How Musicals are Made
How To Write a Musical
by John Kenrick
Copyright 2000 (Revised 2020)
- The Bad News
- Compelling Need
- What's It About?
- Things to Keep in Mind
- Nine Rules
- Why You Should NOT Write Musicals
- Why You SHOULD Write Musicals
The Bad News
Have you noticed that almost all the books on how to write musicals are written by teachers, not by working professionals? Real writers, composers and lyricists rarely try to explain how they create, because everyone's creative process is unique – what works for any of them may not work for anyone else. Teachers can offer theory and analysis, but they cannot tell you how to becomew the next Stephen Schwartz. So the bad news is that no one can tell you how to write a musical! No one can give you a viable method, formula or road map to create a musical.
To see how intensely personal the creative process is, compare the approaches used by four great lyricist-librettists –
- William S. Gilbert wrote all his drafts in expensive leather-bound journals, saving every idea and deleted line for possible use in the future. These meticulous notebooks are still preserved, providing a goldmine for researchers. Gilbert always wrote a complete version of the book and lyrics for a new comic opera before submitting anything to composer Arthur Sullivan -- then, as Sullivan composed, Gilbert would make revisions as needed. Rehearsals led to more revisions, and the material might even be edited or re-written after opening night based on the reaction of audiences.
- When lyricist Larry Hart worked with composer Richard Rodgers, they would talk through a potential project (frequently collaborating with a co-librettist, such as Herb Fields), deciding where the songs would go, which characters would sing them, and what each song could do to develop the characters & plot. Then Hart usually waited for Rodgers to compose the melodies. Hart would listen to a new tune once or twice, then dash off the lyrics with amazing speed, scrawling on any available scrap of paper -- sometimes just filling the spare space in a magazine ad. The libretto would be rewritten through the final weeks of rehearsal, and was subject to major revisions right up to its opening night on Broadway.
- Oscar Hammerstein II also worked with Rodgers, but in their collaborations the book and lyrics were usually written first. After the two men discussed the dramatic intention of a potential song, Hammerstein retreated to his Pennsylvania farm, where he curled into a chair and labored over every lyric for days or weeks at a time, neatly organizing his ideas on legal pads, then typing them out himself. While the first drafts of scripts were finished long before the first rehearsal, they were subject to extensive revision during pre-Broadway tryouts.
- Alan Jay Lerner's habit of flying halfway around the world to avoid writing commitments frequently left his collaborators in a frustrating state of limbo, sometimes for months on end. Lerner was so crippled by nerves that he wore white cotton gloves to avoid chewing his fingers raw while working on a new project. The books and lyrics for his musicals were usually completed during high-pressure tryouts, adding tremendous tension to the process. (After creating My Fair Lady, Lerner had a recurring nightmare about a group of friends coming into a hotel room to ask what he had written after several days locked inside. Surrounded by mounds of crumpled pages, Lerner dreamt he would hold up a sheet and read, 'Loverly, loverly, loverly, loverly' – whereupon his friends would cart him off to an asylum.)
Each of these men had their share of hits and flops, so it is impossible to define any method as right or wrong. Each writer, composer or collaborative team must figure out (usually by trial and error) what works best for them. The point is that they go through the hell of creating – no matter how uncomfortable or terrifying that hell might be.
Compelling Need
If you are going to write a musical, you are setting out to offer an audience a story. What makes a musical compelling, what commands audience interest? Music? Oh please! A musical must have characters who need or want something desperately, and that need comes up against an equally powerful obstacle. The resulting conflict forces these characters to give their all, risk everything – and this is why audiences feel compelled to see how these stories turn out. All successful book musicals involve characters who have something or someone they are willing to put everything on the line for. Some examples –
- Rent offers a small army of characters who are willing to face miserable poverty in pursuit of their creative dreams.
- In Guys and Dolls, each major character is eventually willing to radically redefine their life in order to marry the person they love.
- Sweeney Todd will stop at nothing to kill those who sent him to prison on a trumped-up charge. Audiences are fascinated to see Todd's need for revenge consume everything he once loved.
- Singin' In the Rain has movie star Don Lockwood simultaneously trying to save his screen career and win the love of Kathy Seldin, the girl he loves.
- In Wicked, gifted witch Elphaba is willing to abandon her dreams of respectable success in order to stand up for what she believes to be right.
