Skip to main content

My Favorite Show Tune

If I had to choose a favorite work of non-fiction, I might go with The Ladies who Punch: A History of Barbara Walters and THE VIEW (more on that later), or I might go with The Secret Life of the American Musical.

It's possible no other book haunts my thoughts the way American Musical does.

Jack Viertel argues, in American Musical, that, although each successful show has "its own magic," there is also a standard blueprint that a show sort-of-needs to follow. An opening number should set the tone and establish the kind of humor you're going to encounter: "Little Shop of Horrors," "Alexander Hamilton," "Comedy Tonight."

This leads to one--or several--"I Want" songs. In an "I Want" song, our heroes will present their urges in straightforward terms. The wishes should be larger-than-life; we're not here to see someone dreaming of a new book from the library. "I Want" songs include: "My Shot," "The Wizard and I," "Skid Row," and "Some People."

This bring me to my favorite "I Want," and my favorite show tune. It's "Put on Your Sunday Clothes," from "Hello, Dolly!"

This is a moment early in Act One in which Cornelius, one of our main characters, dreams of leaving (briefly) his hum-drum job. He is going to depart Yonkers, at least for a day; he is going to find "the world outside," in New York City:

Put on your Sunday clothes--
There's lots of world out there...
Get out the brilliantine and dime cigars....
We're gonna find adventure in the evening air...
Girls in white, in a perfumed night,
Where the lights are bright as the stars!

We cut to our diva, Dolly, who also has reasons to enter the big city, and who dreams of a kind of personal renaissance:

Put on your Sunday clothes when you feel down and out...
Strut down the street and have your picture took....
Dressed like a dream....Your spirits seem to turn about....

This is light and airy--but, also, Dolly is recently widowed and lonely, and it's not hard to find some emotional depth underneath the words she is singing.

I very much like how Cornelius has an adventure, and Dolly has an adventure, and the two journeys intersect in an easy way, in this number. I also like the allusions to "beads and buckles and bows," "Blue Monday," "one of those new horse-drawn open cars...."

I would listen to this song in childhood, and my hair would stand on end, and this still happens. The recent revival has the ideal Cornelius--Gavin Creel--and his basically-peerless voice is in fine form. There's also Bette Midler, being Bette Midler, and that's OK.

I think it's impossible to hear this song without feeling a bit cheerier.

My two cents. Enjoy!
https://www.google.com/search?client=firefox-b-1-d&q=put+on+your+sunday+gavin
Labels:

Comments

Post a Comment

Popular posts from this blog

How to Host a Baby

-You have assumed responsibility for a mewling, puking ball of life, a yellow-lab pup. He will spit his half-digested kibble all over your shoes, all over your hard-cover edition of Jennifer Haigh's novel  Faith . He will eat your tables, your chairs, your "I {Heart] Montessori" magnet, placed too low on the fridge. When you try to watch Bette Davis in  Hush Hush Sweet Charlotte , on your TV, your dog will bark through the murder-prologue, for no apparent reason. He will whimper through Lena Dunham's  Girls , such that you have to rewind several times to catch every nuance of Andrew Rannells's ad-libbing--and, still, you'll have a nagging suspicion you've missed something. Your dog will poop on the kitchen floor, in the hallway, between the tiny bars of his crate. He'll announce his wakefulness at 5 AM, 2 AM, or while you and another human are mid-coitus. All this, and you get outside, and it's: "Don't let him pee on my tulips!" When...
3 comments
Read more

Joshie

  When I was growing up, a class birthday involved Hostess cupcakes. Often, the cupcakes would come in a shoebox, so you could taste a leathery residue (during the party). Times change. You can't bring a treat into a public school, in 2024, because heaven knows what kind of allergies might lurk, in unseen corners, in the classroom. But Joshua's teacher will allow: a dance party, a pajama day, or a guest reader. I chose to bring a story for Joshua's birthday (observed), but I didn't think through the role that anxiety might play in this interaction. We talk, in this house, quite a bit about anxiety; one game-changer, for J, has been a daily list of activities, so that he knows exactly what to expect. He gets a look of profound satisfaction when he sees the agenda; it doesn't really matter what the specific events happen to be. It's just about knowing, "I can anticipate X, Y, and Z." Joshua struggled with his celebration. He wore his nervousness on his f...
2 comments
Read more

Josh at Five

 Joshie's project is "flexibility"; the goal is to see that a plan is just an idea, not a gospel, not a guarantee. This is difficult. Yesterday, we went to a restaurant--billed as "open," with unlocked doors--and the owner informed us of an "error in advertising." But Joshie couldn't accept the word "closed." He threw himself on the floor, then climbed on the furniture. I felt for the owner, until he nervously made a reference to "the glass windows." He imagined that my child might toss himself through a sealed window, like Mary Katherine Gallagher, or like Bruce Willis, in "Die Hard." Then--thank the Lord!--I was able to laugh. The thing that really has therapeutic value for Joshie is: a firetruck. If we are out in public, and he spots a parked truck, he wants to climb on each surface. He breathlessly alludes to the wheels, the door, the windows. If an actual fire station ("fire ocean," in Joshie's parla...
Post a Comment
Read more