "I suppose Hamilton is a little different because it was all written by the same person..."

Someone, who should be in the know but who I won’t throw under the bus, once told me that Hamilton had a different book writer who was let go. I have no way of confirming this (and I’ve always treated it as gossip), but wondered if anyone had heard the same. These tidbits about La Cage and Kinky Boots are so interesting. Book writers definitely seem to get the short end of the stick in many ways. 

[Alex Kulak2]

Posted: 7/7/20 at 9:51am

pathman2 said: "qolbinau said: "I suppose Hamilton is a little different because it was all written by the same person..."

Someone, who should be in the know but who I won’t throw under the bus,once told me that Hamilton hada different book writer who was let go. I have no way of confirming this (and I’ve always treated it as gossip), but wonderedif anyone had heard the same. These tidbits about La Cage and Kinky Boots are so interesting. Book writersdefinitely seemto get the short end of the stick in many ways."

I mean, Thomas Kail probably had a ton to do with the development of the show, and Lin probably wouldn’t deny that, but it started as a concept album. The structure was there before it was ever on a stage.

[Broadway61004]

Posted: 7/7/20 at 11:41am

ImaginaryManticore said: "I sometimes wonder if the lack of appreciation for book writers keeps a lot of talented playwrights away from musicals. Why bother if your contribution can go completely unrecognised?"

I'm paraphrasing here, but Marsha Norman once said something along the lines of "A book writer gets all of the blame, none of the credit, but still gets a third of the money".  I'm sure it's kept some playwrights away from musicals, but I also think it's just one of those jobs where if you're passionate about it, you'll still do it.  Sort of like stage managing, one of the most vital parts of a Broadway show that never gets recognized by the general public or most awards bodies.  But if you love it, you'll do it regardless.

[JBroadway]

Posted: 7/7/20 at 12:44pm

I imagine that part of the reason many playwrights stay away from writing MT books is also because it can easily force them to sacrifice their own creative voice in a major way. Especially if it's a commissioned work, and especially if they aren't writing the lyrics. 

One of the biggest examples of this that comes to mind is Dominique Morisseau with Ain't Too Proud. I love her plays, and I know that The Temptations and the city of Detroit hold a special place her heart and her work. So she was a really intuitive choice to write the book for Ain't Too Proud. But the end result is just a paint-by-numbers regurgitation of all the other bio-Jukebox musical books. Presumably because that's what the producers commissioned her to write. So they hired this brilliant mind with a personal connection to the material, and didn't let her do ANYTHING with it. 

Another one that comes to mind is Enda Walsh: his books for Sing Street and Once? Absolutely nothing like his own plays. And I actually like both of those show's books. His book for Lazarus was a little bit closer to the kind of thing he usually writes. 

Obviously there are plenty of counter examples out there; musicals where the book writer's distinct style and voice WAS represented in the final product. But I feel like in many of those cases the book writer also wrote the lyrics (like Hamilton, Great Comet, Caroline or Change, etc) and/or it was more of a passion project than a big commercial project for which they were hired. And these commissioned projects are the most common type of musical we see on Broadway, I think. 

And I'm sure there are even exceptions to that pattern too. I'm just pointing out a trend, not a rule. 

 

[blm2323]

Posted: 7/8/20 at 2:54am

dramamama611 said: "The "book" of a musical refers to the story line and structure, regardless of whether there is spoken dialogue."

I learned this from watching Smash when Kyle won the Tony for Best Book for Hit List haha