Revival Song Lyrics Quotes

The 2017-18 Broadway season offered a perfect example of the difference between the performative and psychological styles of acting in musicals. At the Shubert Theatre, veteran singer and comedienne Bette Midler returned to Broadway in a revival of Hello, Dolly!, a musical that demands above all star presence. To the delight of her fans, Midler played Bette Midler as Dolly. No one in the audience wanted her to be anyone else and the part didn’t demand the plumbing of psychological depth. A block away, young Ben Platt offered a powerful example of how a talented acting singer can create a believable character through speech and song in a musical. Platt’s performance in Dear Evan Hansen (Book, Steven Levenson; Music and lyrics, Benj Pasek and Justin Paul), has made him a star but Platt never breaks character, never acknowledges the audience. Ben Platt convincingly becomes Evan Hansen in both dialogue and song. Dear Evan Hansen is a post-Sondheim musical that demands intense acting as well as singing; Hello, Dolly! demands personality.

Prophecies are a funny thing. They’re nothing but lengthy riddles that only a blessed few can unravel, and yet people hang on to their every word as if Fate’s secrets were being spilled. Prophecies weave patterns of words and symbols into a rope so thick you could hang yourself with it. They cause confusion, hope, paranoia, comfort, fear, and even war. They doom the virtuous before birth and revive the damned in their final hour. They are poems that don’t rhyme and lyrics without a song. And we rely on them as drivers of our own fate.