The musical theater opening number is a vital tool to establishing the tone of a musical, readying the audience for what they're about to see, and introducing important characters and themes. Ubiquitous as it is as a "song type," it is in fact extremely varied in the method of its execution. In this season finale, we'll examine different kinds of openings and why they work.

SONGS FEATURED:

"Comedy Tonight" from A Funny Thing Happened On the Way to the Forum

"Invocation and Instructions to the Audience" from The Frogs

"Prologue" from Natasha, Pierre, and the Great Comet of 1812

"Tradition" from Fiddler on the Roof

"In the Heights" from In the Heights

"I Wonder What the King is Doing Tonight" from Camelot

"Wilkommen" from Cabaret

"Heaven on Their Minds" from Jesus Christ Superstar

"Entr'acte" from Guys and Dolls

"Runyonland" from Guys and Dolls

"Fugue for Tinhorns" from Guys and Dolls

"Tulsa '67" from The Outsiders

"Too Much Exposition" from Urinetown

"The Ballad of Sweeney Todd" from Sweeney Todd: The Demon Barber of Fleet Street

"The Ballad of Floyd Collins" from Floyd Collins

"Overture/Once in the Highlands" from Brigadoon

Of the plug-and-play song formats that punctuate our understanding of musical theater structure (the "I Want" song, the Lowest Point), perhaps none is more of a guilty pleasure, more pure fun, than the Villain Song. Here we examine several forms of this vital category, exploring how musical theater villains can play on our moral outrage, our sense of vicarious spite, and our understanding of character.

SONGS FEATURED:

"Poor Unfortunate Souls" from The Little Mermaid

"Don't Nobody Bring Me No Bad News" from The Wiz

"Cool, Cool, Considerate Men" from 1776

"But, Mr. Adams" from 1776

"Epiphany" from Sweeney Todd: The Demon Barber of Fleet Street

"The Room Where it Happens" from Hamilton

"That's What He Said" from Parade

"If I Didn't Believe in You" from The Last Five Years

"Nobody Needs to Know" from The Last Five Years

"The Western Wall" from The Connector

"There Never Was" from The Connector

"The Seven Deadly Virtues" from Camelot

Composers and lyricists rub off on one another, pointing each other in new directions and influencing each other's styles. What can we learn from these relationships -- and who, ultimately, deserves the credit for a successful musical theater song?

SONGS FEATURED:

"They're Playing My Song (Hers)" from They're Playing Our Song

"My Eyes Are Fully Open" from Ruddigore

"Fascinating Rhythm" from Lady, Be Good!

"Embraceable You" from Girl Crazy

"Manhattan" from The Garrick Gaieties

"To Keep My Love Alive" from A Connecticut Yankee

"My Favorite Things" from The Sound of Music

"Not Since Nineveh" from Kismet

"Les tringles des sistres tintaient" from Carmen

"Beat Out Dat Rhythm on a Drum" from Carmen Jones

"Entr'acte" from My Fair Lady

"Why Can't the English?" from My Fair Lady

"On the S.S. Bernard Cohn" from On a Clear Day You Can See Forever

"Garbage Isn't What It Used to Be" from My Man Godfrey

"How Could You Believe Me When I Said I Loved You When You Know I've Been a Liar All My Life?" from Royal Wedding

Film, literature, and television have often used either real or fictional musicals within their stories as a way to convey certain ideas about performance or the attitudes of an era. Real-life musicals can be historical touchstones; fictional musicals or musicals within other media can draw our attention to that media's "rules" of storytelling.

SONGS FEATURED:

"On the Side of the Angels" from Fiorello!

"A Little Girl From Little Rock" from Lorelai

"It's a Hit!" from Merrily We Roll Along

"I'm Alive" from Tootsie

"Girl Hunt Ballet" from The Band Wagon

"Overture Medley" from Kiss Me Kate (film)

"Babes in Arms" from Babes in Arms

"I Do Not Like This Man" from Curb Your Enthusiasm

"The Monorail Song" from The Simpsons

"The Rant Song" from Scrubs

"I've Heard It Both Ways" from Psych

"Two Ladies" from Cabaret (as performed on Fosse/Verdon)

"Why" from Tick, Tick... Boom!

A brief timeline of sex on stage in musicals through the decades, from the wink-wink nudge-nudge ribaldry of Cole Porter's 1920s to the high-flown metaphor of Spring Awakening to the relatively damp squibs of explicit discussion of sex in musicals of the 2010s and '20s. As with all things in art, what's important is less what's being said than what's not being said, and musical theater has always been adept at artful evasion, to delightful effect.

SONGS FEATURED:

"Baby It's Cold Outside" from Neptune's Daughter

"They All Laughed" from Shall We Dance

"My Heart Belongs to Daddy" from Leave It to Me!

