Why Do British Directors HATE "Buttons"?

[PalJoey]

Posted: 11/30/06 at 12:39pm

A friend emailed after seeing (and liking) Company:

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All that said, I still have some final questions:

Why do the British feel the need to direct these shows as musicals for people who don't like musicals?

Why are they so embarrassed by dancing, musical staging, applause? Is it too emotional, too needy?

Must all musicals take place in somebody's head? Are characters only allowed to dance when they are cats or trains? Is it that they don't have (or understand) rhythm?

Why do they insist on directing the book and then shoehorning the score to fit in with their larger conception?

Why do they think the payoff of a musical is the culmination of the book and not the crescendo of the big finish or button of a song?

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I love buttons. I love when the song ends with a bump from the conductor and the lighting designer and the audience bursts into applause. I like the adrenaline rush such moments bring--it's like a drug, a good drug, a drug that makes me happy. Why do British directors HATE buttons?

[Gothampc]

Posted: 11/30/06 at 12:43pm

"Why are they so embarrassed by dancing, musical staging, applause?"

That is very true. When I saw the Company revival in London, I was shocked that a major production like that had cut Tick-Tock. Didn't they understand the need for the dance? Didn't they understand the balance of the show? In hindsight, I really think the British were afraid of the raw emotion displayed in that number.

[gumbo2]

Posted: 11/30/06 at 12:47pm

While it certainly seems that way with Company (and probably other shows) anyone who's seen We Will Rock You would tell you that British people are capable of going crazy in the theatre (doing things like singing along, swaying their arms, and an immediate standing ovation). Your points might be valid but it certainly doesn't apply to ALL British directors.

[Claire2141]

Posted: 11/30/06 at 1:00pm

^ Ditto for Rocky Horror and when I sw Chitty everyone was up singing on their feet at the end.

Also, while it's not as loud as it once was the holloring that goes up at Wicked is some thing I've never seen before here. They cheer when the lights go down and on opening preview night they were stamping their feet before!

It general though it's not so much the directors but theater ettiqute here...before I saw Wicked really I'd never heard people cheer and clap entrances. Especially to someone who's not a pop star or of the telly...just the way it is.

[PalJoey]

Posted: 11/30/06 at 1:04pm

Well, so far it seems to apply to all British directors who re-do classic American musicals with songs that previously buttoned.

Rock songs don't button like showtunes do, and I'm not talking about the applause at the end of a show. I'm talking about the applause at the end of each number. (And Joe Mantello, the director of Wicked, is not British.)

Although American directors like Jerome Robbins, Bob Fosee and Michael Bennett were capapable of "killing the applause" at a dramatic moment, it seems like British directors routinely kill the applause.

[papalovesmambo]

Posted: 11/30/06 at 1:08pm

mary poppins has buttons.

[Gothampc]

Posted: 11/30/06 at 1:29pm

And why don't they have music during the curtain call?

[jrb_actor]

Posted: 11/30/06 at 2:28pm

I am quite fond of directors who treat musicals as plays. They are more concerned with the needs of the story than appeasing people who want to clap and glee. I also think you have to earn a button. So many musicals manipulate one and I find myself clapping half heartedly while the story has now stopped dead for no reason.

I also am fond of creative teams who don't feel the need to follow the expectations of what a musical "is supposed to be". No overture--no problem. No curtain call music--no sweat.

[RentBoy86]

Posted: 11/30/06 at 2:31pm

Buttons stop the flow of the show and/or dramatic moments. If I remember, Sweeney didn't have one button until like 45mins into the first act. It just causes the audience to listen more carefully. And as for dancing, I'm not a big fan of it. I can understand dancing in A Chorus Line, but I don't really see the need for it in most shows. But I guess it is one of those staples of musical theater. And as for dancing cats...yeah that show sucked.

[jrb_actor]

Posted: 11/30/06 at 2:33pm

Exactly--dancing needs to be justified. A song needs to be justified. The dialogue needs to be justified. It needs to tell the story whether literally or abstractly.

[RentBoy86]

Posted: 11/30/06 at 2:38pm

Exactly. I feel as though a button forces you to clap, however horrible the song or performance might have been. That's another reason I hate total blackouts in shows. If the performance or song is good enough, people will clap for it regardless. I just don't think every solo needs a button on it. It just makes the show drag and you realize that you're watching a musical, rather than getting sucked into the story.