How do you know if your story is compelling? Well, how compelled are you to tell it? Do you care so deeply that you must tell this story or die? Believe it or not, that's a very good sign. It is impossible to know in advance what critics and audiences will applaud for -- all the greatest talents have miscalculated at one time or another. Your best bet is always to go with material you care about deeply, a story and characters that you believe in.
Moss Hart once told Alan Jay Lerner that nobody knows the secret to writing a hit musical . . .but the secret to writing a flop is "to say yes when you mean no."
Those may be the truest words ever spoken about musicals! If every fiber of your being says "yes" to a potential project, it improves the odds that others will care about it too. If any part of you screams "no," listen and act accordingly.
What's It Really About?
When Jerome Robbins agreed to direct the original Fiddler On The Roof, he asked the authors a crucial question: "What is your show about?" They answered that it was about a Russian Jewish milkman and his family, and Robbins told them to think again. He wanted to know what the show was really about at its emotional core – what was the main internal force that would drive the action and touch audiences both intellectually and emotionally? (Academics call this core the premise of a story.) After weeks of deliberation, the authors realized that the show was really about the importance of family and tradition, and about what happens when a way of life faces extinction. This not only gave them the idea for a magnificent opening number ("Tradition") – it also gave what could have been a very parochial show irresistible universal appeal. This is why the fable of Tevya the Russian-Jewish milkman has moved audiences all over the world.
When writing a musical, you must figure out your premise, what your show is really about at its core. Once you define your premise, make sure that everything serves that premise – every character, every scene, every line, every song. Anything that does not serve the premise is extraneous and must be cut. Ruthlessly. That is essential to building a really good show.
A good premise gives your musical project wide ranging appeal. This does not mean you should limit yourself to common characters facing common challenges – far from it! For example, Sweeney Todd tells the story of a barber in Victorian London out to kill the vile men who stole his beloved wife and sent him to rot in prison on false charges. But at its core, the show is really about the terrifying cost of revenge, how hatred and resentment can destroy our past, our present and even our future. This premise makes Sweeney's story the audience's story.
Even a revue can have a premise. When Pig's Fly was a set of hilarious songs and skits involved one gay man's obsession with succeeding in the theatre -- despite everyone warning that he would succeed only "when pig's fly." But the show's deeper premise was that the more outrageous or "over the top" a dream is, the more it is worth pursuing. That theme resonated with gays and straights alike, and When Pig's Fly enjoyed a long and profitable off-Broadway run.
Things to Keep in Mind
Consider these key questions posed by the original producer of 1776 and Pippin --
"The greatest question musical dramatists must answer is: does the story I am telling sing? Is the subject sufficiently off the ground to compel the emotion of bursting into song? Will a song add a deeper understanding of character or situation?"
- Stuart Ostrow, A Producer's Broadway Journey. (Praeger: Westport, CT. 1999), p. 96.
If all songwriters and librettists answered those questions diligently, audiences would be spared innumerable hours of boredom. Dissect the worst musical you have ever seen (I am serious about this; pick one you really hate), and odds are you will find that the story does not really "sing," does not call for characters to burst into song.
In the course of my production career on and off Broadway, I have worked with dozens of songwriters and librettists, from gifted unknowns to Tony and Academy Award winners. Based on that experience, there are several things I would recommend if you want to write musicals –
- See as many musicals as you can, stage, screen, web livestream, wherever.
- Study the musicals you like and figure out what makes them tick.
- Study the musicals you don't like and figure out what prevents them from ticking. You can learn a lot by studying a flop -- at the very least, flops are practical lessons in what not to do.
- Since musicals are a collaborative art form, find collaborators you can work with comfortably.
- Find or invent a story idea that gets you so excited you can spend five or more years of your life working on it whether or not it earns you a penny.
- Structure your life in a way that leaves you daily time to write and/or compose -- even if its just while sitting on public transportation.
- Be sure that life structure provides a way for you to keep the bills paid.
- Work only on projects you are passionate about – never take on a musical based solely on its commercial possibilities. This year's "hot" idea often proves to be next year's old hat.
- Make sure your work has a genuine sense of humor. Too many new writers and composers concoct relentlessly "serious" musicals that bore audiences.
