What, if two characters feel like they love each other you want them to be afraid to act on it till act two? Where's the story of their relationship if there's not even a relationship yet? If you want a story purely about the nature of the formation of love, Passion for example, then that's a case. But not every musical is about HOW people fall in love. Some deal with the consequences of the relationship itself, or a lot of times the relationship isn't even the central focus. Both ways, you can justify characters falling in love at a seemingly alarming rate. A) the love needs to happen before the story can really get going. Anthony and Johanna fall in love at first sight, but not only would Johanna fall in love with the first cute boy she saw, but also, something happens right after to instigate further action, and to delay the meeting/love would halt the story. and B) Maybe the author is trying to tell the audience "this is what happens when you fall in love too quickly/at the wrong time/purely for money etc." It's not like Tony and Maria pulled themselves out of the script and ran off and became infatuated with each other, it's all the author's descision. There's intent.
Carousel is unique in that list in that she is snapped back to reality by outsiders, but then still plunges back in.
The one I can't understand is "Chitty Chitty Bang Bang". The movie made sense, but in the stage show, they were at each others throats in one scene and the next were a couple. There wasn't the scenes where they warmed to each other.
I posted this in the "Hilarious Comments..." thread. At South Pacific 3/23: An older woman to her gentleman friend "I don't know why you brought me here, you know I hate musicals. I mean come on, they just met and then they fall in love and want to get married? HELLO."
I remember the first time I saw Phantom (which was also one of my first musicals) and was amazed at how fast Christine and Raul fell in love.
The Les Mis novel sort of made fun of it. Marius sees Cosette plenty of times, but just goes "Oh, that girl is ugly" and doesn't fall in love with her "at first sight" until she's turned into a hottie.
Jimmy, what are you doing here in the middle of the night? It's almost 9 PM!
Regarding Romeo/Juliet and Tony/Maria, their love is rooted in passionate sexuality. There are different kinds of love. And the kind that forms its root in passion and sexuality is a kind that definitely happens ridiculously quickly, both in real life and in fiction. But it also very often, once the passion dies down, ends very quickly, too...unless the love has morphed into another, deeper kind of love.
If Romeo had lived, I think he probably would have gotten bored with Juliet sooner rather than later. I mean, at the beginning of the play, he is infatuated with Rosaline. Passionate love is a very fleeting thing, that happens very quickly, but cannot last unless it evolves.
"One no longer loves one's insight enough once one communicates it."
The opposite of creation isn't war, it's stagnation.
As has been pointed out, since West Side Story is based on Romeo & Juliet, Tony & Maria have to fall in love at first sight--it's not even from a musical standpoint, but strictly to keep to the story.
But the composition of the music helps the audience to buy their immediate love. The melody of "Maria" is briefly heard in "Cha-Cha," suggesting Maria's name is already singing to Tony before he knows it. and there's great connections between "Something's Coming" and "Maria." The first 3 notes of "Maria" are the inverse of the first 3 notes of "Something's Coming," but, more importantly, "Something's Coming" ends on an unresolved lowered 7th...which doesn't get resolved into the beginning of "Maria," which starts on a lowered seventh, but then resolves it. This shows that indeed, Maria was what Tony was waiting for at the dance, and suggests perhaps a subconscious connection between them. (For the record, the last note of "Something's Coming was changed in the movie, ruining that connection and pissing me off). Additionally, there's melodic similarities between "Something's Coming" and "Maria." The notes of the phrase "whistling down the river" are inversed to become "Say it loud and and there's mu"(sic playing). So all this music should help to make the love at first sight more believable.
And to those who say they hate West Side Story because of how fast Tony & Maria fall in love, I think that's a shame. WSS is one of the best musicals ever to grace the Broadway stage, and there's so much to love in it, not the least of which is its music and choreography. Even if you can't get past that one plot point, if you go away from teh plot and just focus on the music & choreography, I can't imagine anyone "hating" it.
One more note, I have to agree that Rodgers & Hammerstein did an amazing job with "If I Loved You." It's such a hard sequence, taking two people who just met and convincing the audience that they fell in love by the end of the whole scene. Hammerstein's resolve to turn it into the idea of "IF I Loved You" was just brilliant, and I think it makes you get past the fact that they've fallen in love so quickly. And the way the reprise is brought back, if I loved you, turned into indeed the fact that Billy did love Julie. It's such a beautiful melody.