"Let's Do It (Let's Fall in Love)" from Paris

"The Tennis Song" from City of Angels

"Happiness" from Passion

"Johanna (Mea Culpa)" from Sweeney Todd: The Demon Barber of Fleet Street

"I Believe" from Spring Awakening

"You Can Be As Loud as the Hell You Want (When You're Makin' Love)" from Avenue Q

"Let It Go" from The Full Monty

"First Impressions" from First Date

"But in the Morning, No" from DuBarry Was a Lady

"The Guilty Ones" from Spring Awakening

"Aquarius" from Hair

"Overture" from New Girl in Town

"Easy Mark" from The Musical of Musicals (The Musical!)

Oklahoma!, the ur-text of musical theater, is at its heart the story of no-holds-barred combat for sexual partners in a lawless society where such partners are scarce. Its reputation for squeaky-cleanliness is in part thanks to the musical's central theme being the way in which a society purges itself of undesirable elements.

SONGS FEATURED (All from Oklahoma!):

"Oh, What a Beautiful Mornin'"

"Entr'acte"

"The Surrey With the Fringe On Top"

"Lonely Room"

"Pore Jud is Daid"

"People Will Say We're in Love (Reprise)"

"Ballet"

"The Farmer and the Cowman"

"I Cain't Say No"

"It's a Scandal! It's a Outrage!"

"Oklahoma!"

"Finale"

Musical theater is concerned with words and their function, and how our frequent inability to communicate with one another can be overwhelmed by personal, heartfelt expression. It makes sense, then, that the art form should be concerned with languages. In this season finale, we'll examine the use of non-English language in Anglophone musical theater, and examine how non-English languages are sometimes "disguised" as English for the benefit of the audience.

SONGS FEATURED:

"Aiutami" from The Light in the Piazza

"March of the Siamese Children" from The King and I

"No Understand" from Do I Hear a Waltz?

"Lion Dance" from Pacific Overtures

"Please Hello" from Pacific Overtures

"On the Street Where You Live" from My Fair Lady

"On the Street Where You Live" as sung by Dean Martin

"Merano" from Chess

"To Life" from Fiddler on the Roof

"The Park/Itgara'a" from The Band's Visit

"Un Hombre Así/I Have a Love" from West Side Story (2009)

"Breathe" from In the Heights

"Chanson" from The Baker's Wife

"Abbondanza" from The Most Happy Fella

For great songwriters, every decision about how lyrics sit on music is made consciously. Rhyme and rhythm are the dynamic ingredients that allow the craftspeople who write musical theater to convey things about plot and character that simple dialogue couldn't.

SONGS FEATURED:

"Almost Like Being in Love" from Brigadoon

"The Wedding Dance" from Brigadoon

"Rock Island" from The Music Man

"Ya Got Trouble" from The Music Man

"Piano Lesson" from The Music Man

"Overture" from Merrily We Roll Along

"Franklin Shepard Inc." from Merrily We Roll Along

"Prologue" from City of Angels

"You're Nothing Without Me" from City of Angels

"Double Talk" from City of Angels

"Exit Music" from Hamilton

"Superstar" from Jesus Christ Superstar

"America" from West Side Story

"Sing a Tropical Song" sung by Frank Loesser

Stephen Sondheim and James Lapine's 1987 classic Into the Woods is the prototypical example of wild but successful ambition in musical theater. Through the lens of traditional fairy tales, it encompasses the fundamental precepts that make us human and how we can use them to construct better communities on the domestic and political levels. Exploring the structure of this magnificent piece tells us a lot not just about musicals, but about the human impact of storytelling.

SONGS FEATURED (all from Into the Woods):

"Prologue: Into the Woods"

"Hello, Little Girl"

"I Know Things Now"

"Giants in the Sky"

"On the Steps of the Palace"

"It Takes Two"

"Stay With Me"

"Ever After"

"Moments in the Woods"

"Your Fault/Last Midnight"

"No More"

"Finale: Children Will Listen"

For years, musical theater has been dogged by an aggressively moralistic stance on the part of audiences, who are unwilling to accept immoral behavior by characters in musicals unless it's roundly punished at the end of the story -- a stance the same audiences rarely take when it comes to straight plays and movies. What motivates this difference in approach, and what have been the effects on the art form?

SONGS FEATURED:

"Finale" from My Fair Lady

"Entr'acte" from Carousel

"Overture" from My Fair Lady

"Dream Ballet" from Oklahoma!

"Overture" from Oklahoma!

"Words Fail" from Dear Evan Hansen

"Finale" from Dear Evan Hansen

"Everybody's Got the Right" from Assassins

"November 22, 1963" from Assassins

"Another National Anthem" from Assassins

"Minstrel March/Hey Hey Hey Hey" from The Scottsboro Boys

"Happiness" from Passion

"I Wish I Could Forget You" from Passion