IT’S ALL ABOUT THE MUSIC!

Photo: (l to r) Andrew Rannells, Christopher Kale Jones, Erik Bates and Steve Gouveia
Credit: Chris Bennion

The traditional Broadway musical, with its score, book, choreography, sets, costumes and general razzle-dazzle, is usually remembered for one thing: the music. The creation of a new musical usually starts with a story. The composer, lyricist and sometimes a librettist are charged with the task of creating memorable, original tunes to tell that story. Shows like Spamalot, The Light in the Piazza, Dirty Rotten Scoundrels, The Drowsy Chaperone, Avenue Q, The Color Purple and The 25th Annual Putnam County Spelling Bee were all created in this way.

But what if it’s the music – already written, successful music – that provides the overall inspiration for a Broadway show? Can a hit musical evolve in this “backwards” way? Can rock, pop or country hits be used to create a score? Much of it is already in the collective unconscious of the majority of audience members, and they don’t just hum - they sing along.

According to New York Times theater critic Charles Isherwood, “This is a way of appealing to baby-boomers, who don’t really go to traditional musicals anymore.” These songs have become the new standards.

This style of musical is not new, but the runaway success of Mamma Mia! in 2001 made the genre look like a good idea for others to follow. The libretto of Mamma Mia! was fabricated to fit the contemporary hits of Swedish pop group ABBA. The story-telling charm of the 26 ABBA songs helps the libretto: the audiences eat it up and join in the fun at the encore.

Famed choreographer Twyla Tharp took the next logical step in the “music first” show style when she created a rock and roll ballet inspired by the music of Billy Joel in Movin’ Out. It features 24 of Joel’s hits as suggestive background music to a two-act, evening-length ballet. The characters neither speak nor sing one word; the dancing is, for all intents and purposes, non-stop. Only one person sings every song: the lead piano player and singer in the band. The music drives the dance, and it is the dance that tells the story in Movin’ Out.

The extensive canon of rock hits by The Four Seasons, along with the members’ life stories, serve as the inspiration for JERSEY BOYS, but the writers are quick to point out that it is not what Broadway insiders call the typical “catalogue musical.” In fact, they insist that it is not a musical at all, but a play with songs. Different songs inspire different storylines, time periods or characterizations, but in JERSEY BOYS the songs are added to enhance, not to establish, the drama. JERSEY BOYS shows audiences yet another approach to the inside/out, music-then-book, list of hits/bio musical.