Blog Assignment 1: The Contemporary Musical

I have always been attune to the alternate-reality where one bursts into song whenever something is just too darn important to do anything but sing about it. It is a world that is ruled by the highest possible stakes and revolves mostly around love and sex. Instead of a plain old monologue, the only way you can express yourself is through song…..and maybe a little dancing too if the occasion calls for it. I love musicals. Correction, I live for musicals. The world of a musical intrigues me because anything can happen there; Maria and Tony fall in love with just a glance, Lancelot comes out of the closet, and cats dance around and act like people! While I do love the bawdy musicals and follies of the 1930s and 40s which were all glitz and sex, the classic Rodgers and Hammerstein’s and my personal musical god: Stephen Sondheim, a new age of musical is quickly growing. It seems as though it is the age of contemporary musicals. With the great success of more and more contemporary musicals such as Rent, Wicked, Legally Blonde and Spring Awakening, this musical genre is growing steadily (even if Broadway’s pockets are virtually empty). This genre is much more accessible to those who are not so inclined to sit in a theatre for upwards of three hours watching people singing and dancing onstage. Contemporary musicals give the musical genre a legitimate connection to the modern world through the use of more popular music and/or contemporary storylines and relationships.



One of my favorites in this category, while not a huge success in the end, is a little-known musical called I Love You Because. With music by Joshua Salzman and book and lyrics by Ryan Cunningham, who earned a 2006 Drama Desk Award Outstanding Lyrics nomination for the show, it is one of the best examples in this category. Based (very) loosely on Jane Austen’s Pride and Prejudice, I Love You Because explores the ups and downs of dating, relationships and love in present-day New York. This show doesn’t hold back anything. This endearing musical tells life like it is: awkward, amazing, unexpected and sometimes pretty crappy. It tells the story of Austin, a greeting-card writer whose girlfriend just dumped him; his brother Jeff who refuses to ever settle down; Marcy, who just dumped her 27th boyfriend; and Diana, the girl who believes that all dating problems can be solved with number and rules. With a two-person ensemble, these four characters go through just about every dating problem you can think of. When are you “just friends” and when are you in a relationship? How soon is too soon to be over your ex? When is it okay to say I love you? How do you say goodbye to your old life? What do we do any of it for anyways? I love this musical because it embraces the little quirks that everyone has but that are never really brought to light in any other musical medium. I Love You Because is not afraid to tackle relationship and love questions with new and refreshing eyes. Hailed by the critics, I Love You Because sits comfortably in between reality and the world of musicals, where anything is possible. Contemporary musicals, such as this one, are becoming more and more popular and will hopefully continue to bring new audiences into the Broadway world.