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8/31/2022

At a post performance lecture I attended at an Arts Festival last week, I asked a question. We saw a performance of "The Sound of Music" done in a very unfamiliar way. I asked why so many liberties were taken with the script. The presenter said that they bought the license to do the 1959 script and she added that it was very different from the movie, but she assured me that they did not take liberties with the script. And yet they clearly had added in songs from the movie and put a decidedly Woke spin on the material. I had actually performed in that musical once upon a time. I did not remember many of the tidbits they put into this production.

My understanding of permissions is that you may cut out words and snippets of songs or absorb lines into other lines if you have to delete a character (because you haven't got enough actors). But, what we saw clearly showed how determined the director was to "bring this piece into the 21st Century." In other words, they basically disregarded the historical mores in Austria just before WWII.

For example, the girl playing Maria was very "down home" and dished out a lot of hugs in her scenes of first meeting both the children and adults, even in scenes with the Mother Superior. People were more formal in public in those times and maintained proper distances especially before people in authority such as the Mother Superior and the Captain. Other actors also were very free and casual with their touching and close proximities. Unfortunately, the actress who played Maria was a darling black actress whose Southern charms didn't really fit in 1938 Austria during the Anschluss. (Not to mention the bias at the time against mixed race relations and persecutions against people of non-Aryan races.)

The Mother Superior was also a black actress. Her performance was very good until they had her perform the wedding ceremony. That would have only been done by a priest in those days! In fact, the Nazi invasion that prompted Captain von Trapp to leave Austria was pretty much downplayed, too. We didn't even get the sense of how love could have blossomed between Maria and the Captain. The pacing of the show raced along so fast clipping any hopes of providing time for the audience to savor any "beautiful moments." There just weren't any.

This production was very disappointing. The directing could have been better even with the casting choices they made. I saw another show done with members of this same company. That show suited those actors much better. It was a comic romp where they could play as sassy and casual as they wanted and it suited the characters in the script. I just wish they had played "The Sound of Music" with more respect to its time period. After all it is definitely a "period" piece.

Fifteen+ Years Between Visits to Broadway

8/12/2022

During the summer when I was 17, freshly out of High School with a brand new driver’s license, I drove my aunt Janie from Ohio to New York City in a little VW bug. The adults in my life had more faith in my driving skills than I did, or maybe they were just naive. I had barely any experience driving on a highway, let alone on a freeway, and definitely NO experience driving in a crowded city. (No parent I know today would agree to that!) Somehow we made it and parked Uptown at an apartment house where we stayed with Janie’s friends. We were there to go see Broadway shows.

We rode the Subway and buses, but mostly we walked. The Theater District in those days was pretty run down and raunchy. I felt like such a hick from the sticks. My aunt was downright embarrassed that she was allowing me to see such terrible sights. She had lived in New York for a time in the 1940s and 1950s. It was the hey day of Broadway with wonderful musicals that anyone could feel comfortable seeing. Not so for us. We saw “Pippin,” and a show starring Debbie Reynolds, and a couple of others that we almost walked out of. Unfortunately, in the early 1970’s Broadway was almost dead.

Over the years, probably due to Disney shows, “Les Miserable,” and “Phantom of the Opera,” Broadway was revitalized with many more family friendly shows. Early in its opening run, my girls and I ran up to see “Wicked” with the original cast. We lived near Baltimore at that time, so we drove up and back in one day. Here it is at least 15 years later, and I got to take my daughter and her 5 daughters to see “Wicked.” Same show, same theater, same excitement from the audience. Different cast, of course, but very good performances.

I am always so delighted at the consistency the producers strive to achieve to keep a show running for so long. And they utilize a live pit orchestra and conductor. It is so nice to feel the vibrations from the music of live musicians.

I appreciate how difficult the situation has been for the performers who couldn’t work when Broadway was shut down due to COVID. Now that shows are up and running again, I am certain they worry that they can keep audiences coming. They had just barely reduced the mask mandate in the theater when we went the other day. The next day they sent out a survey asking the patrons if they felt safe attending the show and if all of the precautions they had in place made a difference. I actually didn’t notice any precautions, or people acting worried. Then they asked if we would be returning soon to see more shows.

