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No - no specifically - but the short form (15 minutes) does tend to lend itself to comedies. We often have more serious and even adult musicals ... but not every year.
Thanks for alerting me - it was Unlisted! I have now made it public - and you can find it here: ru-vid.com/video/%D0%B2%D0%B8%D0%B4%D0%B5%D0%BE-C3cN7yW-l8k.html
Great pointers! For the benefit of those watching later, here are the timestamps 1:18 Prosody - Word stress, accents, and phrases must match the music 4:47 Rhyme - stick to pure rhyme 9:16 Euphony - Pleasant sounds 12:39 Structure of Musical Form 15:12 Redundant Book & Lyrics 16:01 Buttons 18:53 Uninteresting Accompaniment / Not Commenting on Subtext
After listening to this, I feel confident that human musical theater writers and actors can rest easy for the time being. AI is not ready to write a good musical.
Thanks for starting this series, Guy! It's both fascinating and frightening what AI can do already... let's see how it fares with dialogue and lyrics. When is the next installment coming out?
Thanks, Elise! I'll apply this in the 'Dark Night of the Soul' moment song of my show. Would you say 'Maybe This Time' from Cabaret fits this bill? It's performed on stage, but we might argue that she's deliberating with herself, right? :)
That song has slightly different rules because it is diagetic - meaning the character is actually singing a song - so it's okay if it just evokes similarities with her real-life situation while still being a song someone would actually sing in a club. Cabaret is full of those types of songs!
Nothing spontaneous or unplanned about this! It was clearly prepared and planned beforehand. Sure, it may have been unexpected and surprising, from the audience's point of view, but it was absolutely NOT "spontaneous"!
Great advice, Elise! In that sense, what do you think of 'Be Prepared' in 'The Lion King'? For me, it's the gold standard for a villain's 'I Am' song (in terms of writing, music, and direction). Are there any other songs you could recommend that apply your principle equally well or even better? :) I had already started writing the music for a song that replaces 'I am evil' with 'here's my plan'. Getting your thumbs-up on this approach gave me the boost I needed to finish the lyrics this week. Thanks again and Happy New Year :D!
Mr. Bolden: I found “Baba Yetu” song performed by Angel City Chorale… Mom and me were emotional listening to it… You have a beautiful voice, Sir…🥹It’s heartwarming to enjoy these arrangements and voices together. Thank You and God bless You dear Jimmer Bolden🌹👏🏻👏🏻Greetings from Chile, South America🌹🌹🌹🌹
hmm That's a tall order. I can think of a lots and lots of classic B'way tunes that seem to go against this particular advice. On the other hand after a dispute, the stronger emotions arise once one reflects and considers all the ramifications and implications of a charged moment.
There are always exceptions, of course - and I'm not saying those songs don't exist - I'm just saying that in my personal opinion, the moment can potentially be stronger if we stick with the direct conflict moment. I also agree that you CAN have a strong "solo" moment post-conflict - but I think too often writing teams go to that choice multiple times in one show and, again - just in my own personal opinion - I think it's stronger to use that option maybe ONCE per show.
As the book-focused writer, I was running into some back-and-forth conflict with a teammate who considered himself more of a songwriter. Your point about character diction and dramatic moments finally gave me the strong argument I needed to recommend that we complete the first draft before any further songwriting. Thank you so much!
I read the "get over here" as a characterization in and of itself. Like she puts aside her graceful and sophisticated speaking to speak down to someone she sees as lesser
Thank you, Elise! If I'm not mistaken, the screenplay equivalent of your principle of 'planting seeds'/ 'laying pipe' would probably be setup and payoff. I loved your choice of examples from the same movie to showcase subtle seed-planting, as well as to draw a distinction between what works onscreen vs onstage.
