In musical theatre lore, when emotion outgrows phrases, characters sing (and when emotion outgrows music, they dance). This concept – in more than a few guises, configurations and subversions – has formed musical theatre for the closing 8 many years. The expectancy that during a musical, characters sing is deeply ingrained: songs transfer the tale alongside, or droop time to magnify a second of emotion.
Songs give audiences a possibility to attach and to please on the virtuosity – and vulnerability – on show. Finally, the very time period “musical theatre” provides us a clue to its priorities. What occurs, then, when the making a song stops?
That’s the query posed via Stephen Sondheim’s ultimate musical, Right here We Are, which premiered at The Shed in New York in 2023 (two years after his demise at 91) and is now taking part in at The Nationwide Theatre in London until the tip of June.
In accordance with two surrealist movies via Spanish auteur Luis Buñuel (1972’s The Discreet Appeal of the Bourgeoisie and 1962’s The Exterminating Angel), act one sees a bunch of rich buddies on the lookout for a good brunch.
In act two, after in the end consuming within the eating room of an embassy development, they mysteriously to find themselves trapped – in conjunction with the waitress and the butler – and not able to depart. Finished posthumously and written with playwright David Ives, the display does one thing radical: in its 2d act, the characters forestall making a song.
In search of one thing just right? Lower during the noise with a sparsely curated number of the newest releases, reside occasions and exhibitions, directly for your inbox each and every fortnight, on Fridays. Join right here.
That isn’t to mention the display isn’t musical, and act two does come with 3 transient moments of musical interlude quite than music. We would possibly counsel this “songlessness” acts as one of those silence; the characters discuss, however as this isn’t a play, they will have to – as is predicted of a musical – sing.
To start with maintaining appearances, act one is filled with staff numbers and sung encounters, but even right here, Sondheim performs video games along with his target market. The principle characters infrequently get solo moments; as a substitute, minor characters, together with a waiter and a soldier, are given richly expressive songs.
The standard energy dynamics of musical theatre are inverted. Who will get to sing – and who does now not – turns into central to the tale. Director Joe Mantello has mentioned that this means used to be counterintuitive, even for Sondheim.
Via act two, the playfulness escalates. Unexpectedly, now not even the piano within the embassy drawing room makes a legitimate. Silence right here isn’t merely an opening to be stuffed – it turns into the purpose of the drama. Audiences are requested to take a seat with characters inured to privilege and trapped via their surprising helplessness.
The absence of music attracts consideration to the whole lot else: the dynamics and relationships, the constrained motion, the more and more stilted small communicate. With out the emotional liberate of music, those characters are faced, confronting and uncovered.
Musical silence and house
This turns out a brave transfer in a style constructed round music – however if truth be told, there are lots of examples in musical theatre the place characters who don’t sing are nevertheless central. In West Facet Tale (1957) and Spring Awakening (2006), adults are silent whilst the adolescence give voice to generational distinction.
In The Drowsy Chaperone (1998), the central narrator talks however by no means sings. In newer works like Perhaps Satisfied Finishing (2016), the silence of now not making a song is extra comedic, with the principle persona Oliver’s highest buddy being a (silent) space plant named HwaBoon. However Right here We Are takes the speculation additional. Why?
One explanation why is dramatic. The characters are trapped in an illogical, surreal state of affairs, main Sondheim to reportedly ask: “Why would these people be singing when they’re trapped in this room?” To its composer, the emotional directness of making a song appeared irrelevant right here.
As a substitute, as with the paradox that characterises a lot of Sondheim’s paintings, we get one thing extra open-ended, most likely even rebellious. With out the standard musical liberate, rigidity builds. What do those characters in point of fact really feel? What does their state of being inactive reveal?
The type of musical silence provides upward push to such questions, turning into an area during which characters and audiences can replicate, become and critique. The second one act of Right here We Are isn’t merely a tale about individuals who can not depart a room – it’s about being confined via behavior, elegance constructions and privilege. Characters and audiences alike are pressured to confront these items with out the fun of music to melt the perimeters.
Right here We Are additional performs with musical theatre’s private conventions. What if the object we predict maximum – the addiction and construction of making a song in a musical – does now not occur? What if the absence of making a song is probably the most tough sonic gesture of all?
To finish his ultimate paintings on this means looks like Sondheim has performed one closing trick on his target market. After a profession of writing one of the most maximum emotionally advanced songs in musical theatre – corresponding to Ship within the Clowns from A Little Evening Song – he leaves us with one ultimate problem to the construction of the shape he expanded.
In an interview with journalist Adam Gopnik of The New Yorker in 2014, Sondheim mentioned his dream mission can be “not writing”. With Right here We Are, he used to be nearly there.