Well, I live in Utah. I hope I don’t have to wait another 15 years before I get to visit NYC again. But until then, I am glad that live theater in Utah is up and running and every bit as professional and amazing as what I just saw on Broadway. And we don’t have to expose ourselves to questionable fumes when waiting to get into the theaters! Yay!

Fifth Generation Soprano

6/9/2022

On our hike up the canyon yesterday, I managed to sneak a short video of my granddaughter singing a bit from "Frozen II." She is still very young, only 2 1/2, and yet she has begun to sing actual songs on pitch. Granted, the three note motif from the siren voice in "Frozen II" is built on intervals that are judged easiest for young children to imitate. The starting pitch descends first down a half step and then down a minor third. However, my granddaughter even tries singing it in different modulations just like on the soundtrack. Pretty good for a toddler!

My daughter and I were musing yesterday about how this little girl marks the fifth generation of fine sopranos in our family. (We are only counting the mothers and grandmothers I have known personally.) So, starting with my mother's mother Lora (her operatic voice spanned 5 octaves) to my mother Carolyn (beautiful lyric soprano), myself Betsy (another lyric Soprano), my daughter Cami (also a huge vocal range), to her daughter Camilla (destined to sing soprano, too). That makes five generations of soprano voices.

Of course, that is only counting one direct line, and not even mentioning the many fine singers in her generation. (I have 25 grandchildren and they all sing well!) We have stories from our more ancient history of many fine singers and entire families of singers and musicians on down through the extended family lines. We are just happy to continue the tradition of SINGING and playing/composing music.

Camilla, or CJ as she is called, goes around the house singing her own soundtrack. She favors us with many songs from movies and a lot from "Daniel Tiger's Neighborhood." Because I am her Nursery Leader at Church, I am noticing that she is picking up more and more phrases and melodies from the Primary songs we teach her. She is sometimes the only child in Nursery, so we sing a lot.

It is clear that this toddler loves music and so does her 1 year old brother Peter. In Church he also has to have his own hymnbook open so that he can "sing" and wave his arms directing the music. Their mother started her conducting career at age 2 by sneaking onto stage when the extended family was singing a choir number. She stole the show while imitating the conducting of her great-great aunt Janie Thompson.

Toddlers should be allowed to show their developing talents!

Writing Tuneful Songs

4/28/2022

Many composers out there have been offering workshops and training classes online to help people learn to write music. I get the occasional request to help someone write songs. For me, the best "help" I ever got was from my Aunt Janie Thompson. Over the miles on one cross country road trip, she took the time to clue me in on many tips to writing clever lyrics to tuneful songs. She didn't write very many songs herself from scratch (words, melody, and arrangement). She was too busy producing and performing in shows to dedicate time to just songwriting. But, no one who knew her work could say it was less than amazing.

For me, writing tuneful, clever songs is sort of a game of chance. Inspiration plays a huge part for me. Sure, I have had a lot of training, mostly in classical singing and composition. But my true love has always been Musical Theater. I grew up singing the songs of theater greats like Rodgers and Hammerstein, Lerner and Lowe, Irving Berlin, George Gershwin, and many others. Because of having classical training, practical "on the job training" in a musical family, and growing up performing a lot of great songs, it helped me understand what goes into creating a good song. That is key. Education comes in many ways, and none should be discounted!

Some songs seem to drop out of the blue for me. Almost like taking dictation, I find it hard when writing to get it all down quick enough while the inspiration lasts. Other times, I just can't seem to get the juices flowing enough to write anything satisfactory. And still other times, I struggle with just a tiny spark of an idea, trying to develop it using all of the tools I have at my command, only to go back and rewrite it a hundred or more times to try to get it right! You just do what you have to do. Having a deadline actually helps me.

Over the years I have written hundreds of songs and arrangements of songs. Some have done very well in context of a show or served their purpose to suit the situation for which they were written. But in my heart of hearts, I always aspired to write a "stand alone" song, one that could live its own life away from the show or situation where it had its beginning. I wonder if I have accomplished that goal in some small way.

Here are a few of my original songs that might fit that aspiration. Please let me know what you think.

