The focus of my upcoming book (I'm so excited saying those three words - my upcoming book) is on musical theatre repertoire for women of a certain age. So, obviously, I've been doing a lot of research about theatrical productions.
But I came to the realization that I'm overlooking a few other excellent sources of literature --
If you're looking for audition songs or music for a cabaret show, consider music for mature characters that you can find in movie musicals (live action or animated) and, surprisingly enough, on television!
I'm not talking about movie musicals of existing shows on Broadway (or even ones that went to Broadway after the movies came out) or of the live shows that have hit the small screen over the last 15 years. (With 70+" televisions, do people still say "small screen" anymore?)
Here are a few ideas for repertoire and where to find them
Animated Films (or Cartoons)
I'm talking about animated films like Tangled, which has a terrific villain (a genre I call "battle-ax") song called "Mother knows best," sung in the film by Donna Murphy (who won the Tony for Fosca in Passion in 1995 and for Anna in The King and I in 1997). Or The Princess and the Frog, which features Jenifer Lewis as Mama Odie singing "Dig a little deeper." Both songs are available for purchase on sheetmusicdirect.com.
There are also more roles in animated films including Encanto, The Emperor's New Groove, Wish, Mulan, Tarzan, Brave, and Vivo.
Live Action Movies
In live action movies, that as of this writing have not made it to Broadway (but just wait!), look at music from Mary Poppins Returns, written by Marc Shaiman and Scott Wittman ("Turning tables," "Nowhere to go but up"), Disenchanted, by Alan Menken and Stephen Schwartz ("Love Power," sung by Idina Menzel, and a terrific duet, "Badder," sung by Amy Adams and Maya Rudolph), The Greatest Showman, by Pasek and Paul ("This is me"), and also by Pasek and Paul, the wonderful Christmas musical Spirited ("The view from here"). While the 2021 adaptation of Cinderella was, primarily a jukebox musical, it did have one new song for the wicked stepmother, Vivian, played by Idina Menzel, who copwrite the song with Laura Veltz ("Dream girl"). Again, all these songs may be found on sheetmusicdirect.com.
You could argue that Spirited is TV, since it was created and played on Apple TV+, but it did have an initial theatrical release. The same is true of Cinderella, which then played on Amazon Prime. But they do straddle the line, and this leads me into the plethora of music that you can find on television.
Music on TV Shows
It's not entirely new - I fell in love with Robert Morse and E.J. Peaker in the musical television show That's Life that ran on ABC back in the .... well, a long time ago. It didn't last long, much to my disappointment, but it told the story of two people who meet, fall in love, and live their life to a soundtrack of mostly theater music, with a few original pieces. Here's a video from the 5th episode:
After the fall of variety shows in the 1970s, there wasn't a lot of stage music to be found on television. It wasn't until Glee came long in 2009 that people were actually choosing to watch musical shows (and I believe this is why musical theater college programs began to be inundated with applicants). Most of the songs on Glee were arrangements of musical theater songs to be performed by primarily young singers.
When Smash came along on NBC in 2013, with music written by Marc Shaiman and Scott Wittman, the character of Leigh Conroy came on board to play Ivy Lynn's mother. She was played by Bernadette Peters. Of course, music had to be written for Ms. Peters - she's musical theater royalty! Two songs were written, the duets "At your feet," and "Hang the moon." Both songs are available on musicnotes.com.
The third season of Only Murders in the Building (Hulu) is about a musical, Death Rattle Dazzle (really), written and directed by Martin Short. His love interest is the sublime Meryl Streep and her song, "Look for the light," reduces me to tears, every time I listen to or try to sing it. This song is available on sheetmusicdirect.com. Here's the video:
She has another song with Martin Short/Paul Rudd (they keep switching places - you'd have to see the show to get it) called "For the sake of a child." I haven't been able to find this sheet music yet.
There were two brilliant seasons of Schmigadoon! on Apple TV+, the first about golden age musicals, the second about musicals of the 1970s (subtitled Schmicago). The original music was written by Cinco Paul, and it features Broadway actors including Kristin Chenoweth ("Tribulation!" "The worst brats in London"), Ann Harada ("He's a queer one, that man of mine"), and Jane Krakowski ("I always always never get my man," "Bells and whistles"). All of the season 1 music is available on sheetmusicdirect.com.
The show that I think was pure genius was the great Crazy Ex-Girlfriend, created by and starring Rachel Bloom as the troubled Rebecca Bunch. Each episode featured usually three musical numbers that represented an inner monologue. Guests included Tovah Feldshuh as her mother ("Where's the bathroom"), Lea Salonga as Aunt Myrna ("One indescribable instant"), and Patti LuPone as Rabbi Sheri ("Remember that we suffered").
But the outstanding regular actor was Paula Proctor, Rebecca's wacky sidekick, who was a 40-something suburban housewife, working as a paralegal in West Covina, California. Dissatisfied with her job, her family, and her husband, Paula becomes obsessed with the titular character, Rebecca, and does all sorts of (mostly bizarre) things in the name of becoming her best friend.
The creator of the role, Donna Lynne Champlin, is a force of nature, able to belt her face off ("After everything I've done for you (that you didn't ask for)" ), croon provocatively ("His status is preferred"), and scale the heights with impressive Disney-princess coloratura ("Maybe this dream"). She sings in every style, from Mamma Mia parodies ("First penis I ever saw"), to folk-rock ("The miracle of birth") to rock ballad ("I've always never believed in you").
Her resumé is similar, covering roles from the lyric soprano of Honoria Glossop in Andrew Lloyd Webber's By Jeeves to both Adolpho Pirelli and Mrs. Lovett in Sweeney Todd (not at the same time).
All the music with the exception of "The Miracle of Birth," is available as free downloads on Rachel Bloom's website at https://racheldoesstuff.com/sheet-music/ The lyrics are by Ms. Bloom, and the music is by the late Adam Schlesinger (Cry-Baby), who died in 2020 from Covid-19. I'm so impressed by Ms. Bloom's generosity in sharing these songs with her audience.
As you probably can guess from the titles, these songs are a bit on the risqué side, and you may want to choose carefully before presenting them or assigning them to a student.
Here's Ms. Champlin singing to her character's son, who had previously been a disappointment to her, but has changed:
While future posts will be related to theater roles for women of a certain age, I thought this would be an interesting look at what else is out there that could be used for auditions, cabaret shows, musical revues, or just something that might tickle your fancy.
If you'd like to work with me directly (in-person in Baltimore or online), I have room for a few students - of a certain age or not! Please find out how to work with me. I will be starting up again after Labor Day, but you can touch base with me in the meantime!
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