Upworthy's book GOOD PEOPLE, now available - take a look!

Shop
 Explore 

broadway

Health

19 musicals that are not only catchy—they could help with dementia, according to science

Back in 2013, researchers in the U.S. stumbled upon a novel new treatment for dementia patients: listening to show tunes. Seriously.

Photo by Jordhan Madec on Unsplash

A picture taken of the Broadway street sign in New York City.

Back in 2013, researchers in the U.S. stumbled upon a novel new treatment for dementia patients: listening to show tunes. Seriously.

A study of nursing home patients found that residents who sang show tunes — specifically from "Oklahoma!" "The Wizard of Oz," and "The Sound of Music" — demonstrated increased mental performance, according to a report in the New York Daily News:

"Researchers working with elderly residents at an East Coast care home found in a four-month long study ... that people who sang their favorite songs showed a marked improvement compared to those who just listened."

A similar study in Finland, cited in The Guardian, demonstrated that singing not only helped dementia patients feel better and focus, but actually improved certain types of memory as well.

Even better? There are tons of classic show tunes specifically about remembering.

Here are 23 tunes every Broadway fan needs to memorize for the day when it's not so easy to remember. It'll help to start brushing up now.

1. The one about remembering the good old days.

"Those Were the Good Old Days," "Damn Yankees"

If you're the devil in "Damn Yankees," that means the Great Depression, the Black Plague years, and when Jack the Ripper was running around. Good times!

2. The one about remembering a parade that probably never happened.

Any playlist of show tunes about memory has to include this standard from "The Music Man," in which Professor Harold Hill remembers the best day of his life, when "Gilmore, Liberati, Pat Conway, The Great Creatore, W.C. Handy, and John Phillip Sousa all came to town."

Whether or not any of it actually happened is ... up for debate, to put it mildly.

3. The one about remembering a really fun trip you took to a medium-sized Midwestern city.

"Kansas City," "Oklahoma"

"Oklahoma's" Will Parker is so psyched about his Kansas City vacation he can't help bragging about it to all the other cowboys. And why not? It's a neat city! Have you been to Joe's Kansas City Barbecue? Neither has Will Parker, since he was there in 1906, but you should totally go.

4. The one about remembering how fun it was to murder that guy that one time...

"Cell Block Tango," "Chicago"

...while glancing nervously over your shoulder to make sure Queen Latifah isn't around.

5. The one about remembering the questionable choices it's too late to go back in time and not make.

"Where Did We Go Right?" from "The Producers"

Looking back doesn't always go well for characters in musicals. It definitely doesn't for "The Producers'" Bialystock and Bloom, as they tear around their office wondering how their incompetently directed, poorly acted, aggressively pro-Hitler musical wound up becoming a massive hit despite their every attempt to make it fail.

6. The one about remembering the little things.

"I Remember/Stranger Than You Dreamt It," "Phantom of the Opera"

Perhaps the greatest testament to how emotionally transporting "Phantom of the Opera" is: Christine, removing the phantom's mask for the first time, can just straight-up claim to remember mist — like, one mist in particular — and no one calls her on it ever.

7. The one about remembering the worst day of your life.

"The Barber and his Wife," "Sweeney Todd"

No character in musical theater is more nostalgic than Sweeney Todd, who, just moments after we meet him, croons this delightful ditty reminiscing about the time he was framed for a crime he didn't commit and banished from England so that an evil judge could rape his wife who subsequently poisoned herself.

A tune you can hum!

8. The one about remembering things differently than everyone else around you.

"Satisfied," "Hamilton"

Not sure if you've heard, but "Hamilton" is good, you guys.

After Alex and Eliza Schuyler meet and fall in love in "Helpless," Angelica Schuyler basically goes "Wicked" on her sister's song, recalling how agonizing it was watching her sister and the man who she herself is super into get together. But she sucks it up and buries it! Older siblings are the best.

9. The one about remembering that cute girl you just met like five seconds ago.

"Maria," "West Side Story"

A classic from "West Side Story." Sure, it's about remembering a meet-cute that literally just happened — Tony and Maria's orchestral-swell-assisted gaze across a crowded gym — but Tony is super jazzed about it, so it makes the list.

Gosh, I sure hope those crazy kids work out!

10. The one about remembering all the worst things from when you were a kid, and one kind-of-OK thing.

"At the Ballet," "A Chorus Line"

The ballet isn't that great, but it's better than devastating childhood trauma. Score one for the ballet! Thanks, "A Chorus Line!"

