Today, we return to our series, Best Songs From Best Scores, in which we take a look at the numbers from a season's Best Original Score Tony nominees. Of course, "best" is in the eye ear of the beholder, and we are pretty sure you won't always agree with our choices. So, please feel free to let us know what you think via email or Twitter!
This time, we decided to look at nominees from the 2005 - 2006 season, which included two shows based on films. The others were a less-than-successful Andrew Lloyd Webber novel adaptation and a splashy, completely original Canadian musical. Some twenty years later (give or take), looking back at these scores makes me hope one is revived, one is appreciated more, thankful for a much better revival of one than its original staging, and one probably best not heard from again. Still, there are many worthy songs to consider from all four. Here are the ones we like the best:
Best Songs From Best Scores
2005 - 2006
Music and lyrics by Brenda Russell, Allee Willis and Stephen Bray
Best Song: 11 O'clock Number: "I'm Here" - Celie
By all rights, this poetic power ballad should be heard far and wide, in music venues and every contemporary Broadway concert. A gorgeous ode on the beauty of self-awareness and love for oneself. Both breathtaking and sobering, this is one of the great theater songs of the early 21st century.
Best Song: Character Number: "Miss Celie's Pants" - Celie and the Women
A catchy jazz/boogie woogie number that highlights each principal actress, the clever word play and showy, belty riffs is exhilarating! And it is the perfect contrast musically, to earlier numbers where Celie and her female friends suffered were in fear. I love a good toe-tapper!
Music by Matthew Sklar Lyrics by Chad Beguelin
Best Song: A catchy production number: "Pop" - Holly, Julia, Angie and Company
As a Gen-Xer who actually was the age of the characters in The Wedding Singer in the 1980s, I loved the whole score for this show. The writers nailed the sound and style of the MTV era, not to mention the clever (and often vapid) lyrics of that time. So how could they not include a Debbie Gibson/Madonna mash-up that screams 80s and advances the plot? Add to that a character, Holly, played to sassy perfection by Amy Spanger, who not only dressed like Madonna, but sounded like her, and it couldn't miss. Pop music at its most fun.
Best Song: A turning point ballad: "Come Out of the Dumpster" - Julia and Robbie Hart
High in emotional content - heart on your sleeve kind of stuff - this pseudo power ballad could have been recorded by Journey, REO Speedwagon or Peter Cetera-era Chicago. But here, as sung by Laura Benanti, it becomes a sweet, clever ("It's a metaphor!") play on the 80s style of lyrics that somehow managed to be both banal and profound. Here the literal becomes figurative and back to literal. You can't help but smile.
Music by Andrew Lloyd Webber Lyrics by David Zippel
Best Song: Heartfelt Ballad: "All For Laura" - Marian Halcombe
Realizing that her own jealous feelings for Walter have led her to be an accomplice in her sister’s ruin, Marian vows to dedicate her life to saving her from this terrible predicament. The music, sad and intense, is based on a repeated four-note motif whose first few iterations lead to a precipitous melodic fall, reflecting Marian’s desperation; further repetitions lead to louder, more determined outbursts, and finally to iron-clad resolve (“I will somehow learn to be strong/I will live to right this wrong”). Sung as it is by a former Fosca (Maria Friedman), this obsessively sorrowful song is surely the only thing ALW has written that might sort-of fit in with the score of Passion.
Best Song: Emotional Trio: "Trying Not To Notice" - Marian Halcombe, Walter Hartright and Laura Fairle
This vibrant trio is musically of a similar ilk to “All I Ask of You” and “Too Much in Love to Care,” but more poignant than those two earlier ALW songs because of its chromatic touches and its function in the story. The two devoted sisters are each falling for him, but he’s only falling for the younger Laura (Jill Paice). (The melody that accompanies the title words evokes the bridge from “As If We Never Said Goodbye” and, especially, the Jeeves song from which it was recycled, “Half a Moment.”)
Music and lyrics by Lisa Lambert and Greg Morrison
Best Song: Torch Song: "As We Stumble Along" - The Drowsy Chaperone
Performing a self-described "rousing anthem," the Chaperone (Beth Leavel) offers such sage advice as, "keep you eyeball on the high ball...in your hand." Part of a wholly delicious score willed with pastiche numbers that hearken back to the 20s and 30s, this number stands out for me because of the build up, the crazy nut smart lyrics, and that Ms. Leavel belts the hell out of it, and fully in character - drunken slurry voice and all. Even on the recording she captivates. Antarctica? Oh, please. #IYKYK
Best Song: Character Entrance Production Number: "Show Off" - Janet Van De Graaff and Company
The perfect vehicle for the "star" of The Drowsy Chaperone, the show within the show, Janet Van DeGraff, and the star of The Drowsy Chaperone, the Broadway musical, Sutton Foster. A rousing tribute to self-deprecation and enormous ego, this number grows and grows, making a feast out of every diva trope and old-fashioned theater cliche. Foster chewed the scenery here and we loved watching her every bite. This is the one that proved Millie was no fluke.
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