What would Lehman Engel think?

The BMI/Lehman Engel Musical Theater Writing Workshop and its offspring (Theatre Building Chicago's Musical Theatre Writer's Workshop is one of them, which is taught by John Sparks, who worked with Lehman Engel for many years as part of his West Coast workshop), teach that there are basically three kinds of musical theater songs:

1. Ballad;
2. Charm song; and
3. Comedy song.

Traditionally, comedy songs were lyric-driven, but most often rhythmic as well, if not out and out uptempo. "I'm Just A Girl Who Cain't Say No" from Oklahoma! and "It Sucks To Be Me" from Avenue Q are comedy songs whereas "I Enjoy Being A Girl" from Flower Drum Song and "Hey Look Me Over" from Wildcat are charm songs.

Ballads were traditionally reserved for emotional moments, characterized by the legato nature of the melodic line, and not as worried about the clever rhymes. Examples include "If I Loved You" from Carousel and "All I Ask of You" from Phantom of the Opera.

Lately however, I've been seeing big swishy ballads used for comedy. "Love is My Legs" from Dirty Rotten Scoundrels and "The Song That Goes Like This" from Spamalot. In both songs it is the swishy legato melodic line that is an important part of the comedy, in addition to the lyric. "The Song that Goes Like This" is pretty much a complete spoof of the big Lloyd Webber romantic ballad. Of course, Spamalot's chandelier helped deliver the spoof as well...

So why do I like "Love Is My Legs", but not "The Song That Goes Like This"? Why does the latter's parody bug me, but not the former's? I guess it's because, to me, the Spamalot ballad is complete parody. The lyrics don't really serve a purpose other than to parody the genre. At least in "Love Is My Legs", the lyrics are more character- and plot-driven and are right for that moment in the show, helping the story along.

Interestingly, another ballad comedy song that I love is from The Full Monty, also written by David Yazbek (who also wrote Dirty Rotten Scoundrels). "Big-Ass Rock" is hilarious, as it talks about various way these guys can help their friend commit suicide. Here is an excerpt from the lyrics from the liner notes of the Broadway cast recording:

BIG-ASS ROCK

Let's find a rock
I mean a big-ass rock
Or maybe something like
A cinder block is better
I'll hoist it up
And drop it on your face, my buddy

And just before the lights go out
You'll see my smile and you'll know you've
Got a friend
With a rock
Who cares,
I mean a big-ass rock...

Slow, but funny!

Maybe I do spend too much time thinking about these things...

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