Honorable mentions: “Someone is Waiting,” “Company” “What do you get?” This is the third song in a row about marriage, and while that’s totally unintentional, it’s created an interesting streak in this series not unlike a sparkly striation in an otherwise dull rock. “Now/Later/Soon” is getting less than you bargained for in your marriage; “Nobody… Read More Songs from Musicals: #6, “Being Alive,” from Company
Honorable mentions: “The Miller’s Son,” “Remember?” I love three hour movies (and twelve-episode miniseries), I love eight hundred page novels and histories, and I am a huge sucker for any showtune that lasts more than seven minutes. “Now/Later/Soon” is, depending on what recording you own, either one track or three; in my opinion, seeing as… Read More Songs from Musicals: #8, “Now/Later/Soon,” from A Little Night Music
Honorable mentions: “Farewell Letter,” “Happiness” No musical begins with so strong a statement of what will come next as Passion. Two handsome people, both youngish and strong, lie in bed together. “I’m so happy I’m afraid I’ll die here in your arms,” the woman sings. “What would you do if I died like this, right… Read More Songs from Musicals: #17, “Garden Sequence,” from Passion
Honorable mentions: “Too Many Mornings,” “You’re Gonna Love Tomorrow/Love Will See Us Through” I’ve already talked about Follies at some length on this blog, back before I started this little series. Then I was working with “Losing My Mind,” which is one of the key songs from this musical, and which is not unlike “One… Read More Songs from Musicals: #21, “One More Kiss,” from Follies
Honorable mentions: “No One Is Alone,” “Giants in the Sky” The farther away from my English degree I get, and the longer I spend teaching English, the more I find myself thinking about genre. This is one of my great weaknesses, a reason why I don’t intend to go back to school for an English… Read More Songs from Musicals: #29, “Children Will Listen,” from Into the Woods
Honorable mentions: “The Ballad of Czolgosz,” “Unworthy of Your Love” My history teachers from my junior and senior year of high school liked to take the last ten minutes or so of Friday’s class and give a “GIQ,” or “General Information Quiz.” The ten questions were mostly current events, although some involved vague pop culture,… Read More Songs from Musicals: #34, “Another National Anthem,” from Assassins
Honorable mentions: “Pirelli’s Miracle Elixir,” “A Little Priest” This is an admittedly weird song to pick, one of the first to get cut from the average production. Sweeney Todd is more than strange, though: it’s a class-conscious comedy about a serial killer and his lover, who takes the bodies and puts them into her all-the-rage meat… Read More Songs from Musicals: #38, “Parlor Songs,” from Sweeney Todd: The Demon Barber of Fleet Street
Honorable mentions: “Sunday in the Park with George,” “Color and Light” Sunday in the Park with George is not a terribly easy musical to sing along to in the car, so it’s probably cheating to pick the signature song from the show, the one that shows up in high school talent nights. I get that, but… Read More Songs from Musicals: #42, “Move On,” from Sunday in the Park with George
Honorable mentions: “Quintet,” “America” What a mistake it was to turn this into a duet. Like most people who know a musical that’s nearly sixty years old, my first contact with West Side Story was the 1961 movie, the first of four musicals to take Best Picture in that decade. One gets used to the back and forth in… Read More Songs from Musicals: #43, “Somewhere,” from West Side Story
(Link to the song is here) Stephen Sondheim will turn 86 in a month and change and while I’m rooting for him to be like a relatively similar 20th Century genius, Oscar Niemeyer, and live past 100, I don’t know that it’s in the cards. His musicals, especially the five from his fabulously productive and… Read More “Losing My Mind,” from Follies
Seeing Things Secondhand 