11. The one about remembering old hobbies.

"Dentist!" from "Little Shop of Horrors"

"Little Shop of Horrors'" Orin Scrivello, DDS, is just misunderstood. I mean, who among us didn't "shoot puppies," "poison guppies," or "take a pussycat and bash in its head" now and again as a kid? The '50s were a simpler time!

12. The one about remembering watching a dude die on the battlefield and feeling feelings about it.

"Momma Look Sharp," "1776"

47 years before "Hamilton" brought us the swaggery, ass-kicking side of the Revolutionary War, "1776" tore our guts out with this song, in which a courier to the Continental Congress recalls watching a mother comfort a young soldier as he dies at the battles of Lexington and Concord.

Hercules Mulligan does the guest rap. (Just kidding. There is no guest rap. It's just gorgeously somber for a while and then over.)

13. The one about remembering the best four years of your life.

"I Wish I Could Go Back to College," "Avenue Q"

Of course the sad-sack puppet man- and woman-children of "Avenue Q" want to go back to college! Who among us doesn't long for the days of term papers, humiliating romantic encounters, and crushing, debilitating debt? And meal-plan ice cream, too!

14. The one about remembering some A-plus advice from your best friend.

"Cabaret," "Cabaret"

Ladies and gentlemen, Sally Bowles from "Cabaret" is no fool! No matter how many lovers leave, or how much her career nosedives, or how nutty local politics get, she always remembers this important life lesson she learned from her good friend Elsie.

If only you had such a great, wise friend, maybe your outlook would be as good as Sally's. You could be so lucky!

15. The one about remembering last Christmas.

"Halloween," "Rent"

When it comes to the science of memory and cognition, "Rent" asks the big questions:

"Why are entire years strewn on the cutting room floor of memories? When single frames from one magic night forever flicker in close-up on the 3-D Imax of my mind?"

Poetic? Pathetic? We report, you decide.

16. The one about remembering everything and realizing how terrible it all was.

"Rose's Turn," "Gypsy"

Ah, yes. "Rose's Turn." The 11 o'clock number to end all 11 o'clock numbers in "Gypsy," the most musical of all musicals. Truly, there aren't many things more enjoyable than listening to Mama Rose replay the events of the last decade and change inside her own brain in a slow-motion nervous breakdown as the notion that her entire life has been completely worthless gradually dawns on her with ever-increasing dread.

Did I mention how fun musicals are?

Trivia time! You know that thing in music where trumpets go, "Ya da da da daaaa DA. Da DA da DA!" You know that thing? This is the song that thing comes from.

17. The one about remembering the first time you knew what you wanted to be when you grew up.

"Ring of Keys," "Fun Home"

There's nothing better than a song that makes you want to shout: "I am so glad I'm watching a musical instead of a basketball game right now." This moment in "Fun Home," where Alison recalls seeing a delivery woman — the first person who looked like the woman she felt like — is really, really one of them.

"This is a song of identification that is a turning moment, when you think you’re an alien and you hear someone else say, 'Oh, me too,'" composer Jeanine Tesori told Variety. "It’s a gamechanger for Alison. And that’s just Musical Theater 101."

...And the entire audience bursts into happy tears forever.

18. The one about remembering a nice dream you dreamed.

"I Dreamed a Dream," "Les Misérables"

When your life isn't going so great, it's good to remember the positive! Things didn't exactly go super well for Fantine in "Les Mis." But, hey, she had a pretty good dream once!

19. The one about remembering your single greatest regret and vowing to never remember it again.

"Turn It Off," "The Book of Mormon"

What's the ticket to living as fun-loving and guilelessly as the Mormon elders in "The Book of Mormon?" Don't just bury those traumatic, scary, impure memories — CRUSH THEM, OK?!

20. The one about remembering a really successful first date.

"Sarah Brown Eyes," "Ragtime"

Ah, young love. Even in "Ragtime," a musical that features racism, state violence, attempted child murder, and terrorism, at least we have this song, in which Coalhouse Walker Jr. recalls how he got his beloved Sarah to fall truly, madly, deeply in love with him with his peerless piano skills? So romantic.

Gosh, I sure hope those crazy kids work out!

21. The one about remembering a scary dream.

"Sit Down, You're Rockin' the Boat," "Guys and Dolls"

With, perhaps, only a smidge more credibility than grifter-from-another-mother Professor Harold Hill, "Guys and Dolls'" third-most-degenerate gambler Nicely-Nicely Johnson recalls a terrifying dream where he had to convince a group of skeptical evangelical crusaders that he's decided to give up the dice once and for all.