[nobodyhome]

Posted: 11/30/06 at 2:39pm

Maybe they're Amish?

[Rathnait62]

Posted: 11/30/06 at 2:44pm

All my years in the Broadway theater - what the HELL is a button??

[gumbo2]

Posted: 11/30/06 at 2:49pm

Well I don't know if it is a real term, but at the end of a big show number there is usually a big HIT made by the orchestra which tells you the song is over and you should clap now. You're A Good Man Charlie Brown might have the most songs with buttons than any show I've ever experienced...

[bwaysinger]

Posted: 11/30/06 at 2:52pm

Les Miz: the show built on Buttons.

[gumbo2]

Posted: 11/30/06 at 2:55pm

True. I remember directing Charlie Brown and I actually had to cut the buttons out of half the songs so the audience wouldn't applaud because we had a time limit.

[nobodyhome]

Posted: 11/30/06 at 2:59pm

It also is usually a staging thing. Basically, it's the moment when a number comes to a clearly defined end so that the audience knows when to appaud. It is very odd when a number is over and it's not clear to the audience and there's a pause and then some people start to aplaud.

Of course, it can be equally fine if it's clear that the audience isn't supposed to applaud. But it should be clear one way or the other or it looks really awkward.

[jrb_actor]

Posted: 11/30/06 at 3:22pm

A button can refer to a nonmusic/dance moment, as well--the end of a monologue by the actor or in the way a writer caps off a moment. But, most often, it's a director's concept of tying up a moment. And it's not always a bad thing or a big thing. It can be very subtle.

[WOSQ]

Posted: 11/30/06 at 3:40pm

Oh I am going to catch hell for what my theory is and it is not just musicals, but all theatre.

UK - Intellect; the shows come from the head

US - Emotion; the shows come from the heart.

Musicals almost by definition have to come more from the heart than the head ("Its the MUSIC, stupid."). But if your theatrical thinking puts theatre into your head, you strip an essential away from emotion-centered shows. And vice versa.

The easiest example is to compare how Neil Simon has rarely found success in Britian and Alan Ayckbourn has rarely had it in the US.

I am not a fan of the stagings of Sweeney or Company. I wanted the dread, the shock, the blood and the bodies piling up in Sweeney. To take the horror and gore out of Sweeney oddly takes away it's emotional core.

Company, a show with limited heart anyway, had all of it removed. Robert is not involved in a show that revolves around him. Where is his humor, charm and intelligence? His wit? His irony? Instead we are given a depressive alcoholic who has no fascination. Gower Champion's rule was "Who do you root for?" I really didn't care much for this Robert at all. Can you imagine being trapped next to him at dinner?

At Company's core is Robert's loneliness and up to Side by Side by Side we see him dealing with being alone quite nicely. But then some shade begins to darken the landscape. This Robert is far too moody all night long.

Certainly there are intellectual shows that have played well in the US. Plays by Peter Shaffer and Tom Stoppard come to mind. Arsenic and Old Lace was a London smash.

Me and My Girl got it pretty good. Les Miserables too except that before it 'became' British, Les Mis was French.

Passion will always play better in London as will Sunday in the Park as they are both cerebral works.

Leave as much feeling in a musical as you can. Sweeney failed for me and Company kind of does too.

[wexy]

Posted: 11/30/06 at 3:43pm

Why would anyone hate my sister's dead cat?
He used to box with me. A very cool cat.

[cathywellerstein]

Posted: 11/30/06 at 4:26pm

button, button, who's got the button?

I think that sometimes shows can be much more engaging without buttons which force an applause. This way, the build up to finally appluading is so much more exciting once a button or blackout is finally reached.

[Claire2141]

Posted: 11/30/06 at 4:36pm

Even though Wicked contains a lot of 'buttons' as the American's dissapear from the audience they're used less and less. The appluase is muted, apart from W&I, DG and NGD - the parts where the audience want to clap.

There isn't a need to clap after every song...there is also no realy need to holler during a song (real pet peeve at Wicked).

Point I'm trying (badly) to make is that the audience here in the UK don't respond to buttons...unless they're DG style.

Updated On: 11/30/06 at 04:36 PM