"Years ago, something happened-
Let me explain it..."
-In Control
Lately, as anyone who reads this blog will probably remember, I have been hard at work on "The Cabinet of Dr. Caligari," my current musical project ("Caligari" for short). Today I spent a few hours at least with the script- not even the whole script, just the Word document of the first scene- open in front of me, struggling with the beginning. You see, beginnings are hard, and I am in the process of rewriting mine.
A few years ago, when I was still fairly early into my undergraduate career, I had a bizarre dream in which I was performing in a rather unique play. All of the characters were circus freaks and carnival types, grunting and shrieking music in a Brecht-meets-Tom-Waits sort of vein, leaping off the stage into the audience, upturning tables and generally creating theatrical chaos. The title of the show was "Freak Show Cabaret." I could remember just enough of the lyrics and music I had heard in the dream to write some of it out, and, after prettying up the intentionally ugly sound of the dream music, I had written the opening number for a show I knew nothing about that didn't yet exist.
Gradually, I thought of pairing up the "sinister carnival folk" show, which did not suggest any plot, with a play within a play story, in order to give it some structure that I could build the carnival stuff around. Eventually, I thought of "Caligari," which was in the public domain, suggested the right atmosphere, and seemed appropriate for loose musicalization. The tune I had written from the dream became "Dr. Caligari's Freak Show Cabaret," a bouncily sinister German cabaret-style number that would be performed in and around the audience by the sinister carnival folk to welcome them to the show. This motif would follow the titular Doctor throughout the show, and much later in Act 2, he sings a song with an identical melody to calm the heroine's well-founded fears, claiming that a doctor's primary responsibility and desire is to "Lend A Friendly Hand." (Followers of Team In Control should know that one- a very early version of this song was put into "Mermaid!" to be sung by UrLiza, a combination octopus, witch and burned-out cabaret diva, who parodied both Disney's Ursula and Liza Minelli.)
A few years ago, when I was still fairly early into my undergraduate career, I had a bizarre dream in which I was performing in a rather unique play. All of the characters were circus freaks and carnival types, grunting and shrieking music in a Brecht-meets-Tom-Waits sort of vein, leaping off the stage into the audience, upturning tables and generally creating theatrical chaos. The title of the show was "Freak Show Cabaret." I could remember just enough of the lyrics and music I had heard in the dream to write some of it out, and, after prettying up the intentionally ugly sound of the dream music, I had written the opening number for a show I knew nothing about that didn't yet exist.
Gradually, I thought of pairing up the "sinister carnival folk" show, which did not suggest any plot, with a play within a play story, in order to give it some structure that I could build the carnival stuff around. Eventually, I thought of "Caligari," which was in the public domain, suggested the right atmosphere, and seemed appropriate for loose musicalization. The tune I had written from the dream became "Dr. Caligari's Freak Show Cabaret," a bouncily sinister German cabaret-style number that would be performed in and around the audience by the sinister carnival folk to welcome them to the show. This motif would follow the titular Doctor throughout the show, and much later in Act 2, he sings a song with an identical melody to calm the heroine's well-founded fears, claiming that a doctor's primary responsibility and desire is to "Lend A Friendly Hand." (Followers of Team In Control should know that one- a very early version of this song was put into "Mermaid!" to be sung by UrLiza, a combination octopus, witch and burned-out cabaret diva, who parodied both Disney's Ursula and Liza Minelli.)
About a week ago, I decided to cut the "sinister carnival folk" framing device. I still think they were fun, and they added color to the show, but it wasn't the color I needed. More importantly, all the shows that immediately informed the style and structure of the "musical thriller" genre- "Sweeney Todd," "Bat Boy," and to a lesser extent shows like "Disney's The Hunchback of Notre Dame," "The Phantom of the Opera" and even "The Threepenny Opera" if we're really stretching the definitions- contained Greek chorus figures who moved the plot along while commenting on it, simultaneously existing inside and outside the story. I decided to buck tradition and intentionally did NOT include this element in my show, in order to differentiate it from following too closely in the footsteps of its predecessors.