Side note: People in musicals are unbelievably good at remembering dreams. This is, like, full detail. I'd be like, "Um, I was at the Statue of Liberty, and you were there? I think? It wasn't really you, it was like a combination of you and my dad. And we were in prison. But at the Statue of Liberty."

22. The one about remembering how it used to be when you were young and full of hope instead of old and bitter and jaded.

"Our Time," "Merrily We Roll Along"

The closing number of "Merrily We Roll Along" is actually the first chronologically, since the musical goes backward. It's the play's happiest moment — Frank, Charley, and Mary on a roof watching Sputnik go by, giddily talking about how thrilling, perfect, and successful their futures are going to be. It's so hopeful! But so sad, 'cause you already know all the achingly bittersweet stuff that's going to happen.

Ach! So poignant! I'm dead from poignant.

23. The one about remembering.

"Memory," "Cats"

"Cats." The OG.

All right team, what did I miss?

This article originally appeared on 02.26.16

From Your Site Articles

Identity

The Tony Awards touted diversity, but here's how the ceremony can do even better going forward

They've come a long way, but there's much more that needs to change.

Photo by Luca Bravo on Unsplash

Radio City Music Hall is the home of the Tony Awards.

The 2022 Tony Awards was billed as one of the most diverse Tony Awards in history. And that’s not totally untrue. The show saw its first nonbinary winner, “Six: The Musical” writer Toby Marlow. Additionally, there were seven plays written by Black playwrights during this Broadway season, a fact that host Ariana DeBose pointed out in her opening number/monologue. She quipped that it was nice to see that “‘The Great White Way’ is becoming more of a nickname as opposed to a how-to guide.”

And this year was absolutely a benchmark year when it comes to Black representation at the Tonys. As someone who is an avid theater fan (the Tonys are to me what the Oscars are to film people), I love watching the beauty and spectacle of the show. But as a Black woman, I am always aware of the conversations around diversity. They’re incredibly important conversations to be having, and while the Tonys used much of DeBose’s opening monologue to proclaim how diverse Broadway currently is, most of the winners didn’t reflect the sudden push for diversity, more specifically, Black creators and performers.

In the categories of Best Play, Best Director of a Play and Best Featured Actress in a Musical, there were multiple Black nominees, including Black women, but all of the winners were white. Not only white, but white people who have already won before and are critically acclaimed. For most of the show, it would be Black nominee multiple times over a category, only to have a white winner. Watching the show unfold became increasingly more frustrating.

After the national protests and conversations about race in 2020, a group of theater performers and other creatives, including Viola Davis, Lin-Manuel Miranda and Sandra Oh, wrote an open letter, “Dear White American Theater.”

“We see you. We have always seen you. We have watched you pretend not to see us,” the letter reads.

“We have watched you program play after play, written, directed, cast, choreographed, designed, acted, dramaturged, and produced by your rosters of white theatermakers for white audiences, while relegating a token, if any, slot for a BIPOC play. We see you.”

““A Strange Loop”(@StrangeLoopBway) by Michael R. Jackson (@TheLivingMJ) bills itself as a “Big, Black & Queer-Ass American Musical.” Days before he and the show each won Tony Awards, Jackson talked to me about the spectacular show he spent 18 years writing https://t.co/vkf5S0MSSt”

\u201c\u201cA Strange Loop\u201d(@StrangeLoopBway) by Michael R. Jackson (@TheLivingMJ) bills itself as a \u201cBig, Black & Queer-Ass American Musical.\u201d Days before he and the show each won Tony Awards, Jackson talked to me about the spectacular show he spent 18 years writing https://t.co/vkf5S0MSSt\u201d
— Jonathan Capehart (@Jonathan Capehart) 1655236835

One of the biggest issues with diversity on Broadway, at the Tonys or otherwise, is that the people in positions of power are still largely white. Take, for example, the new Broadway musical “A Strange Loop.” It has garnered a lot of buzz since it opened, and it picked up Tonys for Best Book of a Musical and Best Musical. When the show won Best Musical, the award was accepted by its white female producer (Barbara Whitman) along with its Black writer (Michael R. Jackson), despite its performance being presented by Black producers RuPaul Charles and Jennifer Hudson earlier in the broadcast. (Fun fact: Being a producer of the musical scored Hudson an EGOT, making her the second Black woman, and youngest winner overall.)

Clearly, Black producers exist, but they are not the lead producers, and as we know, the lead producers are the ones who become the face of the show in certain aspects. I’m not saying that white producers shouldn’t exist, but to create a more diverse playing field, they should be partnering with BIPOC producers, especially when the show is about a marginalized group. It may not seem like a big deal, but optics really do make it a big deal. It would have been way more impactful to the conversation to see all those Black faces on stage and have a Black person making the speech.

