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Sound Design
Prince Eric (Sean Palmer) and Ariel (Sierra Boggess) afloat in Disney’s The Little Mermaid
How are Sister Act and Leap of Faith progressing?
They’re progressing very well. Sister Act opened in Pasadena
and in Atlanta, and we received very good reviews. We learned
a lot from audiences and the reviews and from our own reactions.
After Atlanta, we went back to the drawing board and
have been rebalancing the story; it’s involved rewriting or
replacing nine songs. There are a lot of changes on a score
that I absolutely love; however, sometimes you have to go in
and get rid of things that you love and put in new things that,
hopefully, you will love as much. And even if you don’t love
it as much, in some cases, if it dramaturgically takes the story
where it needs to go, it’s worth the trade-off.
Is it painful to go through that process?
It’s painful. It gets a little easier as you get older and more
experienced in musical theatre. Sometimes, you yourself end
up being the impetus for that change over other people’s objections.
Sometimes, people have fallen in love with your songs,
but you need to throw some out. It’s depressing to think that,
despite how great it was before, most people won’t even register
that much of a difference. Your job is to just deliver the message
in a way that can be digested. I face that a lot, where people
would see the show with a great number, then come back and
see the show without it and not even notice it was gone.
How is Leap of Faith doing?
Leap of Faith is in very solid shape. We’re writing one more
new song at this point. It’s been hard over the summer to do
work on either Sister Act or Leap of Faith while working on Little
Mermaid and completing work on Enchanted, including the
artwork for the soundtrack of the album. We’ll do a workshop in
the spring, where Director Taylor Hackford will really get to put
the show on its feet and see it in a rehearsal space. Then we’re
going do an out-of-town preview a little over a year from now.
We’re seeing a lot of adaptations coming to Broadway;
shows derived from film, television and books. There seem
to be less original works being done for Broadway.
Now I’m going to quibble with your question. You are wrong!
I defy you to tell me names of original musicals that have been
on Broadway. Broadway is a highly adaptation-oriented medium.
The exceptions tend to come under the category of revues.
A Chorus Line is really kind of a revue. It’s either an adaptation or
songs based on some sort of a concept, and there are very few
exceptions to that.
Wicked was inspired by the Wizard of Oz. Avenue Q was
inspired by Sesame Street….
Wicked was based on a book by Gregory Maguire. His book
was original. But it’s very hard to write an original musical.
Why do you think that is?
In a musical, it really needs to be about the songs and about
the music. It really helps when an audience comes in with
some solid ground under them in order to take the leap into
allowing the songs to transport them, and it’s more particular
to theatre than film. Look at something like Falsettos. Is that
an adaptation? It’s really autobiographical on the part of composer/playwright
Bill Finn. It’s about his life.
Broadway tends to be confined to very specific source material,
and it also allows the writer to make a stylistic choice that’s
very broad and have the audience not question that. In other
words, for an audience to be in on what you’re doing — in on
the conceit — it’s very important that the central spine of that
concept is very clear, either in an adaptation or something that
can be expressed beforehand, so you know what you’re in for. I
don’t mean to be dogmatic about it, but bitter experience has
shown me that this is generally the rule. So what’s happening
now is not unusual. What is unusual is just the amount of activity
on Broadway. It’s enormous — the number of people who are
working on theatrical adaptations.
Given all your years of experience as a composer and
songwriter, what advice would you give to young, up-andcoming
composers trying to make it on Broadway?
On a basic level, I say that if you want to pursue it, and it is
something you want to do every day of your life, then do it.
This has to be something you want to do because it’s a passion.
If it’s based on “I’ve got to achieve this result,” you’re likely to
be frustrated and not be able to really sustain your drive for
an entire career. It’s really about doing it for the love of it, and
then if the money comes, the money comes.
When writers are actually looking at projects, my advice is to
get out of your own way. Don’t think that your imprint is what
this is about. What it’s about is you as a composer finding a stylistic
voice for the score and then allowing that to come through,
through your expertise as a composer and your ability to capture
the essence of that style. But it’s not about having a theme
sitting in a trunk for 20 years, then using that song for the score.
You’ve got to serve the piece and serve the characters.
We all struggle with staying in touch with our inner compass
and being open to someone telling us that we’re completely
wrong about something. The essence of that is when
you’re out of town with a musical, and everyone is screaming
at you, “Change this! Fix this! Look at this!” It’s always that balance
of listening to your inner voice and being open to other
voices. It can be very difficult.
Bryan Reesman is the New York editor of Stage Directions.
Ursula (Sherie Rene Scott) puts the hard sell on Ariel (Sierra Boggess) with the help of
Jetsam (Derrick Baskin) and Flotsam (Tyler Maynard).
18 January 2008 • www.stage-directions.com