Possibly the Most Trivial Information Ever Posted At Stageleft
…but having a huge realization about something indescribably unimportant can be great fun.
DID YOU REALIZE that the famous march “76 Trombones” from the Meredith Wilson musical “The Music Man” has EXACTLY the same melody as the song that immediately precedes it in the musical – “Goodnight, My Someone” – except that “Goodnight, My Someone” is in 3/4 time, and played as a slow waltz?
Neither did I, until about three o’clock this afternoon when I was out walking with my Dad and humming.
Carry on.
I will proceed to relay this information to my mother, who will no doubt be utterly delighted.
Is she a fan of those musicals? A woman of superior taste, clearly. I always thought that the musicals of the fifties were in a class by themselves, sort of like the American film comedies of the thirties. Sly, witty, oddly subversive (has there ever been a major American musical hit as subtly socialist as “The Pajama Game”?)
She is a fan of musicals, and my sister and I were often instructed or teased via appropriate song lyric from 50s musicals. (Sometimes ironically. For example, if we were fighting about embarrassing one another, she’d tease us by singing “Sit down, sit down, sit down you’re rocking the boat”: I have no idea if it’s the intention in the original context to show that conformity is the refuge of small minds. Of course, her singing that would embarrass us both, and we’d quit fighting to remove the target. Smart woman, my mom.)
Other than “Jesus Christ Superstar” (and I make a wicked Judas, thank you very much, with my mother singing the whore’s part and my younger sister as a particularly scornful Lord), my mom considered what’s his pickle – Andrew
Dice ClayLloyd Webber to be an abomination. So spaketh she, and I daren’t naysay such spaking.The Pajama Game is Norma Rae with Hernando’s Hideaway, right? I haven’t seen a production, but I believe I have been sung a song or three. *g*
“I have no idea if it’s the intention in the original context to show that conformity is the refuge of small minds. ”
It’s from “Guys and Dolls”. The hero, a gambler called Sky Masterson, has fallen in love with Sarah Brown, a Salvation Army Sergeant on the Broadway Beat. They’re going to close down her mission. Sky wins a roll of the dice with his gambler cronies, and their forfeit is to attend the mission and pretend to be saved. Carried away by his enthusiasm, Nicely-Nicely Johnson bursts into a blistering gospel number – Sit Down, You’re Rockin’ the Boat. So unless your mom was admonishing you to find Jesus and stop gambling, she probably just liked the song and the line.
‘Andrew Dice Clay Lloyd Webber to be an abomination. So spaketh she, and I daren’t naysay such spaking.”
Your mother spaketh EXACTLY right. He is the vulgarian reponsible for replacing wit with cheap topical references, show tunes with exceptionally bad pop, plot with pastiche, and most of all, intelligent writing with Huge Stupid Effects (”…and then, like, the CHANDELIER crashed!! Now THAT’S theatre!”). Broadway has not yet recovered. If there is a hell for cultural despoilers, he occupies its lowest pit…maybe an infinite, brimming Cats-litter bin.
My mom has independently confirmed your finding, Dr. B. You may move to publish.
She was also pleased by the revelation. Even though she’s loved that musical muchly, she hadn’t noticed.
Cool. I haven’t been that excited since I detected “Oh Canada” in the middle of “The Magic Flute”.