In an interview with The Hollywood Reporter ahead of the Tony’s, steering committee members of the Asian American Performers Action Coalition Christine Toy Johnson and Pun Bandhu talked about diversity on Broadway—the strides that have been made and areas that still fall short. The Asian American Performers Action Coalition is a group of AAPI theater folks who for the last 10 years have worked to increase opportunities for mainly Asian and Asian American creatives, but also to helping BIPOC communities as well.

Bandhu pointed out that over the years, there’s this swinging pendulum when it comes to representation. He refers to it as a “scarcity model,” where only one marginalized group can be having success at any given time. For example, after Lin-Manuel Miranda’s first Broadway hit “In the Heights” opened and won Tonys in 2009, there was a boost in interest surrounding Latino representation. After a show like “The Color Purple,” a boost in telling Black stories. He also added that the amount of diversity on Broadway never “went above 20 percent for marginalized and underrepresented groups from year to year over the course of 10 years.”

“"A Strange Loop is a story that centers the queer Black experience in the Broadway space which very well hits a chord when it comes to the creative process and navigating the world while being queer -- specifically Black and queer." @DinoRay https://t.co/IYqVu0bzwm”

\u201c"A Strange Loop is a story that centers the queer Black experience in the Broadway space which very well hits a chord when it comes to the creative process and navigating the world while being queer -- specifically Black and queer." @DinoRay \nhttps://t.co/IYqVu0bzwm\u201d
— GLAAD (@GLAAD) 1655213902

“Thinking that there’s only so much ground that can be given to marginalized groups … leads to this oppression Olympics, a system by which the power structure benefits from having all the marginalized groups competing against each other. What our statistics help to prove is that it’s a larger problem that has to do with centering white narratives and artists at the expense of all else,” Bandhu explained.

While this year was a record year for Black representation on Broadway, that meant that other marginalized racial groups got little to no recognition at all. There were only two Asian nominees this year, for lighting design. And while wins for either of them would have been historic, where is the visible Asian representation?

“I think that there’s been this ongoing myth about [AAPI talent] not existing, which is why we’re not represented,” Johnson told The Hollywood Reporter.

In a 2016 Forbes article, writer Lee Seymour stated that only 12 people of Asian descent have won a Tony—three producers have won more than once. David Henry Hwang was the first—and only—Asian American to win best play, back in 1988.

This is the perfect example of the “scarcity model,” and it feels ridiculous that it’s still a thing in 2022. But again, that leads to my earlier point of having marginalized producers. They will be more diligent about seeking out marginalized creators, actors and others. You have to have equity at the top to have equity at the bottom.

From Your Site Articles

broadway

Pop Culture

Man discovers his grandfather had a beautiful relationship with a famed Broadway composer

An old record allowed the families to connect.

Sama'an Ashrawi/Twitter

Sama'an Ashrawi and his grandpa Dave. Years later, Ashrawi met John Kander, his grandpa's college boyfriend.

You never forget your first love. Even if it doesn't last, it leaves an indelible mark on you. Sama'an Ashrawi, a writer, artist and host of the podcast The Nostalgia Mixtape, discovered just how true that statement is. In a Twitter thread, Ashrawi details a discovery he made about his grandpa's past romantic life. It goes to show that while we may know a lot about our elders, there's always something new to learn.

"My Grandpa Dave told me he was sure he was gay when he was moving into his dorm room freshman year of college and there was a boy 'with the prettiest eyes;' after Grandpa passed, I learned from my mother who that boy was," the first tweet of the thread reads.

Ashrawi reveals that the boy was named John Kander. If the name isn't familiar to you, I assure you, you know who he is. Kander, along with his creative partner Fred Ebb, wrote the music to some well-known musicals, including "Cabaret," and "Chicago." They also wrote the song "New York, New York," which became a staple song for Frank Sinatra after originally being sung by Liza Minnelli.

In a special episode of The Nostalgia Mixtape, Ashrawi explains that his grandpa Dave and Kander were boyfriends during their time studying at Oberlin Conservatory of Music. And when he was little, he remembered his grandpa sitting down at the piano to play songs from "Cabaret." While at the time he didn't know the emotional significance and deep connection his grandpa had to the music, he says that knowing what he knows now adds a certain "romantic" element to the piano playing.

"It's kind of like when you're in love, and you're far away from the one you love and you look up at the moon and you imagine that maybe they're looking at it at the same time as me," he said.

