What Does It Take To Write A Musical Theatre Song?
David Perkins
Song Title: Rivets (Co-written by Dominic Male, Joe Male)
What is your song about?
The song is called Rivets from the musical The Escapade of the Burmese Burglary – a tongue-in-cheek musical detective romp set in the colourful world of the 1920’s – featuring an unpleasant murder, a very large diamond, a cunning theft and a thrilling rowing boat chase on the River Thames. Mr Hilary Buckingham, a flamboyant business tycoon and generous benefactor, sings the song. He was the chief sponsor of the expedition to obtain the diamond, the Star of Burma, from deep within the jungles of Asia. The valuable gem is finally on display at the British Museum and prior to its unveiling, Hilary explains how he became such a successful businessman and to what he owes everything. So, the song Rivets is not only about rivets, their usefulness, practical application, and monetary value, but is also a bizarre sort of love song.
How hard was it to write it?
I tend to forget the pain it takes to write a song, which is probably why I carry on writing them. Although some musical phrases and words appeared within minutes without needing any further changes, most took hours or even days to emerge and weeks to settle in. I know that a song is ‘finished’ when upon playing it back it sounds like it has always existed but with freshness and inventiveness. For a 1920’s-style character song like this it was essential to get that comfortable, settled-in feel yet hopefully with enough originality to prevent audiences telling you what song it reminds them of, which is never really very helpful.
What inspired you to write it?
My collaborators Dominic and Joe Male dreamed up the premise for the musical, wrote the book and collaborated on a lot of the lyrics. So they came up with the idea for Rivets and then handed it over to me to turn it into a song that fitted with the story, the character and the style of the piece. But why write a musical with a love song about rivets in the first place? You’d have to ask them.
What do you think makes a winning musical theatre song?
If I knew the answer to that I’d probably not let on and would be quite rich. I know the theory: Technically, it mustn’t be obvious which came first – music or lyrics. It must sound like they were conceived together. Dramatically, it must fit with the narrative, coming at the correct point in the show. The subject matter must be better off sung than spoken, otherwise why waste time writing a song about it?! The character in the musical singing the song must sound like the same person whether they’re singing or speaking and not have a sudden personality change for 3 or 4 minutes. Pretty or catchy tunes are more or less irrelevant, just a bonus. The common criticism ‘there were no catchy tunes in that musical’ is like saying ‘I can’t remember any of the dialogue in that play’. A good musical theatre song in my opinion isn’t the one that gets the standing ovation or becomes a hit single but the one that seamlessly emerges from the narrative and progresses that character’s development in a way that dialogue alone can’t achieve. But does that make it a ‘winning’ song?
Are there enough new musicals in Britain at the moment?
Probably, but they aren’t being produced very often. They may appear briefly on the fringes, in the festivals and pub theatres, but most go un-performed and probably disappear forever. As a member of Mercury Musical Developments I am constantly amazed at the amount of new work out there in Britain. But unless there is a move away from the mainstream obsession with Juke Box and film adaptation musical and a re-education of audiences worldwide, these potentially classic new musicals will never be seen by a wider audience and may recede further and further from view eventually to disappear in a puff of stage smoke.
Chris Bush 
Song Title: Little Wooden Horse (Co-written by Matt Winkworth)
What is your song about?
This song comes from near the top of the show as Odessa, our protagonist, begins to describe the incredible journey she’s been on. Now 16, she takes us back ten years to when her parents separated, and explains how her obsession with The Odyssey began.
How hard was it to write it?
The big challenge lyrically is that I’m essentially covering ten years of Odessa’s life in one number, so there’s a lot of information to impart in hopefully a clear, concise and engaging manner. Musically, we’re trying to combine spoken word and rap influences with a more traditional musical theatre sound, which is both really exciting and quite tricky to pull off.
What inspired you to write it?
At first glance the idea of a teenage girl becoming obsessed with an ancient classical text might seem far-fetched, but for Odessa it’s how she makes sense of the often cruel and uncaring world around her. She comes from a place with no heroes, where nothing is expected of her, where no-one could imagine her achieving anything, but now she has something that tells her she is special, chosen – that her story matters. I wanted to create something that felt authentic, bitter-sweet and ultimately hopeful – a story for those who have been told there are no stories for them.
What do you think makes a winning musical theatre song?
If there was a formula everyone could do it! For me, a lot of it comes down to the authenticity of the voice – if your character wouldn’t say these lines don’t have them sing them. A great MT song takes you on a journey too, and should always move the story forward. Ultimately though there’s an alchemy at work in all the best musical collaboration that can’t be easily defined, and you often don’t know you have it until you try it out loud in front of an audience.
Are there enough new musicals in Britain at the moment?
Yes and no. There are lots of amazing writers out there, and some brilliant organisations like Perfect Pitch and MMD getting their work to an audience. It’s also fantastic to see big name directors like Daniel Evans commissioning and championing new work alongside big revivals. As someone fairly equally split between musicals and ‘straight theatre’ what I’d really like to see is more theatres – in particular specialist new writing venues – taking musical theatre more seriously. I think there’s a misconception in certain circles that musicals are innately fluffy and frivolous (or by default prohibitively expensive) when this isn’t remotely the case.