The healing power of musicals

On a tough week, I turn to showtunes

I wasn’t going to write a newsletter this week; my head has quite frankly been up my arse because we lost my nanna on Monday. My last surviving grandparent and absolutely the one who had the greatest influence on my life, I’ve been really surprised by just how devastated I am that Phyllis has passed. I mean, I knew I would be upset, but I thought that a sense of relief she’s now at peace after a long illness and slow end would pervade. Not so. My eyes won’t stop leaking.

This mood, along with the fact that I’m reading Barbra Streisand’s epic saga of an autobiography, means I’m turning to one of my favourite comfort activities to try and unwind - listening to musicals. I have a strange relationship with music in that I don’t listen to it casually or passively when I’m alone. I find it very affecting, so if I’m listening, I’m all in. I think I listen differently to most - it’s not background noise, and it’s distracting in how evocative I find it. I also have kind of funny taste for a millennial; I love a banger of course, but my genres of choice for solo-listening are generally old-fashioned - Dad rock, easy listening a la Sunshine 106.8, and show tunes.

It is the latter I turn to when I’m particularly emotional, and that’s unsurprising I guess. Showtunes are designed to make you feel something that no other medium can. It’s storytelling through song, the swell of strings in the orchestra would melt a heart of stone (coincidentally also the name of the best song from Six: The Musical).

I also have a particular affinity for certain voices. I could listen to Barbra sing the phone book. Something happens in my solar plexus when she hits a particular note. When Idina Menzel sings the final bars of Defying Gravity, there’s a shift inside me. Andrew Rannells singing in the final season of GIRLS nearly stopped my heart. And I love Jonathan Groff for myriad reasons - not least his beautiful face and perfectly angelic yet mischievous aura - but his voice is by far my favourite part. I love its tone, its cadence, its power. GAH, JONATHAN I ADORE YOUUUUU. Ahem.

But not all musicals are created equal, nor are all productions. Bad ones make me want to die, in a way I imagine that all musicals make those who are averse feel. I totally get that some people just find singing and dancing completely cringey and gross, and I’m not trying to convert the truly disgusted here - we’re all different. But I would like to make a list of the people, shows and indeed showtunes that caused a cultural and spiritual reset in me. I would recommend obviously seeing them in real life, but listening to the original cast recordings is the next best thing. In ORDER. And in full. No skipping the overtures!

(A side note - I used to sing when I was younger. There was a time when I thought I might be a musical theatre performer until I realised that they have to do eight shows a week and work nights. Am too lazy and definitely wasn’t good enough either, so it’s for the best. But I did once play Maria in the school production of the Sound Of Music, and I WILL belt out Suddenly Seymour with my friend Patrick if given half the chance. A decade of smoking menthols means my voice isn’t as strong as it once was, but I’ve kinda still got it. A bit.)

Literally anything by Alan Menken
This tiny legend has been influencing all of our musical tastes since we were little, as the composer of some of the most iconic Disney songs. Along with the lyricist Howard Ashman, Alan wrote the music for Aladdin, The Little Mermaid and Beauty and the Beast, and after Ashman’s untimely death continued to write scores for Hercules, Enchanted, Hunchback of Notre Dame and Tangled.
The duo also wrote one of my all-time favourite musicals, Little Shop Of Horrors, and the influence of that score is all over their Disney work.
Menken is an icon, and my absolute favourite activity after a few drinks is to watch videos of him playing piano and singing medleys of his tunes. I would LOVE to meet him one day.

Almost anything by Stephen Sondheim
I say almost because I’m not the biggest fan of every song he ever wrote the way I am about Alan. But I do love him and his work, and he undoubtedly influenced just about everyone working in musical theatre today. My faves of his are Company (Being Alive is iconic), Gypsy (ditto Rose’s Turn) and Into the Woods, but my absolute fave is one I had the distinct pleasure of seeing on Broadway in October just gone, starring none other than Jonathan Groff! I paid top dollar to see the third night of Merrily We Roll Along, and it’s stayed with Joe and I since. I predict many, many Tonys.

Nearly everything by Lin Manuel Mirana
I feel like the world is sufferfing Lin Manuel fatigue right now, and I get it. But there are few finer books than In The Heights and Hamilton. Both are utterly groundbreaking and absolutely incredible (and the film version of the former is vastly underrated). His stuff for Disney is fun, and he’s such a musical theatre nerd that I feel his best is yet to come. The man will EGOT before he’s 50, mark my words!

Wicked
A musical that quite frankly changed my life. I had never, and have never still, seen or heard anything like it. For Good is another duet of mine and Patrick’s.

Legally Blonde
The second musical I ever saw on Broadway (the first was Chicago), I went because I got cheap seats from the TKTS booth and was absolutely blown away. It’s an amazing adaptation, and THIS is what should be made in to a film, not the bloody Mean Girls musical. I still listen to the soundtrack the whole way through 17 years later.

Rock of Ages
Combines my love of Dad rock, mash-ups and musicals. Perfect.

Chicago
Is the film actually better than the stage show starring every man and their dog for limited runs? I think it might be.

Blood Brothers
I saw my cousin Trevor play the narrator when I was about 12 years old, and then several productions in the Gaiety starring Rebecca Storm. I have the softest spot in my heart for that show.

The best movie musicals
Not to be confused with movies that have singing and/or great non original songs. A movie musical is a movie of a stage musical, or a film for which specific songs were written. There are so many I adore - Fame. Grease. Annie. Encanto. La La Land. Hairspray. Dreamgirls. A Star is Born (both Babs and Gaga).

Jukebox Musicals
Don’t always work but when they do, they’re epic - Rocketman, Mamma Mia: Here We Go Again and Mamma Mia, but the sequel is actually superior, Sister Act and Sister Act 2, Jersey Boys, Meet Me In St Louis.

Musicals I don’t LOVE but have AMAZING songs in them
Including but not limited to:

*Rent - Seasons of Love and Take Me Or Leave Me SLAP. The rest is meh.

*The Greatest Showman - overrated I fear, but I love Hugh Jackman and This Is Me and Never Enough are fab.

*Smash - this is a funny one because I’ve never watched the whole (oft maligned) series, but the song Let Me Be Your Star from the first episode is an all time favourite.

*Les Miserables - feels wrong to put it here, but I truly don’t like the way they sing every bloody line, it dilutes it. On My Own and One Day More rule, though. Ooh, watch this - it’s incredible.

*Everything by Andrew Lloyd Webber - generally not a big fan of his musicals, but you can’t deny some of the bangers, like Phantom Of The Opera, All I Ask Of You and of course, Memory.

*Book of Mormon - I will watch Andrew Rannells sing I Believe forever, but overall the musical didn’t thrill me.

The greatest mash-ups, medleys and covers
If you want a great intro to showtunes, you can’t go wrong with the following:

*Neil Patrick Harris’ intros to the Tonys - my favourite one is Bigger from 2013, but they’re all brilliant and worth a watch.

*James Corden Tonys intro 2016 - starts with Hamilton, builds to a crescendo. Amazing.

*Neil Patrick Harris V James Corden Broadway riff off

*Carpool Karaoke Broadway Edition with Lin Manuel Miranda, Jane Krakowski, Audra McDonald and Jesse Tyler Ferguson.

*And let’s be honest, you can just watch Glee. Three of the most overused words on my Youtube and Apple Music are “Glee Cast Version”.

It’s Phyllis that stoked my interest in musicals, from bringing me to Pantos from when I was about two years old to buying Willy Wonka and the Chocolate Factory and Annie on VHS for me. So this newsletter is in her honour, and in loving memory.