He then fast-forwards to the pandemic and how it led him to make an interesting revelation about his grandpa Dave's relationship with Kander.

"I had been stuck in the house for about a year," he begins. "There was this one bookcase that I walked by almost every single day, and this particular time I was walking by, I noticed something that for some reason, I had never seen before."

He found a 7" vinyl record, and "everything on the label was written in pencil." The title "Our Boy" was on the label, as well as the year the record was pressed—1951. The composer? None other than John Kander, his grandpa's old boyfriend.

It was a bookcase I walked by a dozen times a day, maybe more. Why had I never noticed this 7” vinyl poking out of one of the shelves? I pulled it out. It was a custom pressing and written in pencil was: “Our Boy,” the year, “1951,” and the composer’s name: “John Kander.” pic.twitter.com/LYRsFAb49M
— Sama’an Ashrawi (@SamaanAshrawi) June 5, 2022

"My mom told me it was a song John had written for Grandpa. I put the record on and listened … some very moody piano solos, it sounded theatrical. I needed to know more. I went online, was John even still alive? To my amazement, the answer was yes! 94 years old," he tweeted in the thread.

Ashrawi felt that Kander's email address wouldn't just be floating around the internet, but after some good ol' internet sleuthing, he discovered that Kander's great-nephew, Jason Kander, is a politician in Missouri. So he slid into the younger Kander's DMs, telling him about his discovery of "Our Boy" and hoping for some more insight and stories about John Kander's relationship with his grandpa Dave.

"Two days later, I had an email from John Kander," he said on the podcast.

He revealed that "Our Boy" wasn't just a song; it was a full one-act musical that Kander had written with the intention of it being a star vehicle for Grandpa Dave. "It was a play about a boxer grappling with the existential feelings of defeat," he tweeted, including a photo of a newspaper clipping featuring the show. Kander also shared some photos from the show that Ashrawi and his family had never seen. He described seeing the images as "beautiful."

Then John sent me some photos of my grandfather that we’d never seen before. There was my grandpa, Dave Fisher, in his shiny boxing shorts, looking young and curious and serious all at once. How incredible 😭😭😭 pic.twitter.com/mmicQ7sOGB
— Sama’an Ashrawi (@SamaanAshrawi) June 5, 2022

On the podcast, he explains that Kander extended an invitation for a meeting if he ever found himself in New York City. "So I went to New York," he says, the theme Kander had written playing in the background. Ashrawi, his mom and one of his sisters had lunch with Kander. His mom hadn't seen Kander since she was a little girl!

After talking to Kander, Ashrawi gained a newfound understanding of his grandpa and the time they had been living in. It was an era when being openly gay could literally ruin your life, and it was clear that being an actor must have gaven him a sense of freedom he couldn't have in real life. Playing another character allowed him to put his own troubles aside for a little while and be free. Kander revealed that the theater was the most special place for he and Dave.

Over lunch (and an Arnold Palmer) John opened up about their relationship. “We were honest with each other,” John told us. “Not in terms of not lying, but honest about who we were and who we were becoming. [Your grandfather] was a great gift to me.”

The End! (for now 🔮) pic.twitter.com/coD8F0WMVS
— Sama’an Ashrawi (@SamaanAshrawi) June 5, 2022

Even though they went in very different life directions (Ashrawi revealed his grandpa became a doctor), it's clear that their time together left a deeply beautiful mark on both of their lives.

From Your Site Articles

This adorable Twitter thread captures a woman's surprise reunion ... ›

twitter

Family

10 things that made us smile this week

@iammarilynmm/TikTok, @theworldofdog/Twitter

If you're looking for some snippets of delight, we've got you covered.

It's December! How did that happen? As the days get shorter and we head full-speed into the busiest holiday season of the year—yet again in the middle of a still-raging pandemic (weeeee!)—we could all use some glimmers of hope and snippets of joy to perk us up.

From laughing babies to dancing grandpas to creative Christmas carol commas (you'll see), here are 10 things that made us smile this week. We hope they'll do the same for you.

Watch a bunch of good doggos plunging in to play in the pool.

pool time at the doggy daycare\n(Bubble Puppy Playhouse FB)pic.twitter.com/ZdCAgdp0VA
— theworldofdog (@theworldofdog) 1638472615

Living their best life at doggy day care. Look at all that joy.

Little girl dances like a pro to a street marching band.

LOOK AT HOW SHE ATE THATpic.twitter.com/sjPicA3hsA
— Detective Drip (@Detective Drip) 1638025644

Seriously, that little one can move, andin her little puffer jacket no less! That is called feelin' it.

