The consequences of pitching and the pantheon of musical breakdowns
Sharon's Weekly Head Dump
This week’s post will be a little on the shorter side because I need to ration my writing energy for Real Journalism, and there isn’t much writing energy to begin with when one is also a pianist.
Remember how I took on more work I totally didn’t have the bandwidth for by having to DIY-edit a Florence Price work? And discovered some weird things? I may have pitched a story about it to my editor at VAN Magazine, and I may have done it feeling somewhat confident that nothing would come of it because my last several pitches were rejected, and my editor may have actually come back to greenlight the story, give me a deadline, and tell me to go interview people.
In case you thought you missed something, I am not a journalist or writer by training and I have no idea how to Do a Real Journalism. I am [Rachel Weisz in The Mummy voice] A LIBRARIAN a pianist, particularly a pianist who is going back into the recording studio next week and who is trying to learn this damn piece in peace. (I am also a pianist who hates cold-calling people, so this is kind of my nightmare.) I am aware I brought this upon myself by pitching my editor in the first place, but, like telling an acquaintance “We’ll totally hang out sometime,” I thought it was just one of those pointless little social rituals where you say a thing and the other person says a thing and no one really means it!
A further little twist on this whole thing is that an actual journalist reached out about interviewing me for a story on the thing I am writing a story about, so if I play my cards right I’ll end up being both subject and writer for two separate stories in two different outlets about the same thing. What a time to be alive.
Also, while I have no journalistic training (this means I can commit journalistic malpractice and claim ignorance, right? RIGHT??) I do have plenty of experience being interviewed, so at this point I’m just mimicking all the good interviewers (not gonna lie, there have been some bad ones) I’ve worked with and crossing my fingers that it works out.
Don’t you love a good (musical) breakdown
I was in New York last week and saw the current revival of Sweeney Todd and dear lord it was phenomenal. Josh Groban is so electrifying when he’s full of murderous fury that I texted multiple people going “why were we making this man sing ‘You Raise Me Up’ when we should have been casting him as a tortured soul in every tragic musical this whole time.”
“Epiphany” from Sweeney Todd, with Groban tearing up the stage, razor in hand, was one of my all-time favorite moments in theater. I don’t know what it says about me that a broken Josh Groban howling “We all deserve to die” punches the “this makes me happy” button in my brain.
(It is also too bad that I cannot convey with words and audio alone how delightful Annaleigh Ashford is as a comedic performer—I fully believe that humor is harder to pull off than straight drama.)
I took a break from mainlining “Epiphany” on repeat to listen to some of my favorite related songs from musicals, pretty much all of which depict a character’s mental or existential breakdown. Again, what does this say about me??
For example, while I have never actually listened to the Jesus Christ Superstar soundtrack the whole way through or seen any production of it, I will happily listen to “Gethsemane (I Only Want to Say)” over and over again.
While we’re on the Andrew Lloyd Webber train, I’ve similarly always loved the existential nihilism of “Sunset Boulevard” despite, again, not actually knowing much else from Sunset Boulevard. Shrug emoji.
I also firmly believe that anyone who didn’t have “Totally Fucked” from Spring Awakening to get them through their teenage years just missed out:
I will also cop to the fact that I may have listened to “Angry Dance” from Billy Elliott a whole bunch as a high schooler to get through feeling Great Feelings of Injustice:
I also like breakdowns devoid of anger that are just…numb? Cabaret is full of absolute bangers (and the London revival I saw is coming to NYC!) but one of my all-time favorites is “I Don’t Care Much,” which I find hauntingly beautiful:
Bonus entry in my mental pantheon of great breakdowns: “Hellfire” from Disney’s The Hunchback of Notre Dame, which is not a musical but has the energy of one:
Anyway. Breakdowns in real life are messy and scary but breakdowns in musical are [chef’s kiss]. The best music comes from making a fictional character face the abyss, you know?
That’s it for now—see you next week! 🎹