To start, this article has no intention of being serious. I was just sitting in my car musing about how you could take two Broadway shows and splice them together into one evening of entertainment. This would certainly cut back on my ticket expenditures and double the amount of Broadway musical viewing I can afford each year. So, strap on your sense of humor, get in the mood for corny ridiculousness, and see how I mashed-up Broadway musicals currently running (or set to open) on the Great White Way.
Remembering High Spirits
There is not all that much about Noël Coward’s brilliant 1941 play Blithe Spirit that would initially make you think “this needs to be a musical.” It’s a drawing room comedy, with a relatively small cast, and tightly-written That doesn’t leave itself room for opening up or expanding in the way that musicals traditionally are. On the other hand, Blithe Spirit features an array of colorful, larger-than-life characters, including a wacky medium and an insane diva who happens to be a ghost. Suddenly, the prospects for musical comedy seem just a bit more accessible. That must be what Timothy Gray and Hugh Martin had in the front of their minds when they conjured up the musical High Spirits, adapted for the musical stage from Coward’s Blithe Spirit.
Remembering Can-Can
Cole Porter wrote many infectious scores for the Broadway stage, with Anything Goes and Kiss Me, Kate as standouts of how wit and melody can be melded into glorious ditty after glorious ditty. Another hit musical of Porter’s myriad Broadway outings was Can-Can. Though it is seldom revived today, Can-Can nevertheless features an enchanting score, with songs such as “I Love Paris, “ “C’est Magnifique” and “I Am In Love” getting play outside the context of the show. Abe Burrows, known for his knack for writing sparkling comedy for the Broadway stage, wrote the book for Can-Can.
When Is a Broadway Love Song… Not A Love Song?
Today I thought it would be interesting to explore a certain type of Broadway love song. There are many Broadway showtunes that are declarations of love, an all-out celebration of (usually) boy-meets-girl or vice-versa and they fall instantly in love. But not every love song from musicals is an overt declaration of amour. Some of these ditties are more subtle in their approach, or ironically deny the possibility of love altogether. Here is a list of examples of some of these love songs that seem to contradict the romances that evolve from them.