Guy creates the most hilariously creative rendition of "God Rest Ye Merry Gentleman" ever.

I couldn't figure out where the comma(s) in "God Rest Ye Merry, Gentlemen" should go, so I hit myself in the face.pic.twitter.com/BNaglwpzYt
— Ramses the Pigeon (@Ramses the Pigeon) 1638396679

Absolutely incredible. It makes nerdy wordsmith hearts everywhere so happy. (I'd put the comma after "ye," but I'm not in charge.)

Watch a cat trying to catch snowflakes with its bare paws.

Cat trying to catch snowflakes.pic.twitter.com/fBs5R45BAM
— \ud835\udd50o\u0334g\u0334 (@\ud835\udd50o\u0334g\u0334) 1638327601

Cats are gonna cat, and you can't put a bunch of little things flying through the air in front of a cat and not expect them to pounce. Cuteness.

Speaking of cuteness in the snow, this older couple frolicking like children in the snow is just so wholesome.

See on Instagram

They're not that old, but seeing them skipping and jumping like little kids is just adorable. Simple love, simple joy—it's really all we want.

Broadway actors sing a gorgeously moving tribute to Stephen Sondheim.

Broadway musical composer extraordinaire Stephen Sondheim passed away at age 91 this week, leaving a wealth of creative beauty behind. A group of Broadway actors and singers gathered in New York to sing a tribute to him with the opening song of his musical "Sunday in the Park with George." So beautiful. Read the full story here.

Baby gets the giggles because apparently coughing is downright hilarious.

See on Instagram

The only thing better than the sound of baby laughter is the sound of that laughter when they find something random side-splittingly funny.

Old man dances along with a street musician and he's got serious moves.

See on Instagram

He may use a cane to get around, but he certainly doesn't need it to get down. How joyful.

We get to watch the birth of iconic Beatles songs right before our eyes

The Peter Jackson documentary series "Get Back," consisting of candid footage of the Beatles that had been locked in a vault for five decades, came out last weekend on Disney+. Holy moly, does it contain some gems. If you ever wanted to see Paul McCartney literally pull a song out of thin air, here you go. Read the full story here.

A son heading back to college had the sweetest exchange with his baby brother.

@iammarilynmm
My oldest is headed back to college and his younger brother had to let him know how much he loves him. Volume up ⬆️ #brothers #myboys #momof4 #momsoft

If this doesn't warm your heart, are you sure you even have one? "I LUB YOU!!!!" And that "Mmmmm" at the end. Too dang cute. (Go ahead and watch this one a dozen more times for good measure. Indulge in that delight.)

Hope that brought some joy to your heart and a smile to your face! Come back again next week for another round-up of happiness.

From Your Site Articles

Related Articles Around the Web

uplifting

Videos

A group of Broadway greats sang a triumphant tribute to Stephen Sondheim in Times Square

YouTube

All of Broadway performing Sondheim.

Success is measured not by a list of our accomplishments, but by a legacy of people inspired by our passion.

This past Sunday (November 28), Broadway royalty gathered together in Times Square to pay tribute to Stephen Sondheim, the composer and lyricist who created legendary works for six decades, and whose name is practically synonymous with musical theatre. The tribute came after his passing on Friday.

The entertainers sung “Sunday” from “Sunday in the Park With George.” Some think that Sondheim wrote a fictionalized story about George Seurat’s famous painting A Sunday Afternoon on the Island of La Grande Jatte, but it would be more accurate to say that he captured the essence of an artist’s inner battle between pure passion and toxic obsession, and simply set it to music. Such was Sondheim’s talent for encapsulating the human condition into breathtaking lyrics and dynamic composition.

Broadway Honors Sondheim—'Sunday' from 'Sunday in the Park With George' in Times Square 11/28/21

The massive crowd is a sea of recognizable faces, including Sara Bareilles (“Waitress”) and Josh Groban. Perhaps most easily spotted is teary-eyed Lin Manuel Miranda, a modern-day Sondheim in his own right.

Miranda would later be seen reading a passage about “Sunday in the Park with George” from Sondheim’s memoir, which read:

"Once during the writing of each show, I cry at a notion, a word, a chord, a melodic idea, an accompaniment figure... In this show, it was the word ‘forever’ in ‘Sunday.' I was suddenly moved by the contemplation of what these people would have thought if they’d know they were being immortalized, and in a major way, in a great painting.”

