Humming to show tunes again
My new car came with satellite radio, that place with dozens of stations that offer genres of music so specific you never hear anything except what you’re in the mood for – and no commercials, either.
I’d last had satellite radio two cars ago, when I drove a hulking blue boat of a car and hauled around my kids and all their stuff. When I was driving alone, I’d turn to the Broadway channel and listen to show tunes. The car that came after that didn’t have the satellite radio, and I listened to NPR, or my CDs, and forgot about the show tunes.
But they are back: the Sondheim and the Miranda and the Bernstein and the Rogers and Hammerstein. Driving the new Subaru home from the dealer that first day, I turned on the radio and heard a lovely female voice singing “Someone Else’s Story,” from the musical “Chess,” a song I’d not heard or even thought of in years. Hearing it told me what I’d been missing, not just the show tunes on the radio, but the shows themselves.
The songs roll out across the steering wheel, telling me about musicals that came and went without my ever hearing about them, much less seeing them.
There have been Broadway productions of movies: “Mean Girls,” “Catch Me If You Can,” “Legally Blonde,” “Pretty Woman,” “Groundhog Day,” “Frozen,” and “Beetlejuice.” There have been so-called “jukebox” shows, in which stories are built around the songs of an artist or group. “Beautiful” follows Carole King from her writing snappy little pop songs in the fifties to the singer-songwriter triumph of “Tapestry” in 1971. I’ve seen that musical twice, and enjoyed the music, but the book was weak. You get the feeling the writers were doing some awkward embroidery to find a plot to tie those great songs together.
When we lived in Greenwich, Conn., in the late 1990s, we would ride the train to the city to see shows, and we saw many: “Miss Saigon” was just too sad, “Crazy for You” had stupendous tap dancing, “The Sound of Music” was trying and dull, and “The Music Man” was my favorite. Satellite radio has songs from all of those in regular rotation.
But the songs from these new and unfamiliar shows fascinate me. They are less melodic than the popular standards, and less catchy. Sometimes, after hearing of a new show, I’ll go home and Google what the critics had to say. Often, it’s something about “no memorable songs.”
At a dinner party with musical theater people, we talked about our favorite shows. I said “The Music Man” and that got a laugh. But I would argue that everybody at the table could hum a few bars about those 76 trombones. Could any of them hum a song from, say, “Bonnie and Clyde?”
There’s a song in that show called “Dyin’ Ain’t So Bad,” in which Bonnie sings that she’s OK with dying so long as it’s with Clyde. I’ve heard the song a half-dozen times, but could’t hum it to you. The show closed after just 36 performances on Broadway.
But hearing show tunes every day, I’m reminded that I miss New York, being in those intimate old theaters, sitting in the dark losing myself in a story. Now, when I drive, I make a mental note of shows I’d like to see on Broadway, if I ever make it back that way again.
Beth Dolinar can be reached at cootiej@aol.com.