4/14/2023 0 Comments Noteworthy life of howard barnesHere, Maggie first articulates the central idea beneath that: Life sucks, but there’s still a lot worth singing about. This is a musical about a man who learns to love despite the risks that come along with opening yourself up to another person. “Noteworthy” This song serves as the “Almost in Love” song for the show, and in many ways, encapsulates the heart of the show itself. Believe us when we tell you that there is an extensive list of alternate lyrics for this one on the cutting room floor. It’s not easy to summarize a popular musical in six syllables, but we had a blast doing so. Maggie, an aspiring actor, is a gigantic musical theatre nerd, and Howard’s condition gives her the oh-so-rare opportunity to put her encyclopedic knowledge of the musical theatre canon to practical use.Ĭreating the list of musicals in this song was perhaps the most fun we had during the writing process. Since Howard knows absolutely nothing about musicals, it was helpful to give him a guide who knows everything. This song is the clearest example of that. “Original Musical” One of the most fun things about writing a musical that is as metatheatrical as The Noteworthy Life of Howard Barnes is that it gives us the chance to pay homage to (and poke a little fun at) many of the musicals that we love. Physicalizing Howard’s internal conflict as he unknowingly launches into his “I Want” song provides the actor with plenty of opportunities for comedy. One of the things that we like most about the song is that it really gives the actor a lot to play with. ![]() We decided that the most entertaining way to do so was to have the musical itself force Howard to sing, as he desperately tries to resist. It didn’t seem plausible that we’d be able to get through the whole show without giving our protagonist a song or two, so we knew we had to figure out a way to tackle Howard’s relationship to music relatively early on. Pretty rare for the titular character of a musical. This song occurs about 20 minutes into the show and, to this point, Howard has not sung at all. “Gotta Get Out” One of the challenges we knew we were facing at the very start of the process was that we were writing a musical about a main character who was, to say the least, reluctant to sing. It’s almost certainly one of the stupidest things we’ve ever written, but it’s also become one of our favorite parts of the show. The chorus really plainly narrates the banality of what Howard is doing as he’s walking home from the hockey game. We ended up having about a day to write a short playoff, which we’ve included on the recording. We racked our brains to figure out what we could do that would be funny and, most of all, not feel like we’re marking time (after all, we’re only 10 minutes into the show). The essence of this song is basically the same as it was when we wrote it eight years ago, but while we were in production, our technical director informed us that in order to make the ensuing scene change work, the backstage crew needed an additional 30 seconds. We conceived of this song sort of like if “Kiss the Girl” were in Jersey Boys. ![]() “Shoot the Puck” Trying to escape his musical, Howard retreats to what he believes is the least musical theatre thing he can do: a New York Rangers hockey game, where he happens to run into his crush, Maggie. We wanted to catch the audience’s ears with something magical and spooky at the top (since there is a bit of “theatre magic” later in the show), and then crash into a world that is bright, flashy, and unabashedly over-the-top musical theatre. We ended up with something that is part Avenue Q, part Hairspray, and an intro that’s full out Danny Elfman. Typically, we end up writing the opening number pretty late in the process, but in this case, it was actually the first song we wrote for the show. “Welcome To Today” The tricky (or perhaps the fun) part of opening numbers is that it they have to set the tone, establish the world, and welcome the audience in a matter of seconds. The Noteworthy Life of Howard Barnes- the world premiere recording of which is now available-is a show for people who love musical theatre-and their spouses who hate it. Together they embark on a wacky, mind-bending, emotional journey through the world of musical theatre, as Howard learns to embrace the music in his everyday life. Not being the kind of guy who enjoys living in a musical, Howard sets out on a quest to escape, guided by his aspiring-actor co-worker/awkward-love-interest Maggie.
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