In this channel, I take a very close look at musicals and theatre songs and share what makes it compositionally well-written! I would like to upload one video a month, though that is unlikely given my hectic schedule.
Texas' first name is pronounced GUY-nan, not GWEEN-nan or whatever your keep saying.
@jkeister8 күн бұрын
This is a dramaturges wet dream. As one … thank you. Fantastic work.
@joshuavandyne733410 күн бұрын
Also it’s ZIGFIELD Follies…. NOT ZIGFRIED Follies as you mistakenly refer to the iconic over the top Follies Peoducer from the era….. 😉 😉
@moo6394 күн бұрын
It's ZIEGFELD, not ZIGFIELD.
@joshuavandyne733410 күн бұрын
Fun Fact: Texas Guinan was portrayed by Phyllis Diller in the film Splendor in The Grass (1961) directed by Elia Kazan
@joshuavandyne733410 күн бұрын
Chicago the Fosse Musical had its Broadway debut in 1975 not 1976. If it had been 76 it would have fared much better at the Tony Awards- instead of being pulverized by the Sensation that was “A Chorus Line”
@AvalonMorley14 күн бұрын
I’m looking forward to enjoying all your videos, even if I have only a vague notion of many of the technical musical points you explore. Thank you very much for making these. Perfect for a musical theater (& really many other forms/styles of music) addict like me. I appreciate the work you’ve done & the insights you share. Also, SCHMIGADOON & SCHMICAGO were freaking brilliant!
@GoddessNeith15 күн бұрын
which is based on the Ginger Rogers film Roxie. and Vaudeville was great.
@DavidArmstrongAtBroadwayNation16 күн бұрын
Thanks for attributing the clips from Broadway Nation so prominently!
@stevemr17 күн бұрын
"Siegfried Follies" star?
@garyrucker768319 күн бұрын
I'm the director of the production of Assassins you used in the video. Honored to be featured. How did you get the footage. Not mad just curious.
@into_the_hoods18 күн бұрын
Congrats! And I hope it is fine that I used it and credited the theatre. This clip is one of the top search results for "Unworthy of Your Love Assassins". Lauren E Smith posted it on her channel I guess. Finding an appropriate clip on KZread was surprisingly difficult. I really liked your staging and sets; and of your course the performers were fantastic. Also, a lot of snooping had to be done to figure out what theatre company it was in order to credit it correctly.
@garyrucker768318 күн бұрын
@into_the_hoods ah gotcha. She played squeaky for me. It's totally fine I was just curious.
@garyrucker768318 күн бұрын
Ps it's Kenner not Lenner :)
@EricMontreal2219 күн бұрын
This was so great, but c’mon you don’t even mention Sweet Charity’s lyricist Dorothy Fields, one of the most important women in theatre at the time and a rare lyricist Sondheim loves so much that he can’t find any fault with her. I know your focus is music not lyrics but…
@into_the_hoods19 күн бұрын
You are absolutely right! The focus was exclusively on the music, but Fields was such an understated and intensively important contribution. I hope to dedicate a video(s) to the important women of the Broadway Golden age soon. Trude Rittmann is one who I absolutely want to celebrate as well.
@EricMontreal2219 күн бұрын
@@into_the_hoods yes! Trude’s contributions are insane (not just great dance and vocal arrangements but I was blown away to find out basically all of the Uncle Tom Ballet was her). Anyway I hope my comment doesn’t take away how brilliantly insightful I think your videos are.
@dmnemaine20 күн бұрын
Just for future reference, her name was pronounced Texas Guy-Nan, not Guee-Nan.
@xak99920 күн бұрын
It's pronounced Texas GUY-nan, not GUI-nan.
@robertd.carver624021 күн бұрын
GUINAN (as in Texas Guinan) is properly pronounced GYE-NAN.
@into_the_hoods21 күн бұрын
I am embarrassed and you are correct! I had thought I did my research on that. I typically try to find documentaries where people's names are spoken, which I did for some of the other figures in this video, but I clearly missed Guinan's. I guess I'm the real sucker.
@michaelweber872422 күн бұрын
Chicago premiered in 1975, not 1976.
@into_the_hoods21 күн бұрын
Yep, you're correct! My confusion was that Chicago's Tony Awards acknowledgements happened at the 1976 Tonys.