Towards the verticals of trees
Forever . . .
By the blue purple yellow red water
On the green
Orange violet mass
Of the grass
In our perfect park
Made of flecks of light
And dark,
And parasols . . .
Bumbum bum Bumbumbum
Bumbum bum . . .#Sondheim pic.twitter.com/AG9e5zoAND
— Howard Sherman (@HESherman) November 28, 2021

In an age where we’re more likely to stay at home and watch Netflix than go to a live concert, let alone go see a musical, there are many who have not experienced that inexplicable, magic quality that live theatre possesses. At its best, it inspires people to use their voice, practice empathy and come together in community with one another. Sondheim was the very best of the best at embodying this quality in his works. And if this video is any indication, he will be sorely missed.

Sondheim too will be immortalized, perhaps in a way he’d never imagined during his lifetime.

From Your Site Articles

Related Articles Around the Web

moving tributes

Culture

Hamilton's missing 'Cabinet Battle #3' addresses the slavery issue the show glossed over

Devon Pasternak/YouTube

"The issue on the table..."

Two of Hamilton's most beloved numbers are the Cabinet Battles between Alexander Hamilton and Thomas Jefferson. In Cabinet Battle #1, the issue on the table was Hamilton's national financial plan. In Cabinet Battle #2, the issue was whether to provide France assistance in their revolutionary war.

But there was a third rap battle written for the show, which was cut due to time and because it didn't actually move the plot along. The issue on the table for Cabinet Battle #3? Slavery.

One of the few criticisms of the Hamilton musical is that it goes light on the issue of slavery—criticism that creator Lin-Manuel Miranda and others in the original cast say they welcome and hope people talk about more.

Squeezing a founding father's life and a huge chapter in American history into a 2.5 hour stage production with adequate character development, plot movement, musical flow, etc. is a herculean task, and Miranda has said he wrestled mightily with what to keep and what to cut. Slavery is obviously a huge issue, but since none of the founding fathers in the show actually did anything to end it, the light treatment makes sense from a plotline perspective.

From a historical perspective, however, the omission is glaring. Much can be said about how the men who founded the United States thought about and engaged with the institution of slavery—and how their beliefs and actions were often at odds with one another.

Jefferson called the slave trade an "assemblage of horrors," and slavery itself a "moral depravity" and a "hideous blot," yet he kept more than 600 men, women, and children enslaved in his lifetime and fathered six children with one of them.

Washington became increasingly anti-slavery in his later years and was the only slaveholding founding father to free his slaves—but he only did so in his will. (He also had false teeth that may have been made up of the teeth of enslaved people.)

Madison argued that slavery was incompatible with the values of the Revolution, but he himself enslaved people his entire life, even selling people for a profit.

Hamilton himself, though publicly against slavery, did nothing of consequence to change it.

All of these hypocrisies and contradictions are highlighted as these men debate the issue in Cabinet Battle #3. It's too bad it didn't make it into the final cut of the show, but it can be found on the Hamilton Mix Tape album. And someone made a nice animatic video for it, making it a bit clearer who is speaking (since the recording has Miranda rapping all the parts):

Cabinet Battle #3 (Animatic)www.youtube.com

And there you have it. "Let's hope the next generation thinks of something better."

As much as many of us would love to see the slavery problem tackled more directly in Hamilton, the truth is that at that time and in that place and with those men, slavery wasn't going anywhere. It was wrong and they knew it, but they benefited from it. It was a sin and they knew it, but like Hamilton with Mariah Reynolds, they didn't say no to it. Instead, they chose to pass the ticking time bomb to their descendents.

Miranda explained Hamilton's slavery complicity in an NPR interview last week. "Hamilton—although he voiced anti-slavery beliefs—remained complicit in the system. And other than calling out Jefferson on his hypocrisy with regards to slavery in Act 2, doesn't really say much else over the course of Act 2. And I think that's actually pretty honest. ... He didn't really do much about it after that."

"None of them did. None of them did enough," Miranda added. "And we say that, too, in the final moments of the song. So that hits differently now because we're having a conversation, we're having a real reckoning of how do you uproot an original sin."

Here's another video of the song with the lyrics and names to make it easier to follow:

The Hamilton Mixtape - Cabinet Battle 3 (Demo) Music Lyricswww.youtube.com

From Your Site Articles

Related Articles Around the Web

Videos

The new viral Hamilton parody about mask-wearing is clever, hilarious, and spot-freaking-on

The Holderness Family/Facebook

The Holderness family has made quite a name for themselves creating fun parody songs, but they may have just outdone themselves. As the world awaits the premiere of the filmed version Hamilton's original staged production on Disney +, the Holdernesses have released a "Hamilton Mask-up Parody Medley" that perfectly captures inane mask-wearing debates in the musical mastery of Hamilton.

