Writing Musical Theater

An idea is the genesis of every work of art. Often the idea for a musical comes from a movie or play. Sometimes the inspiration is a book, as Washington Irving’s History of New York was for Knickerbocker Holiday; sometimes it is a painting, as Georges Seurat’s Sunday Afternoon on the Isle of La Grande Jatte was for Sunday in the Park with George; and sometimes it is a poem, as Homer’s Iliad and Odyssey were for The Golden Apple. The idea for a musical may also come from incidents in a real person’s life, as Eva Peron’s career inspired Evita; from historical events, as the history of Japan’s foreign relations from 1853 to 1976 inspired Pacific Overtures; or from a satirical perspective on current events, as the Elvis Presley phenomenon inspired Bye Bye Birdie. The idea for a revue can come from the desire to showcase the work of a particular songwriter or choreographer, or simply to entertain an audience.

The libretto of a show consists of all the words. Libretto is a term from opera, an Italian word meaning “little book,” and the libretto of a musical is often called the book. (The Italian plural is libretti, but in English they are usually called librettos.) It is important to emphasize that the libretto is much more than just the dialogue; it also includes all of the stage directions and the descriptions of the sets. More important is that the libretto includes the structure of the show as a whole. It also specifies the relations between the scenes and the songs: what is spoken, what is sung, and what is danced, as well as the order of scenes. In the words of Peter Stone, author of the librettos of 1776 and many other shows, “a musical book is, in one word, construction.”

In the abstract, melody is a succession of single pitches and silences forming a unified line in time. Melodies, like sentences, can be divided into smaller units or phrases, which themselves can be broken down into their component sub-phrases. Subphrases can often be broken down into still smaller thematic units, all the way down to motifs. A motif, or motive, can be described as a short thematic kernel. Usually it consists of a few notes in a particular rhythm. Let’s look at the motivic construction of “Frère Jacques.”

In part I of this book we surveyed the fundamental principles and techniques underlying the creation of musical theater. Once you have grasped the basic techniques and principles, the best way to learn to write musical theater is to write, and then to present what you have written to an audience of some kind. No book can provide a substitute for that, but in this part of the book we can help you get started. We will use a variant of the tutorial approach, in which you can follow us step-by-step through the initial stages of writing a new musical. We will begin two musical theater projects; you can “look over our shoulders” to see how we proceed and, if you like, second-guess the choices we made. Because the processes of writing adaptations and originals are so different, our “tutorials” will include one project of each kind. The point of this approach is to reduce the anxiety of starting a new show from scratch, by breaking the process down into stages and showing how it can be done.

When the primary and secondary characters and the plot scenario have been worked out in detail, the spotting of the score can begin. Songwriters are often so eager to get started on the songs that they don’t wait until this stage has been reached. But if you start writing songs at random before you have a relatively firm scenario, there is a good possibility that some or all of those songs will end up having to be either rewritten or cut. Sometimes it’s useful to try a song at an early stage, just to get the “feel” of the characters and the show, but in that case you need to keep in mind that your song is an exercise and may not end up in the show.

When you have finished writing the score and the libretto of your show, your work has only begun. What happens next is as important as the writing itself In musical theater, writing is rewriting.