@allisonbergh442922 күн бұрын
You like Tim Minchin’s clever songwriting? Check out Groundhog Day!!
@into_the_hoods21 күн бұрын
Groundhog day is fantastic, you are correct! That show has one of the few examples of a true "Fugue". It happens in one of the instrumental montages I think?
@allisonbergh442921 күн бұрын
@@into_the_hoods There’s a lot going on in that show. I’ve watched a lot of interviews and stuff with Tim Minchin (I’m a huge fan), about how he used the twelve tones of a scale to represent the twelve hours on a clock face, and leaned into the sound of Americana (he’s Australian) so the ending would feel nostalgic. His process is fascinating, as is his body of work Speaking of clever songwriting, I’d love to see more people talking about School Song from Matilda, which I think is one of the cleverest bits of lyric writing ever!
@njatty22 күн бұрын
"Mr. Cellophane" is also an homage to the 1930 German film THE BLUE ANGEL. (The look of the original production was very German expressionistic.) Compare Barney Martin's coat and its oversized collar with that of Emil Jannings' cabaret clown coat in THE BLUE ANGEL. In the film, Janning plays a professor who falls in love with and marries cabaret singer Lola Lola, Marlene Dietrich. She cuckolds him, humiliates him and leads him to madness.
@into_the_hoods21 күн бұрын
Great to know, thanks!
@Doug-vs5dx22 күн бұрын
wish the background music wasn't so loud =(
@into_the_hoods22 күн бұрын
Sorry! Turn on subtitles and thanks for watching :)
@amylou22snowhite22 күн бұрын
I saw it on NY with Jinkx Monsoon as Mama.
@PaulSmith-is2tt22 күн бұрын
Coming next: the secret hip-hop roots of Hamilton.
@hamlettohamilton35022 күн бұрын
Really excellent - thank you!
@JgmPaneque22 күн бұрын
I've been a huge CHICAGO fan and I didn't know most of these facts. Subscribed! This video is amazing!
@fabrisseterbrugghe856723 күн бұрын
I think you're confusing vaudeville with burlesque. Certainly, in the original Fosse version, he drew on his and Verdon's experience in burlesque. The costumes wouldn't have been permitted in vaudeville. Also, I'm pretty sure Texas' last name is pronounced GUY-nan. ETA: It's Ziegfeld, not Ziegfried.
@njatty21 күн бұрын
The original Fosse production was billed as "A Musical Vaudeville," not as "The Musical." A vaudeville is a show containing a series of variety acts. You're confusing CHICAGO with SUGAR BABIES, which billed itself as "The Burlesque Musical."
@fabrisseterbrugghe856720 күн бұрын
@@njatty No, I'm not. It may be called a musical Vaudeville, but the type of dance and the costumes are pure burlesque. Burlesque, which was considered "lower" than vaudeville, but was also, like Vaudeville and British music hall, a series of unconnected acts with different performers getting different lengths of time depending upon where they were on the bill. Fosse and Verdon were just barely too young for Vaudeville, but they both worked in Burlesque houses early in their careers.
@baugkelly24 күн бұрын
Came here because of the algorithm. Staying for the analysis. I love this and how succinctly you're able to explain depth and nuance. Subscribed and can't wait for more!
@leonardomellodeoliveira348024 күн бұрын
I find quite fascinating that some shows tried to incorporate vaudeville style and structure but couldn't go on entirely with it and had to change things along the way, Gypsy was originally planned with a similar idea, and I think Annie does something like it too.
@juanjosegonzalezpascual62534 күн бұрын
Gypsy had a lot more dance even on Roses Turn but then Robbins decided to give up and reduce it to the necessary minimum, to put the acting first.
@louisrost29 күн бұрын
Sondheim clearly has the last laugh here by creating musical theatre somehow once again ahead of its time for some... this time with a second act that has hardly any music. Personally I think that not only does it work, but that the jarring nature of it is exactly what they were going for. If Sondheim were still here for it's run I have a feeling that whilst other music may or may not have been adjusted or even added, I'm almost sure the sparseness of music in act 2 would have stayed. I think it's a brilliant show, and definitely stands up to the rest of his work.
@donnyg6595Ай бұрын
Great job!
