The Meta Musical "Hello"

You might have heard of meta, of something being meta or a system having a meta, so what does it mean?

~Lecture Notes

• What is meta?
• How does it work in a musical context?
• What does it provide, that other styles don't?

4th Wall Breakage / Self Aware / Sardonic / Of itself

Musical Theatre

The Meta Musical

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5 musical Musicals about Musicals in a musical

Meta-musicals, as this self-aware genre has come to be known, are now a common thing. Based on the Greek word "meta" (meaning beyond), the term is used to describe theatre which somehow recognizes or comments on its own literal circumstances as a piece of performance, often times in connection with some acknowledgment oft he presence of a live audience.

Musical Theatre

The Meta Musical

A Funny Thing Happened On The Way To The Forum 1962, sondheim

I shall return in a nonce.  At most, two nonces.

Stephen Sondheim, Burt Shevelove and Larry Gelbart's 1962 hit, A Funny Thing Happened On The Way To The Forum, is a pretty standard baseline meta-musical. The evening's narrator and protagonist, Pseudolus, begins the show addressing the audience directly ("Playgoers, I bid you welcome…") launching into the audience-pleasing "Comedy Tonight," which spells out in great detail exactly what is to follow.

Throughout the show, Pseudolus continues his storytelling, often overriding the supposed reality of his situation within the plot in favor of a real-time exchange with the audience regarding their shared experience watching the actual show.

Comedy Tonight - Video

Musical Theatre

The Meta Musical

Spamalot 2004, Eric Idle

Have you heard of this Broadway? - Yes Sire, and we don't stand a chance there..

In Spamalot, Monty Python's 2005 Broadway musical adaptation (or "rip-off," as the sub-title proclaims) of their cult film "Monty Python And The Holy Grail," the occasion of the work being presented as a Broadway musical is acknowledged, parodied, lampooned and ultimately celebrated.

Just as Monty Python's films strike a meta tone in commenting on their own existence as a movie, so does their Broadway show, with no holds barred, gleefully taking on all the tropes of the form.

Whatever Happened To My Part - Video

Musical Theatre

The Meta Musical

Falsettos 1992, William Finn

The almost virgin who sings this dirge is on the verge of breaking down

The characters in Falsettos know they're in a musical. That sounds like a strange point to make in that it's arguably true of all musicals. After all, these people are singing — surely they are aware! But there's an established convention of ignoring that fact, at least on some levels, suspending our disbelief, as the phrase goes. In Falsettos, however, this self-consciousness is part of the story.

It's as if, rather than watching a musical recreating events in people's lives, we are watching these real people perform a musical telling us what's going on in their lives. Oddly, this makes it more real. Since we don't have to pretend we're watching makebelieve things happen, it's somehow easier to believe they happened to these people prior to their arrival at the theatre, now it's really them singing about it.

Falsettos - Video

Musical Theatre

The Meta Musical

Passing Strange 2006, Stew

I appreciate this more than you could ever know, I promise I won't break a thing

 

Passing Strange the musical, is itself the thing the Youth in Passing Strange are seeking. The unusual force and power of the show comes from the fact the performance of the show itself, the sharing of it, is what the show is about. In the story, the Youth -- the younger self of the writer Stew -- is seeking The Real, in other words, authenticity, his own personal Great Truth, his place in the universe, his path. And what he discovers is that his Real is the expression of himself through art. And the art he (Stew/Youth) makes is Passing Strange.

So through the entire story, we're going on this journey to find the experience we're in the midst of experiencing. Because art is expression, art needs an audience. So not only are we watching Passing Strange, we're necessary to its existence. We are of it.

Keys/It's Alright - Video

Musical Theatre

The Meta Musical

[title of show] 2006, Jeff Bowen

What if this show won a Tony? What if this show won a Tony Award?

The ultimate meta-musical is [title of show], a musical about a group of friends creating a musical, which is the musical [title of show]. There are many moments in [title of show] when the characters portray themselves actually writing and composing [title of show] in real time, on stage in front of the audience. To borrow their own vivid description, it's like "a snake eating its own tail."

