Looking over the roster of new musicals and performers coming to Broadway this spring, and knowing already that it is shaping up to be a pretty spectacular one, I got even more excited when I started considering the details of some of these productions and the artistry we can look forward to. For me, these are the special moments and magic that is on our musical theatre horizon.
What is an "I Am" song, you might ask? Many people also know it as the "I Want" song, a song that comes early in the first act of a musical and that establishes our catalyst's point of view and sometimes their goal. The term "I Want" is not one I feel truly encapsulates what this song is and how it's placement in the musical affects the story to come. I Am", which used to be how these songs were identified by scholars, can include "I Want", but not vice versa. What you "want" is a subcategory of who you "are". Not every song that introduces a catalyst tells us what they want, but it most-definitely tells us who they are. So I choose the older term of "I Am" because I find it all-encompassing. I'm not trying to be difficult here, I simply prefer "I Am" because it better explains what the song achieves, especially to those just learning about musical theatre structure. But all semantics aside, some of the most-memorable and most impactful musical theatre songs are the "I Am" song and today's blog is a celebration of some of the best.
I know how my readership loves to watch videos from Broadway shows. For years, I have been wending my way through YouTube, watching great clips from Tony Awards, talk shows, and the occasional bootleg that has presented itself. Today, I feel like sharing my forty FAVORITE clips from hit shows (I’ve already done the flops). Hopefully, you will enjoy this countdown to my favorite and enjoy all the “hard work” I have put- in assembling it for you. Let the streaming begin!
Patter songs are delightfully energetic ditties that are often plugged into musicals for humor or inject energy, often an eleven o’clock number or as a pick-me-up after more serious moments. They are a lot of fun and usually a scene-stealing moment for a great comedic performer who can pull-off their rapid-fire delivery. The definition of a “patter song” is a musical sequence that is performed at a relatively fast tempo, rhythmic patterns that are staccato in nature, with each syllable of the lyric corresponding to a note. There is often internal rhymes, tongue-twister-style formatting, and the device is often paired with the “list song”, another musical theatre device where lists are shared as a humorous assault of information.