@lucysnowe31Ай бұрын
I've always loved the Old Man (and the Boy's) interruption of the Warrior with just *the most absurdly banal* details: "They kept drinking cups of tea, they kept sitting on the floor." I mean, to me, that's just laugh out loud funny. I don't love the change in the lyrics there because, even though they're trivial details, they're not *funny trivial details* . "They kept sitting on the floor" will never not be funny to me. I wonder why they were changed. Great video, thanks.
@cancer24Ай бұрын
I gotta say, "Shine" is my favorite. An honoring of superficial from the character that 'gets it' in the show for me. On a related note, when I first watched "Passion" it felt like a Rosetta Stone moment for all the Sondheim I knew. I haven't gone back to it in awhile, but if we trust that Sondheim is a puzzle maker and these fragments are his pieces, there's a sense that the same pieces can create completely different pictures. *ahem* only 12 notes because he sticks to tonal harmony *ahem*
@odilejones9129Ай бұрын
Can you please do the twin soliquies from South Pacific or how/why Dites Moi is effective in being opening and closing number?
@davidpelletier6915Ай бұрын
She’s no Shirley Jones. Watched that movie last night for at least the 10th time. Johnny Carson had her on to do a 3 song medley had his whole audience & Johnny in tears. Can’t find it on KZread for some reason. America needs this now!😎
@ethanpearson2160Ай бұрын
The Road (Part 3) has been living in my head rent free since the album came out. It has aspects of “Gold!” from road show but lyrically is in a category of its own. Some of the wittiest and most in your face text we’ve seen from him. Plus, who knew that we’d get the term bitcoin in a Sondheim musical. Waiter’s song is also a huge highlight.
@sashakindel3600Ай бұрын
From reading the title of the video I assumed that there was music, but not adhering to song forms, like some kind of Wagnerian through-composed blob.
@user-il5oq5df6lАй бұрын
Kelli O'Hara and Nathan Gunn are terrific! They deliver passionate, full-throated performances of one of the greatest love duets in the history of musical theatre.
@wordwatcher9495Ай бұрын
I was really curious about the more candid parts of the songs, especially the ones in the Road songs. I really liked the exchange that went: MARIANNE: I do adore afternoons, they’re my favorite- FRITZ: What? M: What? F: Favorite what? M: Favorite time of the day, darling. It’s very sweet and I like it a lot, though I’m not entirely sure why it’s there (I’ve only listened to audio bootlegs and the album so I don’t know what’s going on with the blocking). Aside from the Soldier’s Song, my favorite section was probably the part in The Road 2 where Fritz’s phone call with Prada turns into a serenade from Rafael, which turns into his own phone call about the drug scheme being found out, which turns into Fritz trying to raise money for the revolution, which turns into Leo mockingly singing Fritz’s “End of the World” theme before Rafael sings it in earnest in light of the feds finding the drugs, which turns into Marianne’s characteristic dismissiveness of her problems in favor of superficial beauty. Such a complex, dense rapid fire of perfect character moments all pieced together so comprehensibly and with such style as only Sondheim could’ve pulled off.
@TheCoastermannАй бұрын
It sounds like Passion because Steve's well had run dry. I don't mean that in any mean-spirited or derogatory way, but you have to ask yourself; in what other Score on Sondheim's do you hear his other scores? Each of his scores is so highly developed for the show they inhabit that they do not sound alike, and it is only in this final score that we have heard so much of 'oh this sounds like that' in reaction to it. He somewhat admits that his was no longer writing well in the 'Wise guys' chapters of 'Look, I Made a Hat' when he discusses recycling music into the wise Guys shows. Here we are is a far better and varied score than anything else written at the moment, and so it a credit to his skill that even when not at his peak he still trumps the rest of us.
@ScoBroCityАй бұрын
The Road 4 - Part 2 ‘Marianne’ sung by Steven Pasquale. I cannot stop listenting to the soundtrack of this score! Top Tier Sondheim in my book. It feels like he is in constant conversation with his earlier works- specifically here with his lyric for Maria from West Side Story. I have to imagine with time, that will be one of the most excerpted parts along with the Bishop’s Song, It Is What It Is, and Shine from the 2nd Act 🤓
@prestonfreecАй бұрын
The bit at 4:30 reminds me of the Flashback sequence in Passion, specifically the end where the Colonel sings: "Why could I not admit the truth? How could I not have seen through the veneer? I told myself, "as long as she seems happy, why interfere?" Or was I just relieved to know that somebody would want her for a wife?"