"If there was a Mount Rushmore for Broadway scores, "West Side Story" would be front and center. It snaps, it crackles it pops! It surges with a roar, its energy and sheer life undiminished by the years" - NYPost reviewer Elisabeth Vincentelli
In Les Miserables, the scene where Marius falls in love with Cosette is not believable at all. They bump into each other and are lost in each other's eyes, in love forever. Seriously. Like what the hell?
It's not too difficult to find something you just love about a person, at least for me? Yet over time, we change and I never felt I loved that person less, just that we needed to go in different directions in our lives? Sometimes you love someone enough to let them go. Something you learn as your children grow up and go on with their own lives.
I agree that in Sweeney Todd, Joanne is mostly looking for a way out. After the way she was treated and the threat she was facing in the future, I'm sure that would make almost any man more attractive to her. Almost any man. Forget about the Beadle! ;p
Romeo and Juliet could go either way? Definitely infatuation but in those days? Under the guise of arranged Marriages? They both seemed a little rebellious. They both enjoyed their pathos together so I understand what draws them together and why they felt so intensely for each other. As mentioned before, who knows if it would last? Most arranged marriages lasted in some form or the other or one of them got killed unexpectedly.
Nothing is more fun than winning the heart of someone you admire. Even if it doesn't last forever, it was fun while it lasted. Some people suffer badly, I understand this fear. This is why I have steered all of my kids towards College. There are things in life you just cannot control and relationships are the most precarious.
I do though know a few couples who fell in love with someone, married quickly and stayed that way until they died. So I can't deny this happens from time to time and it does work out well enough for them.
Oh, I don't hate the movie. It's a great movie, but I don't think it as great as the original production (of course from everything I've heard, not being privileged enough to have seen it), and I'm not thrilled with certain decisions. But like I said, it's still one of the best movie musicals ever made.
"If there was a Mount Rushmore for Broadway scores, "West Side Story" would be front and center. It snaps, it crackles it pops! It surges with a roar, its energy and sheer life undiminished by the years" - NYPost reviewer Elisabeth Vincentelli
I've skimmed through the thread, and I don't believe anyone's mentioned Seven Brides For Seven Brothers.
"Do you want to leave your entire stable life behind to marry me, some guy you met literally two minutes ago, and live with me in the woods?" "...Yeah, sure."
ETA: Although, we do get to see how badly their relationship fails, after the initial infatuation is over. Updated On: 4/13/08 at 08:19 PM
Galinda and Fiyero weren't really in love, or at least I didn't think so. They basically were together because he was pretty and she was pretty. There was a basic attraction, but I don't think they were ever in love with each other.
On the other hand....there is Fosca and Giorgio in PASSION. He spends the entire show trying to escape her (with audiences rooting for him to get as far away from her as possible) only to eventually realize the passion she has awakened in him.
Cast albums are NOT "soundtracks." Live theatre does not use a "soundtrack." If it did, it wouldn't be live theatre!
I host a weekly one-hour radio program featuring cast album selections as well as songs by cabaret, jazz and theatre artists. The program, FRONT ROW CENTRE is heard Sundays 9 to 10 am and also Saturdays from 8 to 9 am (eastern times) on www.proudfm.com
I mean sometimes it bothers me, Angel and Collins and Mimi and Roger in one night is ridiculous... but rent is still one of my favorite shows.
<-- Gwen Stewart, SOLoist at the last show of RENT Cages or wings?
Which do you prefer?
Ask the birds.
Fear or love, baby?
Don't say the answer
Actions speak louder than words.
(Tick, Tick... BOOM!)
Doesn't Sweeney Todd poke fun at the Anthony/Johanna relationship? I thought that was why they fell in love at first sight.
"In theater, the process of it is the experience. Everyone goes through the process, and everyone has the experience together. It doesn't last - only in people's memories and in their hearts. That's the beauty and sadness of it. But that's life - beauty and the sadness. And that is why theater is life." - Sherie Rene Scott