Music Outside of Chorus

This past weekend, the HHS Drama club went to New York City. While there, we saw three musicals. Each one was a different musical experience. "Once," a show centered around a young Irish songwriter and a Czech pianist, largely featured both Czech and Irish folk music, as well as singer/songwriter styles. I could appreciate the talent that went into making that music as well as how cool it was that the ensemble was also the musical's pit. "Newsies," the third show we saw, definitely went back to 'old Broadway' sounding work, with raucous male heavy numbers and dancing. That was the sort of show that doesn't really seem to take much, which is what I think is so interesting. Those men train for hours and hours to make it seem absolutely effortless.

Those first two shows were awesome, but I was most impressed by "Evita." Unfortunately, the majority of my peers didn't appreciate it, but I couldn't get over the vocal sophistication required from all of the parts, particularly Eva Peron. The belting range required of that role is an E3 to a G5. That's unheard of! I've been rocking out to "A New Argentina" and "You Must Love Me" since I got home. It was awesome to see that sort of harmonic sophistication and demanding vocal work in a Broadway show. A lot of Broadway is the spectacle of the show, and I think that some people have forgotten the importance of the music. The woman who played Eva Peron was inspiring to me. She did an operatic show that required her presence for literally 100 minutes of complex singing, and she did it without breaking a sweat. How cool is that? The ensemble work also impressed me. I always like to try and count the number of vocal parts in shows, and I would count as many as six in "Evita." And they executed that music flawlessly. I was also fortunate enough to have heard Michael Cerveris as Juan Peron. I don't know if that means much to anyone else, but that man is a bass for the ages. Go listen to him in "Sweeney Todd." So some argue that contemporary Broadway music is becoming too self-indulgent and simple. If you're one of those people, I challenge you to listen to a Broadway recording (not Madonna's version, she doesn't have the same range) of Evita. Then tell me contemporary broadway isn't vocally demanding!