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

[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.