Sunday, April 02, 2006

Religion and musicals

On April 12, Passover begins. Easter is on the way. This week is the setting for both Jesus Christ Superstar and Godspell. It's the perfect time to take a look at how religion and beliefs are portrayed in musicals. There's far too much material to cover in one hour, and there are no sweeping generalizations. But there are wonderful songs to share.

Fiddler on the Roof: If I Were a Rich Man
In the creation of Fiddler on the Roof, Zero Mostel insisted on a serious verse, where Tevye considered how life would be if he could just sit in the synagogue and pray.

Jesus Christ Superstar
This is the show everyone thinks of when you mention "God" and "Musicals" in the same sentance. "Superstar" is Tim Rice and Andrew Lloyd Webber's personal take on the New Testament, with several liberties to the traditional views.
Two songs from the 2000 London recording, followed by Jerry Hadley's take on Gethsemanie.

In most epic stories about political injustice, faith in God is a central theme - usually holding on to God as an anchor. Here is a collection of prayers (or as I call it, "Bible Belting.")

The Color Purple (based on the book and subsequent film) is about personal freedom and the context of racism. Celie goes from a childlike view of God to complete disbelief to strong spirituality, while living in a strong Bible-belt community.
Sarafina is an Apartheid show (later a film with Whoopie Goldberg) about students fighting for equality. At the start of the day, they sing the Lord's Prayer.

Notre-Dame de Paris, based on The Hunchback of Notre-Dame (by Victor Hugo), takes place in the famous cathedral. At one point, the gypsy woman Esmeralda takes refuge in the church and prays to Mary.
In the Disney animated film of Notre Dame, the same moment is "God Help the Outcasts," written by Stephen Schwartz.

Speaking of Stephen Schwartz, he wrote 'that other musical about Jesus,' Godspell.
(More about Stephen Schwartz this summer when Coeur d'Alene Summer Theater presents his show Pippin)

In Victor Hugo's novel Les Miserables, religion is the core reason for Jean Valjean's redemption, as heard in this selection from the opening of the show. (By the way, this musical mentions "God" more than all the successful Broadway musicals combined.)

Mario Lanza sang the music for the film version of "The Student Prince," which includes "I'll Walk with God"

And finally, the Sabbath Prayer from Fiddler on the Roof.


Some other songs that we can't fit on the show:
- On the Deck of a Spanish Sailing Ship, a captain sailing to the New World prays for his crew and passengers. (From Songs for a New World)
- Whistle Down the Wind: Set in the American South, some kids believe an escaped convict is Jesus in the second coming.
- Randy Newman's Faust, a musical retelling of the Devil vs. God test with Faust in between. James Taylor sings the role of God, coming across as a pompous celeb (in true Randy Newman style, who by the way sings the Devil).

Old Testament stories: Just as novels are a core source material for musicals, so is the Bible.
- Joseph and the Amazing Technicolor Dreamcoat - pop songs tell the story without one mention of "God"
- Two by Two is Richard Rodgers' version of Noah and the Ark, most famous because of Danny Kaye's performance.


Sometimes instead of an anchor, the singer is wondering where God is during all this trouble.
- Lost in the Stars: 1949 Kurt Weill
- Dog Eats Dog from Les Miserables.

Two Off-Broadway musicals poke fun with respect at Catholic beliefs: Nunsense (and its various sequels) and Altar Boyz. Each have their "in" jokes that non-Catholics don't quite get, but each are good-natured fun.
- Altar Boyz takes the premise of a stereotypical pop 'boy band,' with the religious members Matthew, Mark, Luke, Juan, and Abraham singing in that American Idol style. (Cheyanne Jackson isn't on the CD, but he took a turn as group leader Matthew)

Non Judeo-Christian
- In The King and I, Yul Brynner's King makes a Prayer to Buddha for preservation of the kingdom against the British. When Carousel Players present The King & I later this summer, I'll do an hour of music inspired by Asia.

A PBS program interviewed Jerry Herman on his spirituality and the songs that reflect that. Transcript is here.

Songs of the Western Plains

Movies and the stage both romantisized life in the frontier. In honor of Oklahoma coming to town, let's look at some of the songs set in the old American West.
Oklahoma - Rodgers and Hammerstein's joyful love of what it is to be in the West in the early 1900s.

One pleasure of seeing "the west" onstage is the roughness and anything-goes energy, usually from the men. Here are some of those fun-and-fancy-free numbers, the Buffalo Bill show, and Belly up to the Bar.

* Colonel Buffalo Bill - The opening number to "Annie Get Your Gun," David Garrison from a studio recording (also featuring Thomas Hampson as Frank)

* Belly Up to the Bar, Boys - Tammy Grimes is the title character in The Unsinkable Molly Brown

* The Lonesome Cowboy - from Crazy for You, the reworking of "Girl Crazy" set in a Nevada mining town

A few songs about the slow, often lonely pace of the West.

* Bidin' My Time - the quartet from Crazy for You lyin' about on stage makes for my favorite rendition of this Gershwin classic

* Lament (Lonesome Polecat) - Matt Mattox from the film Seven Brides for Seven Brothers.

* They Call The Wind Maria - Opera star Bryn Terfel is Welsh, but channels the lonely calling of the western wind in this classic from Paint Your Wagon.

* Joey, Joey Joey - Another 'wind calling you away' song, thi time from the original cast of The Most Happy Fella.

When you're lonely, you go looking for companionship. Sometimes you find it, sometimes you just keep complaining that it's not there.

* The Wild Wild West - When America headed west, so did Fred Harvey's restaurant chain...and so did a lot of young waitresses who didn't know how wild the frontier was. Virginia O'Brien's character thought it would be a lot wilder, though, and has one of the fun songs from this 1946 film.

* Bless Yore Beautiful Hide - Howard Keel in the 1954 answer to Oklahoma's success

* Doin' What Comes Natur'lly - Bernadette Peters won a Tony for her 1999 revival of Annie Oakley's story; this song revels in the facts of the birds and bees with her little siblings.

* What Takes My Fancy - Lucille Ball took a spectacular flop on Broadway with "Wildcat," which includes this rough-and-tumble duet between a crotchety varmit and a sassy gal who come to a mutual understanding.

Just a few more songs to wrap things up...

* Hand Me Down That Can 'O Beans - from Paint Your Wagon, Robert Penn and the men celebrate a gal coming to town.

* On the Atchison, Topeka, and the Santa Fe - the big number from The Harvey Girls with Judy Garland. You can live in the Wild West, but it sure helps to be connected to civilization once in a while with a train!

* March of the Doagies - an outtake from the Harvey Girls, with Judy Garland

And finally, some people just like civilization a lot better.
* Way Out West - from the film Words and Music, with Betty Garrett.


A few other shows that feature cowboys and the west:

- Will Rogers Follies: The restless Rodgers broke in horses for the British Army, was a trick roper in South Africa, roped on Vaudeville, and eventually worked up a routine for Ziegfeld's follies. His story's told in an Ahrens-Flaherty musical set up like a Ziegfeld show.

- Roadside: The 2001 musical by Tom Jones and Harvey Schmidt, following a traveling tent show on an Old West adventure. Also based loosely on "Green Grow the Lilacs," the play that birthed "Oklahoma"

Desperate Measures - a reworking of Shakespeare's Measure for Measure

Girl of the Golden West - a 1938 film with Nelson Eddy and Jeannette MacDonald.