Diversity in Expression
This blog is about diversity. Our company, Rhymes Over Beats Theater Collective, is dedicated to diversity.
My more recent blogs have talked about the importance of having a diverse cast, about the necessity of having a diverse team back stage or in the front office, and in the diversity of creative expression in our work on stage.’
I also believe in diversity as a structural element of a musical.
A Musical Demands Diversity of Score
One of the few criticisms of the musical Hamilton that I’ve often heard is that it is not a “hip hop musical” because some of the music is [Spoiler Alert] sung.
If anyone is interested in a long response to this criticism, read Lin-Manuel Miranda and Jeremy McCarter’s book Hamilton: The Revolution. It is a master class in how to write a musical.
The short response is that too much of a good thing is NOT a good thing.
Imagine a record album of nothing but ballads. Or how about a roller coaster with no dips, just a flat track from one end of the ride to the other? None of these are fun. They are not fun because there is no diversity. Nothing changes. No fast songs to get the blood moving, no straight down plummets and no scary loop de loops.
An all rap musical? It might be done, and it might even work. But it would be very difficult to pull off.
Better to write a musical with diverse kinds of music – like Hamilton.
In Hamilton: The Revolution, the great Stephen Sondheim warned Miranda of the lack of diversity in music in musicals. “Musicals depend on variety. Like republics, they need a multiplicity of voices to thrive,” the authors conclude in the book.
Happy Holidays from Rhymes Over Beats
This is the last blog of the year. I’m spending the next couple of weeks reflecting on the last year and planning for the new one.
Have a wonderful holiday and a great new year. Thank you for reading these blogs.
Hope y’all enjoyed the ride! Catch ya on the flip side.
“The only caution I can raise is the monotony of rhythmic and verbal attack over the evening – and, occasionally, over the song.”
– STEVEN SONDHEIM