- Don't waste time fearing failure – every creative talent in history has turned out the occasional clunker. And every great musical had started as a clunky first draft. (I always spend far more time revising my books than I spend on the first full drafts.) It takes determined effort and revision to bring out the best in any project. If you treat every musical you work on as a learning experience, I can make you a promise; you will find that even a "failed" scene or song can be a very creative place.
Nine Rules For Writing Musicals
While no one can tell you how to write a musical, there are a few basic rules that may help aspiring authors and composers. But don't take my word on any of them -- prove them yourself. The first four rules apply to good writing of any kind –
1. Show, Don't Tell – This is job one for all writers, now and forever. Don't tell us what your characters are – let their actions show us! Drama is expressed in action, not description. No one has to tell us that Seymour in Little Shop of Horrors is a gullible nerd; everything he does screams it. Peggy Sawyer never has to declare that she is a naive newcomer to 42nd Street's hard-edged world of show business -- her wide-eyed behavior makes that clear from her first entrance.
Theater and film are visual as well as literary mediums, so musicals are not limited to words and music. Many great musicals use the power of visual images to communicate key information. (We call them "shows," no?) The waiters in Hello Dolly never have to tell us that they love Dolly – their visible reaction to her presence shows it all. And no one in My Fair Lady has to announce when Liza Doolittle becomes a lady – her wordless, elegant descent down the stairs before leaving for the Embassy Ball shows that the transformation has occurred.
2. Cut everything that is not essential – Some call this the "kill your darlings" rule. Every character, song, word and gesture has to serve a definite dramatic purpose. If something does not develop character, establish setting or advance the plot, you must cut it -- even if it is a moment that you love. The next time you see a musical that seems to lose steam, odds are that the writers did not have the heart to cut non-essential material. I beg you to never show your audiences such a lack of respect. Ruthlessly cut everything that does not serve a definite and vital purpose to your premise.
3. Study and practice the basics of good storytelling – Musicals are just another form of telling stories, something humans have been doing since the invention of speech. Can you tell me what your show is really about (the premise), and define the essential dramatic purpose of each character? And does every scene offer a character with deep desire confronting a powerful obstacle?
Learning the art of storytelling does not require a masters degree: the basic tools are already in you. Reading a few good books can get you thinking in the right direction. For starters, Jerry Cleaver's Immediate Fiction: A Complete Writing Course (NY: St. Martin's Griffin, 2002) will open your eyes to the unseen elements that make a great story absorbing, and a great story is the ideal starting point for any book musical. To go deeper, read Robert Olen Butler's From Where You Dream: The Process of Writing Fiction (NY: Grove Press, 2005). Both of these books can save you years of misguided effort.
On the specific subject of writing original musicals, Making Musicals (NY: Limelight Editions, 1998) by Tom Jones is the only book on the subject written by a bona fide creator of musical hits (The Fantasticks, etc.). He offers no magic formulas, but his gentle wisdom can enrich anyone facing the creative process.
4. NEVER teach or preach. Your first job is to tell a compelling story. If you make intelligent points along the way, that's fantastic, but it won't matter much if your audience loses interest, or simply never shows up. Dance a Little Closer condemned war and homophobia, and closed on its opening night. On the other hand, Hairspray skewered bigotry and ran for years. And while some critics dismiss The Sound of Music as fluff, it has probably done more to combat the ongoing threat of Fascism than all the World War II documentaries ever made.
If you want to preach, build a pulpit. Put your story and characters first. A well-told story lives in the memory long after any sermon or lecture. When you are really lucky, the one who will learn from your writing is you.
Now, some rules that apply exclusively to musicals –
5. Find the Song Placements ASAP - Song placement in a musical is not arbitrary. Irving Berlin said that he evaluated potential projects by looking for the "posts" – points in the story that demand a song. Call these key moments whatever you like, but they are the places where characters have an emotional justification for singing. Think about your favorite musical; the songs all have something to say, expressing important feelings or concerns of the characters. Joy, confusion, heartbreak, love, rage – where these life-defining feelings break through, characters can sing.
6. Open With a Kick-Ass Song – Every now and then, a successful musical (My Fair Lady, The King and I) opens with a few pages of dialogue before the opening number, but even then the first songs in both are crucial. The quickest way to touch an audience is through song. An effective number or musical scene sets the tone for everything that follows and also allows swift plot exposition & character development.