"A View from the Highest Mountain" from "Never Cry Wolf"
"As the French Say" from "The Country Mouse and the City Mouse"
"Let Kindness Begin with Me" from "The Adventures of Dick Whittington"
"Over Yonder" from "Stone Soup"
"I Love the City Life" from "The Country Mouse and the City Mouse"
"Good Morning Sunshine" from "The Tale of Chicken Licken"
"Worthy to Admire" from "A Successor to the Throne"

Friend or Just Entertainment?

4/5/2022

We moved around a lot through my youth. I often felt like I never stayed in one place long enough to really bond with friends. But, I guess I had friends enough, at least I had plenty of invitations to birthday parties. We did the things other kids in that time did --- dancing to pop hits, building crazy ice cream concoctions, skating at the roller rink, swinging on the Tarzan rope over the canal, having sleep-over parties, etc.

What I remember most about going to sleep-over birthday parties is that my friends always asked me to sing them to sleep. I don't know if that was because I had a voice that would instantly put them to sleep or that they honestly liked how or what I sang. Guess I will never know for sure.

I remember the parents at the party house insisting that after a certain time, no more television or playing records would be allowed. They insisted we all go to sleep. So, I was elected to quietly sing to them. My repertoire at that time was fairly vast. I could sing Movie and Broadway tunes ad infinitum. And it felt like I indeed sang all night long. Every time I stopped, thinking the girls were all asleep, someone would pipe up and say, "No, don't stop." So on I sang from the scores of "My Fair Lady," "The Sound of Music," "Mary Poppins," "Funny Girl," almost any Rodgers and Hammerstein show or Disney show, and so on.

Providing the entertainment is something I was called on to do a lot in my life. One thing I've noticed through the years is that the entertainer doesn't actually get to mix with the audience. So, I think a lot of kids thought they knew me, but I didn't really get to know anybody.

Thank goodness I had built-in friends having a tight-knit family. They were my best friends then and still are. We sang as a family in our growing up years. And we still like singing together. And my kids sing with me and and with each other, as well.

If I had only had my sisters or daughters with me at those sleep-over parties, we could have sung in parts!

Opera or Singspiele?

3/25/2022

In Mozart's day, 1756-1791, "serious" opera in the Italian style was very popular, but some thought it needed reforming. Some people grew tired of it and thought that singing dialogue was very affected. In serious opera, scored music continued through the entire work including arias, duets, choruses, dances, as well as sung dialogue.

In Germany, a popular entertainment for the general public was singspiele, where the songs and dances were interspersed with spoken dialogue. The promoters of Italian Opera thought singspiele was an inferior type of entertainment, suitable for just the lower classes. Mozart was always on the lookout for fresh opportunities, and of course, his music gave the singspiele a boost. He wrote several singspiele for his audiences in Austria. One of the most popular was "The Magic Flute."

Singspiele led to Vienese Operetta which then led to Musical Comedy on Broadway. Most Musicals on Broadway follow in this tradition of having spoken dialogue interspersed between the musical numbers. However, some composers have created scores for shows that have sung dialogue and music underscoring throughout as in Opera.

Where the shows are done with up-to-date sound engineering and personal mics on each actor, these through-composed shows can be entertaining. Some popular shows in this pseudo-Operatic style are "Into the Woods" and "Once on This Island." These shows take mature voices and charismatic acting to punch through the music.

Many Junior High schools may want to produce one of these kinds of shows, but have trouble. I have seen too many productions where the audience could not follow the plot because of faulty directing and many sound malfunctions. When young actors try to sing quick-exchange dialogue against a pre-recorded track, they really need extra stage presence and developed voices as well as working mics. Besides, the audience has a hard time locating which actor is singing when they are all treble voices and don't have the stage presence to pull focus.

My hope is that directors of youthful actors will choose productions that suit their abilities and work within their limited technical production capabilities. Perhaps a more traditional show would work best instead of the hottest ticket on Broadway. Just think about it!

