What Laws Apply In The Land Of Musicals?

[Meister]

Well they clearly aren't communicating by coordinated waggle dance enough.

e: I watched Repo! - The Genetic Opera the other day and right at the start there's a scene where a character sings his song while hiding from the cops, who are sneaking around just a few feet away. But they do spot him once he hits a louder part which I thought was a nice touch.

[bluestarultor]

I like the approach taken by Forever After, where all of it is real, but it's caused by whatever magic followed the princess from her own world.

Like, it's played for laughs, and it's played more straight. The prince gets run over by a bicycle race trying to sing to the princess, but then not five minutes later, there's a huge musical number with hundreds of people who all whip out in song and dance and have a really great time doing it.

[Seil]

Blues, you mean this song?

I happen to like the dance scene in Clerks II, which is a blatant health code violation because it has them dancing on top of the counter.

[bluestarultor]

Yes.

[Rejected Again]

Just saw Avenue Q in March. Brilliant.

[POS Industries]

Originally Posted by Seil

Guys and Dolls had illegal gambling.

Did you somehow watch a production of it that didn't have Lieutenant Brannigan spending the entire play trying to bust them for it? Or the entire point of the story where the gambling ring set up in the back of the mission while everyone was out because they thought the cops would never look there?

I mean the entire point was that the laws very much applied and they were criminals.

[Premmy]

Originally Posted by Lumenskir

[img]seilthread.gif[/img]

For something more substantial about musicals, I've always kind of wondered what the proper etiquette was for audience suspension of disbelief as to whether the songs were actually 'real' or not. Mostly because various people I know keep trying to watch Glee around me as if I'll become a fan through osmosis, but mostly I just keep noticing how sloppy it is on the sliding "This song is actually happening or not" scale. You'll have one episode where they sing for practice (real), then a song later where the paralyzed kid can walk while singing (dream). Heck, there was one time when the gay one started singing, then an entire stage appeared in his room, but after the song ended his dad told him he could sing well, so where the fuck do you throw that one?

Personally, I prefer my musicals to stick to one side. All the songs in Pennies From Heaven and Chicago and whatnot are the manifestations of a character, not real, acceptable. Everyone in Singing in the Rain and Sound of Music spontaneously bursts into song around other people who act like it's perfectly normal, but at least they keep it consistent.

^
This.

The problem mostly pops up in musicals about music. Musicals about, say cowboys, we know the score, Musicals about Musicians, Dancers, or,the ultimate act of Masturbation, Musicals about Musicals are just there to confuse you.

[Seil]

Musicals about Musicals are just there to confuse you.

Musicals about musicals about musicals?

I'm reminded of a quote from Penny Arcade "It was like some fucked up Escher drawing," the eternal musical mindfuck.

[Yumil]

South Park:Bigger, Longer, and Uncut was the greatest musical of our time...there I said it.
They were consistent with their songs too

[katiuska]

Originally Posted by POS Industries

Did you somehow watch a production of it that didn't have Lieutenant Brannigan spending the entire play trying to bust them for it? Or the entire point of the story where the gambling ring set up in the back of the mission while everyone was out because they thought the cops would never look there?

I mean the entire point was that the laws very much applied and they were criminals.

Yeah, I was tempted to get into this in detail, but I think I lost interest.

Originally Posted by Meister

I think you might be taking the commonly accepted conventions of musical theater quite too literally. I'm not an expert by any means but I'm pretty sure the idea is just telling a story with songs rather than depict a world where society has developed such that singing and dancing is the natural way to communicate.

This. Songs are a mode by which characters can express themselves and negotiate interactions. By default, they are not literally singing any more than an anime character literally acquires massive physical deformity for the duration of a super-deformed shot. It's an abstraction that reflects in the inner state of a character.

Comments on the singing become a sort of 4th wall joke. I can see why inconsistency might get someone, but it doesn't bother me if different songs exist in different "states." Like, Adelaide is a showgirl, so when she performs, Adelaide is really singing. When she goes back to her medical textbook afterward, following a disappointing conversation with Nathan, the song she sings is just the musical's way of conveying her problem to the audience. I'm fine with that.

Though I do believe that life would be improved immensely if people really did spontaneously burst into song and dance numbers. As a corollary, a lot of fictional works would be infinitely better if they were also musicals.