On Lloyd-Webber

The other day I made a mistake. I was searching through the on-screen guide to find stuff for the DVR to record and I saw that The Phantom of the Opera was just starting on HBO 3. I hadn't seen it so I thought, "What the hell?" Ah, how quickly it all came back.

Many people ask me which musical theater composers I admire and which I don't.

First the list:
I REALLY admire: Stephen Sondheim, Cy Coleman, Richard Rodgers, Stephen Flaherty, George Gershwin, Leonard Bernstein, Jason Robert Brown, Jerry Bock, William Finn

I admire: Irving Berlin, Cole Porter, Mary Rodgers, Stephen Schwartz, Alan Menken, Marc Shaiman, Jerry Herman, Jerome Kern, Harold Arlen, Frank Loesser, Jule Styne, Frederick Loewe, Burton Lane, Marvin Hamlisch, Maury Yeston, Noel Coward, John Kander, Johnny Mercer, Charles Strouse, Kurt Weill, Richard Whiting

I don't care for: Andrew Lloyd-Webber, Frank Wildhorn, Lionel Bart (As Long as He Needs Me is a HUGE exception), Claude-Michel Schonberg (there are a few exceptions), Meredith Willson (I know, I'm sure this surprises people)

So, in a nutshell what separates these lists of greats? Simply put, I judge musical merit by comparing it to what I believe I'm capable of as a composer. In other words, if I could do it I don't admire it very much, if I could do it with much study and practice then I admire it, if I could never hope to come close then I really admire it. Yes, it's really that simple.

So, what's my problem with Lloyd-Webber and Wildhorn especially? Well, here's where things get dicy. You see, musical theater composers aren't just composers, they're providing a device to carry a lyric. If the lyric doesn't sit - if it doesn't sell fluidly - then, as far as it's merit for musical theater, the music doesn't work. Lloyd-Webber actually writes some very nice melodies; but they almost never go with their lyric. Or, worst yet, the lyric re-hashes itself throughout a song because the song requires more words. This is common in pop music, but in musical theater it can get boring fast. Take, for example, "Past the Point of No Return" from The Phantom of the Opera:

"Past the pointof no return
no backward glances
the games we've played
till now are at an end

Past all thoughtof "if" or "when"
no use resisting
abandon thought
and let the dream descend [what does that even mean?]

What raging fire shall flood the soul?
What rich desire unlocks its door?
What sweet seduction lies before us?

Past the point of no return
the final threshold
what warm, unspoken secrets will we learn?
Beyond the point of no return."

The lyric just goes on and on to fulfill the tune. Lloyd-Webber's tune, a cross between Rodgers and Wagner, is actually quite pleasant (well, pleasantly chilling) but the lyric, with its cliche'd imagery and goes-on-too-long style, buries it.

Things are worse in Wildhorn's world. Wildhorn, a successful pop producer and composer, simply writes a pop tune and throws it in. "This is the Moment" from Jeckyll & Hyde is a perfect example. First of all, it's structured in the classic verse, chorus, verse, chorus, bridge, chorus, modulation, chorus structure of thousands of pop songs from the 70s through the 90s. Secondly, its lyric is sophomoric at best:

"This is the moment!
This is the day
When I send all my doubts and demons
On their way!
Every endeavor I have made ever
Is coming into play
Is here and now - today!

This is the moment,
This is the time,
When the momentum and the moment
Are in rhyme!
Give me this moment
This precious chance
I'll gather up my past
And make some sense at last!

This is the moment
When all I've done
All of the dreaming
Scheming and screaming
Become one! [what does that mean?]
This is the day
See it sparkle and shine
When all I've lived for becomes mine!

For all these years
I've faced the world alone
And now the time has come
To prove to them I've made it on my own!

This is the moment
My final test
Destiny beckoned
I never reckoned [WAY too contrived for the internal rhyme]
Second Best!
I won't look down
I must not fall! [this I like]
This is the moment
The sweetest moment of them all!

This is the moment!
Damn all the odds!
This day, or never,
I'll sit forever with the gods!
When I look back
I will always recall
Moment for moment
This was the moment
The greatest moment Of them all!"

Do you see my issue? A fair tune (certainly not anything special), but Bricusse is forced to keep writing to fill it up. There are some decent lyrics in here (and some shitty ones, too) but by the end, who cares? It's a pop song masquerading as musical theater. Compare this song with Sondheim's breakdown for Sweeney before the end of Act I:

"They all deserve to die.
Tell you why, Mrs. Lovett, tell you why.
Because in all of the whole human race, Mrs Lovett,
there are two kinds of men and only two
There's the one they put in his proper place
And the one with his foot in the other one's face
Look at me, Mrs Lovett, look at you.

Now we all deserve to die
Tell you why, Mrs. Lovett, tell you why.
Because the lives of the wicked should be made brief
For the rest of us death will be a relief
We all deserve to die.

And I'll never see Joanna
No I'll never hold my girl to me - finished!

Alright! You sir, you sir, how about a shave?
Come and visit your good friend Sweeney.
You sir, you sir? Welcome to the grave.

I will have vengenance. I will have salvation.

Who sir, you sir? No one in the chair, come on!
Come on!Sweeney's waiting.
I want you bleeders.

You sir - anybody.
Gentlemen don't be shy!

Not one man, no, not ten men.
Not a hundred can assuage me
I will have you!

And I will get him back even as he gloats
In the meantime I'll practice on less honorable throats.

And my Lucy lies in ashes
And I'll never see my girl again.
But the work waits!
I'm alive at last!
And I'm full of joy!"

Hmm, seems kind of repetitive, too, huh? Maybe. But let's look at it. Each time Sweeney repeats himself, he's returning to that feeling. "We all deserve to die" - major thematic material, by the way - is said more than once, but each time it's followed by a different lament. Notice also (well, you could if you were listening to it rather than reading it) that the musical themes and motifs are constantly changing to fit the mood, character, and feeling. And take a look at the end! He's full of joy! Why? Because he's just decided to get back at the world by becoming a mass murderer! He's alive at last!

Anyway, that's a very tiny nugget of what goes into my tastes in regard to musical theater composers (and, I suppose, lyricists - although that's really another discussion).

Please feel free to comment, disagree, stop talking to me, or whatever - just my opinions.