Current Music:
Tell Me on a Sunday (with
Denise van Outen)
Strangely, I am listening to this because someone was complaining about being bored by this performance in London. I do prefer the earlier versions like the Bernadette Peters recording of
Song & Dance. However, this version is worth listening to because of the new versions of the songs: there is a new finale, oddly called "Somewhere Someplace Sometime", which title should remind anyone of
West Side Story. [The song itself is impossibly "pop"-sounding, even for a modern musical... the "orchestration" here is to blame.... At least one moment, on the words "Longing for love is not a crime", sounds like the bridge from "If I Loved You" in Carousel ("Longing to tell you but afraid and shy"), so all is not lost in the finale, but it's funny that "longing" is set to such similar music...]
There are some lyric changes, many seemingly made to modernize the show, such as references to email and cell phones. The best piece ever written in 5/4 time according to me ("Nothing like you've ever known") became a little more serious, as the following lyrics were replaced:
Something new that is all it was, you knowBut when you need someone any love will do, sad but trueAnd nothing like we've ever knownwith the more poignant:
This was more, more than just a brief affairThere seemed to be nothing standing in our way, 'til todayAnd nothing like we ever dreamed..."
This song seems to go through a lot; here are older
version 1,
version 2, and
version 3 of the song, not counting the change made above (to "
version 1").
Among the new songs, the most notable is "Ready Made Life". I love the song... first there is a nice quote from
Joseph & the Amazing Technicolor Dreamcoat: she sings "A new day's dawning" to the tune of "the world was waking" from "Any Dream Will Do". This little motive appears a few times with other lyrics in the song.
Now, I don't mean to complain -- I do love the song & I'm happy to get to listen to it -- but I love it because it sounds so similar to "Tell Me to Go" or "Don't" from the two recordings of
Martin Guerre by Boublil & Schoenberg. The words "ready made life", and many many other 4 syllable pieces of the song, are set to exactly the same notes, harmony, rhythm, etc. as "tell me to go" or "don't let it start". The characters are even singing about vaguely related topics: Ready Made Life is about wanting to be married with a family, the lyrics even explicitly mention "a new start" (à la Wildhorn) and "moving on" (Sondheim) etc etc., while Tell Me to Go/Don't are also about the main characters' desire to be married and start a family; however, it's tempered by the reality that prevents them from being together. So the Boublil & Schoenberg version is still a much deeper, serious piece, but it's fun to hear the Lloyd Webber version of one element of the situation -- all based on that same 4-note motive! At least we also get that extra dose of harsh reality two tracks after "Ready Made Life" in "Nothing Like You've Ever Known (Married Man)".
The lyrics to
Ready Made Life are below, with the
Tell Me to Go motive in italics -- notice how often it occurs! With just another font style or two the lyrics would be nearly enough information to sing the song without ever hearing it or seeing sheet music.
Ready made lifeOne
ready made life, fancy that
A child and husband now
I'll soon become, a
ready made mumOur
ready made home, big red barn
A porch with soft wind chimes
There was just me, but
now we are threeI'll teach her how to draw and dance
And do cartwheels as well
I haven't done them in a while
She probably can tell
One day I'll show them London
I can't wait to get back
Bet dad will put the flags out
Stars and Stripes and Union Jack
My
ready made life, moving on
Got it together, yes,
it's a new startIt's
true cross my heartMy
ready made world, lucky me
A new day's dawning, or as they say here [both these phrases use the Joseph motive]
A whole new ball game [so does this one!]
Mother and wife, my
ready made life