This left me at a quandary- how do I open the show, if not with these mysterious players welcoming us to the story as a dark cautionary tale? Time to turn back to our old friend, Stephen Sondheim, and our textbook-cum-bible, "Finishing The Hat." When Sondheim was writing music and lyrics for "A Funny Thing Happened On The Way To The Forum," he wrote a light and pleasant love tune, "Love Is In The Air," to open the show. In previews, the show was falling flat. Why? Well, there is an axiom in the theatre: the first ten minutes of the show have to set the rules of everything that is to come after, unless you have something to hide. If you want to speak directly to or interact with the audience, use multimedia, or establish a consistent style or tone, you have to set that up in the first ten minutes, or risk alienating and confusing the audience later in the show. Sondheim had written a light and airy opening number that suggested easy, breezy entertainment in the Rodgers and Hart or Cole Porter style. "Forum," however, was loud, broad, raunchy farce, with heavy debts to vaudeville, clowning and bawdy Roman comedies. The opening number set the wrong expectations for the show, so Sondheim replaced it with "Comedy Tonight," a hurricane of puns, rhymes, allusions and double entendres. The change worked, and the show went over like gangbusters from the opening on.
This left me at a quandary- how do I open the show, if not with these mysterious players welcoming us to the story as a dark cautionary tale? Time to turn back to our old friend, Stephen Sondheim, and our textbook-cum-bible, "Finishing The Hat." When Sondheim was writing music and lyrics for "A Funny Thing Happened On The Way To The Forum," he wrote a light and pleasant love tune, "Love Is In The Air," to open the show. In previews, the show was falling flat. Why? Well, there is an axiom in the theatre: the first ten minutes of the show have to set the rules of everything that is to come after, unless you have something to hide. If you want to speak directly to or interact with the audience, use multimedia, or establish a consistent style or tone, you have to set that up in the first ten minutes, or risk alienating and confusing the audience later in the show. Sondheim had written a light and airy opening number that suggested easy, breezy entertainment in the Rodgers and Hart or Cole Porter style. "Forum," however, was loud, broad, raunchy farce, with heavy debts to vaudeville, clowning and bawdy Roman comedies. The opening number set the wrong expectations for the show, so Sondheim replaced it with "Comedy Tonight," a hurricane of puns, rhymes, allusions and double entendres. The change worked, and the show went over like gangbusters from the opening on.
After quite a lot of debating, I ended up deciding to open the show in media res, near the end of Act 1. Francis, our protagonist, is in the police station, being interrogated as a suspect in a serious crime. He insists he is innocent and makes a statement that he can clear his name if the police- and the audience- would be willing to "Listen And Believe" (the new opening number's title). From there, the rest of Act 1 unfolds as his alibi, with Act 2 picking up as he attempts to solve the case himself and clear up any doubts.
Is this substitution perfect? Only time will tell, but it's certainly a step in the right direction. As an added bonus, the original opening number, "Freak Show Cabaret," was rewritten and now appears as a song sung by carnival barkers to direct fairgoers into the tent to see Caligari's act, replacing a wordy and less-than-interesting spoken scene. Thus, the leitmotif assigned to Caligari remains intact.
In academic thought, the thesis has to function in rather the same way as the first ten minutes of a play: the paper must introduce its themes, style and central arguments quickly and near the top, or risk seeming loosely put together, slipshod or badly thought out as its argument progresses "out of nowhere." I've written my fair share of academic papers, but making the thesis "pop" is still a struggle sometimes.
Is this substitution perfect? Only time will tell, but it's certainly a step in the right direction. As an added bonus, the original opening number, "Freak Show Cabaret," was rewritten and now appears as a song sung by carnival barkers to direct fairgoers into the tent to see Caligari's act, replacing a wordy and less-than-interesting spoken scene. Thus, the leitmotif assigned to Caligari remains intact.
In academic thought, the thesis has to function in rather the same way as the first ten minutes of a play: the paper must introduce its themes, style and central arguments quickly and near the top, or risk seeming loosely put together, slipshod or badly thought out as its argument progresses "out of nowhere." I've written my fair share of academic papers, but making the thesis "pop" is still a struggle sometimes.