All tagged Jamaica
Oh, you knew that sooner or later I was going to have to address this one, easily the most debated Tony Awards Best Musical outcome in history. Many people feel that West Side Story should have bested The Music Man this season, when it was, in fact, the other way around. Today, we look at the merits and detractions of both shows, as well as those of the three other nominees to debate whether Tony got it right.
This might seem like a ridiculous subject for a piece about Broadway showtunes, but the more I thought about it, the more fascinated I became by the subject. In songwriting, there is no copyright on titles, so titles can repeat. I can sit down and write a song about Broadway and remembering fondly, then title it “Give My Regards to Broadway.” As long as the music and lyrics are different, it is perfectly acceptable (and legal) to do so. This got me thinking: what showtunes are there that share the same title? It turns out, there are several. Here is a sampling of some that I found.
Animal lovers that are Broadway lovers (and vice-versa), here is a collection that was designed just for you. I was on a long drive and a showtune came on that was about an animal. I started thinking about how many Musical Theatre songs that I could find were about animals (These are things I think about on car trips and during nights of insomnia). By the end of the car trip, I had come up with these. Please share with me any others you might think of. I hope you enjoy my corny need to catalogue such things in list form.
With the Tony Award nominations announced and the race setting in to be a pretty uneventful one since Hamilton appears to be poised to win most of the prizes, I started thinking about what these awards would look like if Hamilton were not in the equation. For the Best Musical prize, I think it is fair to say that the race would come down to a dead heat between Waitress and Bright Star, with Bright Star edging out the win on Tony night. This got me thinking about other years where juggernauts like Hamilton were a foregone conclusion, and what might have happened if those titles had never been in play. Read along and debate with me.