Difficult Casting

11/3/2021

Some shows are very difficult to cast because the characters have such exacting requirements. Princesses and heroic leading men are pretty easy to cast because they tend to be two-dimensional. But actors who can play complicated characters who have to exude love despite being in the midst of tragedy are very difficult to find. Villains can be difficult to cast as well, especially when they also have to be believable as upstanding citizens in the first half of the story.

The other night I went to see Disney's "The Hunchback of Notre Dame" done in our little local theater-in-the-round Hale Center Theater. I had seen this show before in a huge state of the art facility and still was disappointed because the show was so dark and depressing. This time, I had hopes that the intensity of the material would not come across so depressing.

In his Director's Notes, the director said that as a child, he had experience with always being the new kid in each new place they moved. He appreciated those few people who understood how important it was to help ease someone new into their society. He also understood about bullying, often being the brunt of it in his young life. He transferred those thoughts into his direction. The result was powerful and beautiful.

The music in "The Hunchback of Notre Dame" is perfect for actors who really want to sing. It is difficult and at the same time so rewarding to sing. So, as a director, finding the perfect "triple threats" who can pull off the acting, singing, and dancing for this show can be daunting. I was delighted that this show had all of the right ingredients.

The story is a riddle, "What makes a monster and what makes a man?"

The young man who played Quasimodo was unusual in that he had a spiritual purity that carried beyond the stage lights. For a director, that would be the hardest role to cast. It was obvious that this actor actually lived a pure life in his real life. That actor has to play what everybody sees as a "monster" but who really has a pure heart.

The actor who played Frollo, the priest who was the real villain in the story, had a tougher time. He had the good looks, great voice, and probably in his real life is a truthful, upright, honest man. At first he was not so believable in his role as the villain, however over the course of the show, he grew into the part.

I am constantly amazed at how each live theatrical production of a show can be so different. It is all up to the director. Even through the intensity and darkness of this material, a shining, powerful, hopeful ending came through due to the unique vision of its director and also the amazing talents of the cast. Great show!

Primitive or Genius

8/31/2021

Over the years I have been quite aware that I haven't been as diligent in my study of Music Theory as I ought. Sure, I passed all of my classes in College, but I confess that my ear is faster than my brain. Where I have learned to write melodies and accompaniments that may use advanced devices, I have not had the patience to analyze these processes according to the formal language of Music Theory. For me, the music just has to sound right. I have been gratified however when I get flattering feedback that my music has genius. The approach may be a bit primitive, but the outcome sounds like I know what I'm doing. Hmm....that's a point to ponder.

Those of you who have studied the works of the Great Masters, do you also remember learning that they just wrote what they liked and many regularly broke the rules as they went along?

What a comforting notion. They wrote what they liked according to their understanding and sensibilities. Or in other words, they created music that sounded good to their ears regardless of what the academics said was correct.

Plenty of the great Masters surely had a wonderful command of the language of Music Theory. Still, some of the best music that has been passed down to us comes through musicians who couldn't personally even write it down. After all, music is a heavenly gift. Musicians have always made music throughout our long history. Music Theory developed along the way as a system to help musicians notate their music and let them communicate their ideas to others as well as preserve it for future generations. Music Theory is a language. It is not the music.

This holds true in the world of Musical Theater, too. Styles and fashions come and go. Composers are always looking for inspiration and who knows where that inspiration will take them.

Take the music of Alan Menken for example. In writing "Pocohantas," he clearly used influences from Native American instruments, motifs and tonalities. For "Beauty and the Beast," "The Little Mermaid," "Tangled," and others, he followed traditional American Musical Theater song forms such as the production number, soliloquy, love duet, novelty song, reprise, and finale to support plot development and resolution. For "Hercules," he used styles of American pop songs through the decades such as Gospel and 1960's rock and roll. That's just one prolific composer. There are so many other examples.

In writing my Children's Musicals, I have tried to hunt for musical inspiration that would best fit the stories. In "Stone Soup" I wanted music that sounded like the 1800's American Westward movement. Both "Momotaro" and "A Successor to the Throne" needed music using Oriental pentatonic tonality. For "Parizade's Quest," it had to have music that evoked ancient Persia. For "The Tale of the Three Billy Goats Gruff" I borrowed melodic motifs from Edvard Grieg. I researched Old English Pantomime circa 1600 and typical styles of Renaissance music especially Nursery Rhymes for "The Adventures of Dick Whittington." And, I took a page out of Alan Menken's playbook for "Never Cry Wolf" by using some pop music of the decades for inspiration even though the story is set in ancient Greece.