@fairamir1Ай бұрын
Do you have a video on Floyd Collins ?
@into_the_hoodsАй бұрын
Check out my channel! I have a recent video on the Riddle Song from Floyd Collins
@terrylawrence4121Ай бұрын
I'm not that sophisticated musically, but I really enjoyed this explanation. Thank you!
@tylerjwsmithАй бұрын
I love this so much.
@zjisawesome23Ай бұрын
I was PRAYING you’d do the Soldier’s Dream. Thanks for another amazing Sondheim vid
@juicybutterriblydrabАй бұрын
Love this song but my favourite is Shine!
@peggyholloway5Ай бұрын
Brilliant! Thanks for this. You did a great job notating this. I have been regularly checking to see if the sheet music is available. I appreciate your comparisons to Passion, a musical I love but so many disliked. I also see the connections!
@thejet-propelledslouch4216Ай бұрын
I believe Sondheim wrote it in 12/8, but your notes and values are correct.
@Ryan-hh4yvАй бұрын
My favorite: It Is What It Is!!
@ashershectman1954Ай бұрын
I recommend looking at Silly People, a cut song from A Little Night Music. I hear so much of that song’s style both in the Soldier’s Dream and It Is What It Is.
Пікірлер
Texas' first name is pronounced GUY-nan, not GWEEN-nan or whatever your keep saying.
This is a dramaturges wet dream. As one … thank you. Fantastic work.
Also it’s ZIGFIELD Follies…. NOT ZIGFRIED Follies as you mistakenly refer to the iconic over the top Follies Peoducer from the era….. 😉 😉
It's ZIEGFELD, not ZIGFIELD.
Fun Fact: Texas Guinan was portrayed by Phyllis Diller in the film Splendor in The Grass (1961) directed by Elia Kazan
Chicago the Fosse Musical had its Broadway debut in 1975 not 1976. If it had been 76 it would have fared much better at the Tony Awards- instead of being pulverized by the Sensation that was “A Chorus Line”
I’m looking forward to enjoying all your videos, even if I have only a vague notion of many of the technical musical points you explore. Thank you very much for making these. Perfect for a musical theater (& really many other forms/styles of music) addict like me. I appreciate the work you’ve done & the insights you share. Also, SCHMIGADOON & SCHMICAGO were freaking brilliant!
which is based on the Ginger Rogers film Roxie. and Vaudeville was great.
Thanks for attributing the clips from Broadway Nation so prominently!
"Siegfried Follies" star?
I'm the director of the production of Assassins you used in the video. Honored to be featured. How did you get the footage. Not mad just curious.
Congrats! And I hope it is fine that I used it and credited the theatre. This clip is one of the top search results for "Unworthy of Your Love Assassins". Lauren E Smith posted it on her channel I guess. Finding an appropriate clip on KZread was surprisingly difficult. I really liked your staging and sets; and of your course the performers were fantastic. Also, a lot of snooping had to be done to figure out what theatre company it was in order to credit it correctly.
@into_the_hoods ah gotcha. She played squeaky for me. It's totally fine I was just curious.
Ps it's Kenner not Lenner :)
This was so great, but c’mon you don’t even mention Sweet Charity’s lyricist Dorothy Fields, one of the most important women in theatre at the time and a rare lyricist Sondheim loves so much that he can’t find any fault with her. I know your focus is music not lyrics but…
You are absolutely right! The focus was exclusively on the music, but Fields was such an understated and intensively important contribution. I hope to dedicate a video(s) to the important women of the Broadway Golden age soon. Trude Rittmann is one who I absolutely want to celebrate as well.
@@into_the_hoods yes! Trude’s contributions are insane (not just great dance and vocal arrangements but I was blown away to find out basically all of the Uncle Tom Ballet was her). Anyway I hope my comment doesn’t take away how brilliantly insightful I think your videos are.
Just for future reference, her name was pronounced Texas Guy-Nan, not Guee-Nan.
It's pronounced Texas GUY-nan, not GUI-nan.
GUINAN (as in Texas Guinan) is properly pronounced GYE-NAN.
