Openings are always important. You've got the audience in the seat, now how to make them excited about staying there? It seems like every other week someone will mention that contemporary musical theatre is in crisis and there are no good musicals with original scores being produced. It's one of those never-ending debates that tend to go on forever, and while listening to the opening number of a recent Broadway score I wondered if the last few years in stage had been creating efficient, enticing and exciting opening numbers like the ones we think of when the phrase "Best Opening Number" pops up. Do we have anything that cane rival that one-two-three punch of “Now/Later/Soon” in A Little Night Music or the wealth of information and humor in the Into the Woods Prologue? Anything as sexy and inviting as “Willkommen”? As comprehensive as the Prologue from Ragtime? Or the subversive humor of “Four Jews In A Room Bitching” from Falsettos? True, musical theatre is changing but a killer opening number is still a major part of any good's musical effect. So, using the last 14 years a guide I've chosen ten openings from the 21st century that deserve an encore.
Lists like these are hard so I'm considering both the way they work within the context of the show, as well as just giving over to the fact that any beautifully rendered song at the start of a show works as a killer opening even if it's not necessarily the ideal representation of what's to come. Sometimes great opening numbers are followed by lesser pieces, it doesn't lessen the effect of the beginning. If I were going to each of these shows blind with no foreknowledge, these openings would have my interest immediately piqued.
10) “We Are Descended” from Dessa Rose
The Off-Broadway Dessa Rose isn’t as remembered as well as it ought to be. Ahrens and Flaherty have always been adept at crafting excellent opening number and although Dessa Rose is smaller in scope than the opening for Ragtime or gets you tapping your feet as much as the opening for Once On This Island it gives us much to appreciate. The opening line “We are descended from a long, strong line of women” tells us all we need to know about this essential tale of the enduring friendship between two strong women.
9) “The Stars Look Down” from Billy Elliot
I’m ambivalent about much of Elton’s John score for Billy Elliot but the opening number is a gem. The number retains a momentousness that’s overpowering as the news reel bleeds into the singing of the coal miners. It avoids feeling hackneyed but manages to be sincere and true to the era the musical is set it. By the time the entire ensemble joins in to the sing the refrain the song feels towering and momentous in a way that an opening number should.
8) “Rise Up” from Leap of Faith
Yes, that Leap of Faith – arguably, the biggest financial flop of the 2011-2012 season. But, how to resist this energetic and motivated number? As Raúl Esparza’s con-artist Jonas happens upon a new town to pitch his swindle to Menken’s music is vigorous and entertaining. The number slyly mixes traditional gospel sound with a more synthesised pop sound which seems, to me, an effectively symbolise the way that Jonas’ “reverend” hook isn’t quite authentic, but amidst all this the number is sincerely entertaining so by the time the last “rise up” is chanted you might be willing to follow suit.
7) “A Man Of No Importance” from A Man of No Importance
If the opening number for A Man of No Importance was just the opening bars of the flute playing sorrowfully, it might still make this list. The motif of the flute, which reoccurs throughout, efficiently gets the sadness and poignancy but gentle loveliness of the musical. The opening number efficiently gives us a wealth of information while remaining tuneful and exquisite. It’s typical Ahrens and Flaherty style giving packing their opening numbers with the information we need but giving it to us in an excellent and musically superior package.
6) “16 Feet Below the Sea” from Caroline, or Change
Just a few bars of Tonya Pinkins humming “mmmm-hmmmm” and the mood of Caroline, or Change is already established. By the time she actually sings, “nothing happens underground in Louisana” we feel we’ve already learned key things about her. The opening moving from introducing the radio to the washer works as an excellent for Tesori’s music, setting the mood with the rhythmic beats but it’s the undertones of the reverberating “consequences unforeseen” being sung that has intrigued and captivated, so early.
5) “Huckleberry Pie / Mysterious Ways” from The Color Purple
Sure, The Colour Purple has a score that’s sometimes uneven but when it’s working it’s excellent. The two-song opening number is one of those moments. The score’s ability to convey major themes and motifs in that opening is a marvel as it mixes the Sunday morning sermon with the gossip of the church-ladies and the childhood singing of Celie and Nettie. The combination gives the opening a beautiful cadence that tells us all we need to know about the world of The Color Purple. That the number reaches its climatix with Celie’s plaintive “Dear God” isn’t a mistake but an effective indication fo the world of the show. One rich rich in deceptively rhythmic music but holding harsher and darker undertones beneath.
4) “Statues and Stories” from The Light in the Piazza
Fitting that it begins with the mother and the daughter. It’s difficult to sum up the effect of the opening number to Guettel’s score in words. In the same way that the characters get so overwhelmed with feeling they can do nothing but vocalize, the sweeping emotions the music in this opening number evoke cannot be named, but are potent nonetheless. Victoria Clark and Kelli O’Hara do Guettel’s music justice and the romantic classicism of “Statues and Stories” so efficiently establishes the story to come.
3) “Hey, Hey, Hey, Hey” from The Scottsboro Boys
The minstrel show framework of The Scottsboro Boys opens the musical and might seem incongruent with the sombre themes at work in the play and yet in that way it becomes an even more effective opening. The way it invites the audience to relax through the toe-tapping tunes only ends up being an incisive way of approaching the play’s subject. The jubilance of the number sets up the ultimately ironic use of the minstrel show motif inviting the audience to tap along and then making us slightly uncomfortable that we are doing so.
2) “Miracle” from Matilda
Here’s a number from another score which I’m not completely enthused about, but it is impossible to argue against the ten minute opening which is funny, lyrical and teeming with irony. The gentle mockery of contemporary parents’ belief that each of their brats is the most special set against legitimately special Matilda’s parents resenting her is the main pitch of the opening but on its “Miracle” is a beautiful, clever theatre song excellently establishing the witty tone of the musical to come.
1) “To Build A Home” from The Bridges of Madison County
It was listening to the score for Jason Robert Brown’s recent Tony winning score that made me put together this list. It took me almost two hours to listen to the 75 minute cast album because I couldn’t hear the opening number just once. Brown has always been an excellent lyricist but it was his music that reached even greater heights in his most recent work and the opening number epitomizes it all. The opening bars of the violin mournfully signalling the arrival of a new great aria to the stage gives us all the indication that the entire score will overwhelm us with feeling. By the time Kelli O’Hara even says the word “Iowa” two minutes into the song I’m drowning in a swell of emotion. What a way to begin.
Other notable openings: “Hello” from The Book of Mormon; “Still Hurting” from The Last Five Years; “Scrap” from The Full Monty; “Oh The Thinks You Can Think” from Seussical; “No One Mourns the Wicked” from Wicked
What are some of your favorites? Let us know in the comments or by tweeting @Stagebuddy