By the end of the opening number, audiences should know where the story is set, what sort of people are in it, and what the basic tone of the show (comic, satiric, serious, etc.) will be. This is why the opening number ought to be one of the strongest in the score. A great opening number reassures audiences that there more good things to come. Ragtime's title song handily introduces audiences to an army of characters and the distant era they lived in. Other examples: Oklahoma ("Oh, What a Beautiful Morning"), Les Miserables ("At the End of the Day"), Urinetown ("Too Much Exposition", and Hairspray ("Good Morning, Baltimore").
7. Every Element Must Speak as One – In contemporary musical theater, the score, libretto and staging (both direction and choreography) all share the job of storytelling. Characters should move seamlessly between spoken word, dance and song. Think of the hilarious "Keep It Gay" scene in The Producers, the achingly beautiful "If I Loved You" bench scene in Carousel, or the powerful "Dance at the Gym" in West Side Story – the dialogue, lyrics and staging form a single fabric. The trick is to keep the content smooth and varied. A hint – if your libretto goes on for pages and pages between isolated musical numbers, something is probably going wrong. And if your score has a stretch of ballad after ballad, vary the tone. In other words, lighten up!
8. Songs Are Not Enough – When you turn an existing story into a musical, you need a fresh vision. Just adding songs to an existing play won't give you an effective musical. You have to tell the story with a fresh dose of energy, of re-inspiration. Annie took the characters from a classic comic strip, added some new faces and placed them all in an entirely new story. Some of the best moments in My Fair Lady did not come from Shaw's Pygmalion -- including the pivotal "Rain in Spain" scene. The addition of songs must re-ignite the original material.
9. Sing It or Say It; Never Both – Rouben Mamoulian, the original director of Porgy & Bess, Oklahoma & Carousel put it this way: "It's the basic law that the music and dancing must extend the dialogue. If you say the same thing in a song you already have said in the speeches, it's without point. . . a song must lift the spoken scene to greater heights than it was before, or the song must be cut no matter how beautiful the melody. The song must not merely repeat in musical terms what has already been put across by the dialogue and actions." (Maurice Zoltow, NY Times, 1/29/1950, "Mamoulian Directs a Musical," section 2, p.1)
Why You SHOULD NOT Write A Musical
Yes, I mean you. Can you stand the merciless judgment of producers, potential backers, fellow creators, press critics, anonymous internet chatroom snipers, and (gulp!) paying audiences? Can you handle years (and I mean years) of anonymous, unpaid struggle? Are you ready to work your butt off eight hours or more at a demanding day job and then somehow find the energy to write on the side? Can you handle the fact that most people will have no idea who you are or what you do even if you win a Tony or an Oscar?
Finally, can you handle doing all this for no more than 2% of a show's profits? (That's the percentage the authors share under the present standard contract; so if you collaborate, you only get a piece of that!) This is not a career for the dilettante.
"This is a tough business, a cruel business. The competition, especially in New York and especially in the musical theatre, is fierce. Not without reason is there the saying: "It is not enough that I succeed, my friends have also to fail." There is a tendency after you have been in the rat race for a while to open the Times and slowly relish the roasting given to some competitor, possibly even to some friend."
- Tom Jones, Making Musicals: An Informal Introduction to the World of Musical Theatre (New York: Limelight Editions, 1998), pp. 188.
Why You SHOULD Write A Musical
You should write musicals only if there is no possible way for you not to. If all the negatives cannot dissuade you, go for it! You might be crazy enough to succeed in this snake pit. Just be sure that you always have a solid means of paying your bills and recharging your spirits. And while talent and luck are valuable to any aspiring composer, lyricist or librettist, there are three things that matter even more – patience, determination, and guts. One of the world's greatest musical comediennes said the following about acting in an interview, but it applies to writers and composers too –
"I'll give you a tip – it's risk. Once you're willing to risk everything, you can accomplish anything."
- Patricia Routledge, Tony-winning actress
There are as many ways to write a musical as there are musicals. If you do decide to venture forth into this daunting field, know that my best wishes – and the best wishes of millions of ticket-buying theatre lovers hungering for something new and wonderful – will go with you. Good luck -- you are going to need tons of it.