Don't think I ever once worried about Music Theory when writing these songs. My training and study shows, I suppose, but the music just had to sound right. Guess I am more primitive than genius level.

Panorama

7/4/2021

The Fourth of July fireworks can be so exciting --- especially for the very young or those very in love. I have witnessed firsthand some fantastic fireworks shows and what made them even more exciting was when I was there with the one I loved or I was at a new place experiencing the grandeur for the very first time. Okay, young lovers don't need a lot of help enjoying fireworks. They make their own!

I will never forget being on the Mall in Washington D.C. between the Lincoln Memorial and the Washington Monument one 4th of July in the mid 1970's. I was there visiting a friend who left her baby with her husband just so she could take me to see this once in a lifetime experience. We took the mass transit from her apartment and then walked the rest of the way (I thought it must have been 3-4 miles!). We had to crowd ourselves in with the masses of people who had had the same idea. But it was worth it!

Another memorable 4th of July was when I was performing in a children's trio on a show called "Panorama." My two aunts Janie and Dot Thompson were in charge of directing this huge community production held at the BYU stadium in about 1961. In those days, different Church Stakes were charged with making this show happen for the Provo City celebration. After the show, there were big fireworks. (That tradition is alive and well in today's Freedom Festival at Provo, UT and the Stadium of Fire.)

I remember three parts of that show when I was six years old.

The first was rehearsing with what seemed like hundreds of other children to make our entrance onto the stage. The band played "The March of the Siamese Children" as we came onto the stage and bowed to the audience. I think we were part of a panorama of recent hits from Broadway shows such as "The King and I."

The second part was being in the big finale number and singing the the first verse with Tanya and Cory with the solo spotlight just on us. Then, the number grew bigger and bigger to the grand finish and the standing ovation --- my first Standing "O." Okay, I was just a small part of the number, but it gave me legitimate bragging rights.

The third thing I remembered was that on the show just before our big finale number, a little known group called the Osmond Brothers performed. Later when they became famous, I still had the memory of upstaging them on that Panorama show.

Of course, the best part of any of these shows was being almost directly under the fireworks. I love looking up at the fireworks. It is still exciting to me. Unfortunately, it is harder and harder to get that coveted front row seat for the fireworks. I guess the best way is to be in the show.

Everything's Coming Up Roses

6/28/2021

Today is June 28th, my mother's birthday. She loved roses. I remember how she couldn't wait for June because that was when her roses bloomed. I watched how she lovingly tended her roses, made cuttings and arranged them for table decorations, and even sprayed rose scented perfume around the house. Pink roses were her favorites. Mom loved how roses were a symbol of how hopeless situations can change for the better.

One of the first musicals I ever performed in was "Gypsy." This was at a tiny little community theater in Pasadena, Texas. It was our first summer in Texas and my mother decided we should get involved in the community somehow. She had 8-year-old me audition, and that's when the director discovered my mom's piano skills. She was hired to accompany the show on the spot.

I didn't get a big part. I was just one of the many kids in the first scene. Yet, all of us extras had to stay until the curtain call at the end of the show. Because of questionable content in the second act, we were NOT allowed to watch the show. So we stayed outside in back playing board games at the picnic tables. We could hear the songs, though, and believe me, we learned them all!

Carolyn Thompson Lee at the piano

One song in particular has stuck with me because it still reminds me of my mother. In the show, the stage mother was always trying to build up her daughters' act. She tried to be upbeat and encouraging, saying, "Curtain up! Light the lights! You've got nothing to hit but the heights. Starting here, starting now, baby, everything's coming up roses!"

My mother was great at encouraging people and building their talents. She certainly made sure I had songs prepared for any occasion and was right there to play for me any time I was asked to sing. And I wasn't the only one. She made herself available to help out anybody who needed her coaching help and accompanying support. She could make even those with slim talents look good.

How I miss her positive energy and immense talents! Happy Birthday, Mom!