As of now, it's only been up for six hours and has already been shared more than 35,000 times. Hamilton fans love it, recognizing familiar tunes such as "Aaron Burr, Sir," "My Shot," and "You'll Be Back." But even people who have never seen or heard Hamilton before will appreciate the cultural commentary on mask-wearing—an issue that has the U.S. struggling as it attempts to manage a pandemic in a highly individualistic society. As the video points out, public health isn't a partisan thing, and mask-wearing to protect others certainly shouldn't be something that angers people.

Check it out:

Impressive, no? As far as lyricists go, no one matches the genius of Hamilton creator Lin-Manuel Miranda. But the Holdernesses do a pretty darn good job of morphing the mask debates into the Hamilton framework in a way that's funny, true to the subject matter, and on point.

They've had a lot of time to practice nailing the social-commentary-through-song-parody. Penn Holderness spent most of his career on-air as a reporter and news anchor, but pivoted to working with his wife and kids to make goofy-but-culturally-relevant music videos. It started with a viral "Christmas Jammies" video a few years ago, and The Holderness Family channel exploded from there. They've done parodies about everything from helping kids with math homework to the parental nightmare of the slime phenomenon.

If we're going to have to live with people arguing over putting a piece of cloth over their face to help quell a literal pandemic, we can at least have some laughs over the absurdity of it. Good job, Holdernesses.

From Your Site Articles

Related Articles Around the Web

humor

broadway

Back in 2013, researchers in the U.S. stumbled upon a novel new treatment for dementia patients: listening to show tunes. Seriously.

1. The one about remembering the good old days.

2. The one about remembering a parade that probably never happened.

3. The one about remembering a really fun trip you took to a medium-sized Midwestern city.

4. The one about remembering how fun it was to murder that guy that one time...

5. The one about remembering the questionable choices it's too late to go back in time and not make.

6. The one about remembering the little things.

7. The one about remembering the worst day of your life.

8. The one about remembering things differently than everyone else around you.

9. The one about remembering that cute girl you just met like five seconds ago.

10. The one about remembering all the worst things from when you were a kid, and one kind-of-OK thing.

11. The one about remembering old hobbies.

12. The one about remembering watching a dude die on the battlefield and feeling feelings about it.

13. The one about remembering the best four years of your life.

14. The one about remembering some A-plus advice from your best friend.

15. The one about remembering last Christmas.

16. The one about remembering everything and realizing how terrible it all was.

17. The one about remembering the first time you knew what you wanted to be when you grew up.

18. The one about remembering a nice dream you dreamed.

19. The one about remembering your single greatest regret and vowing to never remember it again.

20. The one about remembering a really successful first date.

21. The one about remembering a scary dream.

22. The one about remembering how it used to be when you were young and full of hope instead of old and bitter and jaded.

23. The one about remembering.

They've come a long way, but there's much more that needs to change.

““A Strange Loop”(@StrangeLoopBway) by Michael R. Jackson (@TheLivingMJ) bills itself as a “Big, Black &amp; Queer-Ass American Musical.” Days before he and the show each won Tony Awards, Jackson talked to me about the spectacular show he spent 18 years writing https://t.co/vkf5S0MSSt”

“"A Strange Loop is a story that centers the queer Black experience in the Broadway space which very well hits a chord when it comes to the creative process and navigating the world while being queer -- specifically Black and queer." @DinoRay https://t.co/IYqVu0bzwm”

An old record allowed the families to connect.

Watch a bunch of good doggos plunging in to play in the pool.

Little girl dances like a pro to a street marching band.

Guy creates the most hilariously creative rendition of "God Rest Ye Merry Gentleman" ever.

Watch a cat trying to catch snowflakes with its bare paws.

Speaking of cuteness in the snow, this older couple frolicking like children in the snow is just so wholesome.

Broadway actors sing a gorgeously moving tribute to Stephen Sondheim.

Baby gets the giggles because apparently coughing is downright hilarious.

Old man dances along with a street musician and he's got serious moves.

We get to watch the birth of iconic Beatles songs right before our eyes

A son heading back to college had the sweetest exchange with his baby brother.

Broadway Honors Sondheim—'Sunday' from 'Sunday in the Park With George' in Times Square 11/28/21

““A Strange Loop”(@StrangeLoopBway) by Michael R. Jackson (@TheLivingMJ) bills itself as a “Big, Black & Queer-Ass American Musical.” Days before he and the show each won Tony Awards, Jackson talked to me about the spectacular show he spent 18 years writing https://t.co/vkf5S0MSSt”