I'm asking questions that most people are asking, but just putting a melody or a song to it.
I grew up on musicals, and I love them so much.
I kind of feel like with a musical, there's so few original musicals that people just don't know what to expect.
We all write the music, and then Mark and Tom write the lyrics.
The music is the emotional substance of the show; the book just sets it up. Nobody goes to a musical to hear the book. That's the way it works.
Country music's really good about telling a story, so I want songs that tell good stories where people can say, 'That happened to me!'
Musicals allow a depth of emotion that you don't get in another form of acting, the chord changes, the lyrics really affect people, so that in two hours, you've forgotten about things.
I'd rather not get into what I'm talking about lyrically. I think it's impossible not to demystify a song when saying what it's about. Music and art can be damaged severely by too much information; I say that as somebody that has participated in that.
I love Benny Hill. He one of my favourites of aaall time. Like, the way Benny did it, he was just amazing. Just seeing how he put songs together and comedy and the timing and the sketches. He was way ahead of his time.
A song is a lot of things. But, first of all, a song is the voice of its time. Setting words to music gives them weight, makes then somehow easier to say, and it helps them to be remembered.
It was Noel Coward whose technique I envied and tried to emulate. I collected all his records and writing.
I really think that the 'Jersey Boys' musical - and this is just my opinion - lends itself to being cinematic in some way, because it's a jukebox musical; the characters break into song only for the scene transitions.
