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Broadway Musicals Standards

G

GaryOmaha

When is the last time that a great standard came out of a Broadway musical?

Nothing recent, as far as I know. Thinking back a few years, The Lion King and Beauty & the Beast yielded hits, but those were as likely from the movies (which came first) rather than the stage adaptations. I have to go back to Phantom of the Opera to pull out a song that became fairly well-known to the general public.

Look at some of the mega-shows of recent years: The Producers, The Full Monty, Wicked, Hairspray, Avenue Q, Spamalot, Dirty Rotten Scoundrels (admittedly, the last few are fairly new and may not have had time to gain recognition by non-theatre mavens). Fans of musicals can hum tunes from them, but there's nothing out there that the general public would recognize.

Are musicals not as good as they used to be? Or is it (as I believe) because there are few radio outlets that play such music anymore, so the general public is not exposed to the music? Think back to many of the greatest songs of the 60s and earlier, so so many of them came from the stage.
 
Many of the songs on MOR radio in the late 50's/early 60's came from Broadway. And I still love those songs today. But the only outlets we have these days are the softer AC's. And there are not that many of them, most are soft rock, not soft AC (in the Neil Diamond, Manilow mode).

> When is the last time that a great standard came out of a
> Broadway musical?
>
> Nothing recent, as far as I know. Thinking back a few
> years, The Lion King and Beauty & the Beast yielded hits,
> but those were as likely from the movies (which came first)
> rather than the stage adaptations. I have to go back to
> Phantom of the Opera to pull out a song that became fairly
> well-known to the general public.
>
> Look at some of the mega-shows of recent years: The
> Producers, The Full Monty, Wicked, Hairspray, Avenue Q,
> Spamalot, Dirty Rotten Scoundrels (admittedly, the last few
> are fairly new and may not have had time to gain recognition
> by non-theatre mavens). Fans of musicals can hum tunes from
> them, but there's nothing out there that the general public
> would recognize.
>
> Are musicals not as good as they used to be? Or is it (as I
> believe) because there are few radio outlets that play such
> music anymore, so the general public is not exposed to the
> music? Think back to many of the greatest songs of the 60s
> and earlier, so so many of them came from the stage.
>
 
> Are musicals not as good as they used to be? Or is it (as I
> believe) because there are few radio outlets that play such
> music anymore, so the general public is not exposed to the
> music? Think back to many of the greatest songs of the 60s
> and earlier, so so many of them came from the stage.
>


That's a great question. The absence of suitable radio outlets likely has something to do with it, as you suggest. It's also possible that many of the songs written for today's musicals don't really work as "stand-alone" songs.

Songs in musicals are written primarily to either illuminate a character, the character's thoughts, or to move the story forward. So, often out of the context of the story, they don't make much sense.

This has always been true. Even a Gershwin musical like "Oh, Kay!" really has only one memorable stand-alone song - "Someone to Watch Over Me." Others in the musical perhaps could have been stand-alones, but for whatever reason never caught on.

I don't know a lot about contemporary musicals, but perhaps there are fewer songs being written with stand-alone potential. The only song that's top of mind for me from "The Producers" is "Springtime for Hitler." A nice melody, but the lyrics certainly make no sense outside of the story! And it's an unlikely choice for radio airplay.

I also recall a song from "The Full Monty" called "Things Could Be Better." It's a driving, minor-key type tune which I really liked, but I couldn't imagine it on the radio.

Then, of course, there's success in reverse in "Mamma Mia" which took all those wonderful Abba songs and wrote the story around them!

Perhaps in today's formula-driven world of pop radio, the songs which succeed and their arrangements have been specifically crafted to get airplay. Composers of theatre songs on the other hand, probably aren't concerned with getting radio play, and don't have these formulas in mind when writing.

Caveat: I'm a fan, not an expert. So I'm just speculatin'!

Nick Gerard
 
Nick, thanks for your comments.

> Even a Gershwin musical like "Oh, Kay!" really has only one memorable stand-alone song - "Someone to Watch Over Me."<

Good point, and right off the top of my head there are *lots* of musicals that had only one "hit" song. But that was my original question -- there used to be a "hit" (or more) in nearly every musical. And lately, though musicals do still have (IMHO) some great songs, there's either no outlet for them or they can't crack whatever barrier there is.

It probably helped when many musicals had "stop the show" songs, which didn't necessarily forward the plot but were there *for the song itself*. Seems to me most music recently has been integral to the plot, which -- as you pointed out -- makes it more difficult to spin the song into a stand-alone.

> Perhaps in today's formula-driven world of pop radio, the songs which succeed and their arrangements have been specifically crafted to get airplay. <

Oh, I have little if any faith that anything from today's musical theatre would ever get airplay on today's popular music radio stations. Both worlds have changed too much. It would require a radio format closer to MOR or Standards to approach this.

FWIW, I'm attending a Tony Bennett concert later this month. I'll be interested to hear if he sings anything that came from a recent musical. That in itself should be a bit of a clue.
 
> Perhaps in today's formula-driven world of pop radio, the
> songs which succeed and their arrangements have been
> specifically crafted to get airplay. Composers of theatre
> songs on the other hand, probably aren't concerned with
> getting radio play, and don't have these formulas in mind
> when writing.
>
> Caveat: I'm a fan, not an expert. So I'm just speculatin'!

Nick,
I may be wrong, but doesn't Westwood One feature "Music Of The Night" every now and then? Not sure of the exact title... is it by Michael Crawford? (not sure about that either). Anyway, isn't this from a Broadway musical, "Phantom Of The Opera?"

Speaking of great standards from shows, my all-time favorite is a song called "Once Upon A Time" and my favorite version is Perry Como's. I think it's from an early 60s musical "The All-American."
 
Yes, that's right. WW1 does play "Music of the Night" from "Phantom" by Michael Crawford. I think the version they play is a duet with Barbra Streisand, altho' I can't recall for sure since it doesn't come up that often.

Nick Gerard

>
> Nick,
> I may be wrong, but doesn't Westwood One feature "Music Of
> The Night" every now and then? Not sure of the exact
> title... is it by Michael Crawford? (not sure about that
> either). Anyway, isn't this from a Broadway musical,
> "Phantom Of The Opera?"

>
 
We also play the Michael Crawford version of the song, but it's a solo.

> Yes, that's right. WW1 does play "Music of the Night" from
> "Phantom" by Michael Crawford. I think the version they
> play is a duet with Barbra Streisand, altho' I can't recall
> for sure since it doesn't come up that often.
>
> Nick Gerard
>
> >
> > Nick,
> > I may be wrong, but doesn't Westwood One feature "Music Of
>
> > The Night" every now and then? Not sure of the exact
> > title... is it by Michael Crawford? (not sure about that
> > either). Anyway, isn't this from a Broadway musical,
> > "Phantom Of The Opera?"
>
> >
>
 
> Speaking of great standards from shows, my all-time favorite
> is a song called "Once Upon A Time" and my favorite version
> is Perry Como's. I think it's from an early 60s musical "The
> All-American."

That is a great song, and is a perfect example of what I was talking about. (Of course, now I can't get it out of my head. Then again, that might not be a bad thing...)
 
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