I am embarrassed and you are correct! I had thought I did my research on that. I typically try to find documentaries where people's names are spoken, which I did for some of the other figures in this video, but I clearly missed Guinan's. I guess I'm the real sucker.
Chicago premiered in 1975, not 1976.
Yep, you're correct! My confusion was that Chicago's Tony Awards acknowledgements happened at the 1976 Tonys.
You like Tim Minchin’s clever songwriting? Check out Groundhog Day!!
Groundhog day is fantastic, you are correct! That show has one of the few examples of a true "Fugue". It happens in one of the instrumental montages I think?
@@into_the_hoods There’s a lot going on in that show. I’ve watched a lot of interviews and stuff with Tim Minchin (I’m a huge fan), about how he used the twelve tones of a scale to represent the twelve hours on a clock face, and leaned into the sound of Americana (he’s Australian) so the ending would feel nostalgic. His process is fascinating, as is his body of work Speaking of clever songwriting, I’d love to see more people talking about School Song from Matilda, which I think is one of the cleverest bits of lyric writing ever!
"Mr. Cellophane" is also an homage to the 1930 German film THE BLUE ANGEL. (The look of the original production was very German expressionistic.) Compare Barney Martin's coat and its oversized collar with that of Emil Jannings' cabaret clown coat in THE BLUE ANGEL. In the film, Janning plays a professor who falls in love with and marries cabaret singer Lola Lola, Marlene Dietrich. She cuckolds him, humiliates him and leads him to madness.
Great to know, thanks!
wish the background music wasn't so loud =(
Sorry! Turn on subtitles and thanks for watching :)
I saw it on NY with Jinkx Monsoon as Mama.
Coming next: the secret hip-hop roots of Hamilton.
Really excellent - thank you!
I've been a huge CHICAGO fan and I didn't know most of these facts. Subscribed! This video is amazing!
I think you're confusing vaudeville with burlesque. Certainly, in the original Fosse version, he drew on his and Verdon's experience in burlesque. The costumes wouldn't have been permitted in vaudeville. Also, I'm pretty sure Texas' last name is pronounced GUY-nan. ETA: It's Ziegfeld, not Ziegfried.
The original Fosse production was billed as "A Musical Vaudeville," not as "The Musical." A vaudeville is a show containing a series of variety acts. You're confusing CHICAGO with SUGAR BABIES, which billed itself as "The Burlesque Musical."
@@njatty No, I'm not. It may be called a musical Vaudeville, but the type of dance and the costumes are pure burlesque. Burlesque, which was considered "lower" than vaudeville, but was also, like Vaudeville and British music hall, a series of unconnected acts with different performers getting different lengths of time depending upon where they were on the bill. Fosse and Verdon were just barely too young for Vaudeville, but they both worked in Burlesque houses early in their careers.
Came here because of the algorithm. Staying for the analysis. I love this and how succinctly you're able to explain depth and nuance. Subscribed and can't wait for more!
I find quite fascinating that some shows tried to incorporate vaudeville style and structure but couldn't go on entirely with it and had to change things along the way, Gypsy was originally planned with a similar idea, and I think Annie does something like it too.
Gypsy had a lot more dance even on Roses Turn but then Robbins decided to give up and reduce it to the necessary minimum, to put the acting first.
Sondheim clearly has the last laugh here by creating musical theatre somehow once again ahead of its time for some... this time with a second act that has hardly any music. Personally I think that not only does it work, but that the jarring nature of it is exactly what they were going for. If Sondheim were still here for it's run I have a feeling that whilst other music may or may not have been adjusted or even added, I'm almost sure the sparseness of music in act 2 would have stayed. I think it's a brilliant show, and definitely stands up to the rest of his work.
Great job!
I've always loved the Old Man (and the Boy's) interruption of the Warrior with just *the most absurdly banal* details: "They kept drinking cups of tea, they kept sitting on the floor." I mean, to me, that's just laugh out loud funny. I don't love the change in the lyrics there because, even though they're trivial details, they're not *funny trivial details* . "They kept sitting on the floor" will never not be funny to me. I wonder why they were changed. Great video, thanks.
