Musical wisdom from Michal Kunze

[winter]

A lot of scriptwriters should follow this ♥

In my translation:

Seven deadly sins of writers of musicals:

1. The story is predictable
2. The audience feels no empathy with the protagonist
3. The protagonist learns nothing from the story and remains unchanged
4. The theme isn't explored/analysed
5. Songs tell the audience what they already know
6. All characters act and sing in the same way
7. Ten minutes in, you still don't know what's going on

Comments

[enisy.livejournal.com]

I love Michael Kunze so much, I can't even express ♥ Man knows his stuff.

[winter]

*nodnodnod* His pace can be a tiny bit off sometimes, but man, can he write good :D

[zenicurean.livejournal.com]

I'm going to copy this down now, because frankly this stuff is true for all storywriting everywhere.

[winter]

I think it's particularly important with musicals because they connect directly to emotions, and because too many writers think a tune you can whistle is enough ~_~

Kunze's emploi is taking outside source material (du Maurier's Rebecca, for example, or the lives of various historical figures) and making it into a musical you can't forget, finding themes in it that you'd never suspect.

[amanuensis1.livejournal.com]

Ah ha ha. (I like dark musicals. My tongue-in-cheek rule is that there have to be at least two deaths and one onstage rape. Man of La Mancha, Sweeney Todd, and West Side Story all make the cut.)

[winter]

*snickers* Out of what I've seen this year, only two don't qualify (and one of those is Me and My Girl...)

[amanuensis1.livejournal.com]

Really! List me some more that fit, please!

[winter]

Tanz der Vampire, obviously. Elisabeth depends on the feistiness of Letzte Tanz, but the one I saw was pretty feisty :) Legend had a magical/metaphorical rape, but made up for it, I think, with onscreen birth that culminated with the new mother exploding in flames over her Issues. And the kabuki play I saw had a double whammy of a girl first drowning, then falling prey to the sea lord's desires...

[amanuensis1.livejournal.com]

Is there actual rape in TdV? Seduction I thought I saw, but rape? I'm SO PICKY. ;D

[winter]

Okay, unconsummated rape of Alfred by Herbert. Picky, picky ;)

[amanuensis1.livejournal.com]

(And technically WSS is unconsummated. Explains why it doesn't quite make my list of favorites. :D )

[meganphntmgrl.livejournal.com]

There's the two dancerapes in Carpe Noctem, which fit even more.

[valancystar.livejournal.com]

I wouldn't count any of the TdV stuff, because vampire biting does not equal sex. Yes, it's sexual and definitely a metaphor for sex, but it's not sex as such. Especially since actual sex also exists in the world of TdV. I doubt Alfred thought Sarah was inviting him for some biting in Du bist wirklich sehr nett. So uninvited vampire biting does not constitute rape in my view of the show.

[valancystar.livejournal.com]

Hum. I can hardly find a musical I like where at least someone doesn't die (preferably a bunch of someones, and if possible through their own hand / the hand of their shadow self represented by a mute porcelain child / vampires), but I can think of scarcely anything where people get raped. Which is good, because that's one of the things I can't put up with.

[meganphntmgrl.livejournal.com]

The one I'm writing involves a bunch of deaths, incestuous overtones, threesomes in dance format, the ends justifying the means, none of the principals having had good childhoods, closeted homosexuality, psychosis in one of the principals, and nobody coming out of the ending morally clean, so you can imagine what I like to listen to.

[valancystar.livejournal.com]

Thanks for the link! I follow him semi-regularly, but it's good to be reminded to take a look, because he's got awesome stuff. *worships him*

[winter]

He's got an RSS feed ;) They're useful things.