The Tony Award Song - Track

Musical Theatre

The Meta Musical

Musical of Musicals The Musical 2003, Rockwell

I am not a loon - truly, no one is a loon.

Eric Rockwell and Joanne Bogart's 2003 show is an outright parody of musical theatre that occasionally exhibits actual lyrical brilliance, at times almost inviting comparison to the luminaries it mocks. It's also an off-Broadway hit not overladen with New Yorkiness. Yes, it contain a few too many corny jokes and puns, but, on the other hand, there are a lot of corny jokes and puns.

~ Lecture Notes

Musical Of Musicals The Musical - Score

Musical Theatre

The Meta Musical

Urinetown 2003, Rockwell

Everything in its time, Little Sally. You're too young to understand it now, but nothing can kill a show like too much exposition."

The 2001 hit Urinetown caused quite a bit of stir in its sort of post-modern sensibility as a major meta-musical. The show appealed to many audiences not necessarily fans of the Broadway musical in general, but somehow able to "get" Urinetown because the convention of singing and dancing was not taken for granted, but commented on. Throughout the action, Officer Lockstock and Little Sally, offer a hilariously skewering dialogue in referential counterpoint to the general themes and plot. There was concern that this new school of thought might herald the end of traditional musical theatre. Of course, time has shown Urinetown to be a beloved piece of the canon and we can now rest assured the future of Broadway lies in broadening its definition, not narrowing it.

Musical Theatre

The Meta Musical

 Cabaret, Chicago, Curtains

Kantankerous & Ebbing Musings

Contextual - Interpretive - Recontextualised

~Lecture Notes

Musical Theatre

The Meta Musical

Cabaret 1966, Kander & Ebb

Where are your troubles now? Forgotten! I told you so. We no troubles here. Here life is beautiful.

In some ways, John Kander, Fred Ebb and Joe Masteroff's Cabaret is a very traditional book show — not a meta-musical at all. As long as Fraulein Schneider and Herr Schultz are carrying out their courtship in song or Sally Bowles is pitching a "Perfectly Marvelous" time to Cliff, we might as well be watching Oklahoma! or Kiss Me, Kate. But then there are the songs Sally performs at the Kit Kat Club, and then there the Emcee's Kit Kat numbers, which are similar to Sally's, except instead of watching the Kit Kat audience watch the performance, we just watch the performance — we become the Kit Kat audience.

This is particularly powerful in the title song, which begins with Sally singing to her onstage Kit Kat audience and ends with her serenading us in the actual theatre. The whole evening builds to this moment, when the song, which ostensibly comments on the story, actually becomes the story.    Cabaret - Video

Musical Theatre

The Meta Musical

Chicago 1975, Kander & Ebb

Don't you wanna take my picture?

A story about how the press and the public turn crime into entertainment and criminals into celebrities. The most brilliant moment in this brilliant show is at the end when Velma and Roxie thank us -- the audience -- and tell us, "We could not have done it without you."

And we realize suddenly that we've gone along with it all night. We are complicit. We sat and watched murderers and we laughed with them, applauded them, got to like them, even root for them to get acquitted. They can't turn crime into entertainment without a public to sell it to, and we suddenly realize we're the public they just sold it to. The show becomes about us as much as the actors onstage. (To a lesser extent, the same thing happens at the end of Pippin.)

Roxie - Video

Musical Theatre

The Meta Musical

Curtains 2006, Kander & Ebb

Don't you wanna take my picture?

A musical that doesn’t make sardonic reference to the history of musicals is a rarity in the age of The Producers, Spamalot and The Drowsy Chaperone. Curtains provides plenty of jokey visual and aural allusions to hits like Oklahoma!, Annie Get Your Gun and 42nd Street’.

It gestures towards the light hearted romp of whodunit, yet breaks the fourth wall continuously to do so.  Half adventure, half fly on the wall the audience are subject to the (dark?) who-dunit of which we watch unravel. So not only are we watching Curtains, we're a little necessary to its existence.

Show People is a direct call for all.  Reaching out past the 4th wall and grabbing every audience member.

Show People - Video

Musical Theatre

The Meta Musical