I gotta say, "Shine" is my favorite. An honoring of superficial from the character that 'gets it' in the show for me. On a related note, when I first watched "Passion" it felt like a Rosetta Stone moment for all the Sondheim I knew. I haven't gone back to it in awhile, but if we trust that Sondheim is a puzzle maker and these fragments are his pieces, there's a sense that the same pieces can create completely different pictures. *ahem* only 12 notes because he sticks to tonal harmony *ahem*
Can you please do the twin soliquies from South Pacific or how/why Dites Moi is effective in being opening and closing number?
She’s no Shirley Jones. Watched that movie last night for at least the 10th time. Johnny Carson had her on to do a 3 song medley had his whole audience & Johnny in tears. Can’t find it on KZread for some reason. America needs this now!😎
The Road (Part 3) has been living in my head rent free since the album came out. It has aspects of “Gold!” from road show but lyrically is in a category of its own. Some of the wittiest and most in your face text we’ve seen from him. Plus, who knew that we’d get the term bitcoin in a Sondheim musical. Waiter’s song is also a huge highlight.
From reading the title of the video I assumed that there was music, but not adhering to song forms, like some kind of Wagnerian through-composed blob.
Kelli O'Hara and Nathan Gunn are terrific! They deliver passionate, full-throated performances of one of the greatest love duets in the history of musical theatre.
I was really curious about the more candid parts of the songs, especially the ones in the Road songs. I really liked the exchange that went: MARIANNE: I do adore afternoons, they’re my favorite- FRITZ: What? M: What? F: Favorite what? M: Favorite time of the day, darling. It’s very sweet and I like it a lot, though I’m not entirely sure why it’s there (I’ve only listened to audio bootlegs and the album so I don’t know what’s going on with the blocking). Aside from the Soldier’s Song, my favorite section was probably the part in The Road 2 where Fritz’s phone call with Prada turns into a serenade from Rafael, which turns into his own phone call about the drug scheme being found out, which turns into Fritz trying to raise money for the revolution, which turns into Leo mockingly singing Fritz’s “End of the World” theme before Rafael sings it in earnest in light of the feds finding the drugs, which turns into Marianne’s characteristic dismissiveness of her problems in favor of superficial beauty. Such a complex, dense rapid fire of perfect character moments all pieced together so comprehensibly and with such style as only Sondheim could’ve pulled off.
It sounds like Passion because Steve's well had run dry. I don't mean that in any mean-spirited or derogatory way, but you have to ask yourself; in what other Score on Sondheim's do you hear his other scores? Each of his scores is so highly developed for the show they inhabit that they do not sound alike, and it is only in this final score that we have heard so much of 'oh this sounds like that' in reaction to it. He somewhat admits that his was no longer writing well in the 'Wise guys' chapters of 'Look, I Made a Hat' when he discusses recycling music into the wise Guys shows. Here we are is a far better and varied score than anything else written at the moment, and so it a credit to his skill that even when not at his peak he still trumps the rest of us.
The Road 4 - Part 2 ‘Marianne’ sung by Steven Pasquale. I cannot stop listenting to the soundtrack of this score! Top Tier Sondheim in my book. It feels like he is in constant conversation with his earlier works- specifically here with his lyric for Maria from West Side Story. I have to imagine with time, that will be one of the most excerpted parts along with the Bishop’s Song, It Is What It Is, and Shine from the 2nd Act 🤓
The bit at 4:30 reminds me of the Flashback sequence in Passion, specifically the end where the Colonel sings: "Why could I not admit the truth? How could I not have seen through the veneer? I told myself, "as long as she seems happy, why interfere?" Or was I just relieved to know that somebody would want her for a wife?"
Do you have a video on Floyd Collins ?
Check out my channel! I have a recent video on the Riddle Song from Floyd Collins
I'm not that sophisticated musically, but I really enjoyed this explanation. Thank you!
I love this so much.
I was PRAYING you’d do the Soldier’s Dream. Thanks for another amazing Sondheim vid
Love this song but my favourite is Shine!
Brilliant! Thanks for this. You did a great job notating this. I have been regularly checking to see if the sheet music is available. I appreciate your comparisons to Passion, a musical I love but so many disliked. I also see the connections!
I believe Sondheim wrote it in 12/8, but your notes and values are correct.
My favorite: It Is What It Is!!
I recommend looking at Silly People, a cut song from A Little Night Music. I hear so much of that song’s style both in the Soldier’s Dream and It Is What It Is.
thank you for this !