The Cutting Room Floor: Broadway and the Editing of New Musicals
It is no secret that musicals go through years upon years of workshops, re-writes, edits, and cuts before they reach their final form. If they’re lucky, that final form is Broadway. This year’s Tony Winning Best Musical Hadestown, for example, was in the works for over a decade before it landed on the Broadway stage. Even veterans of the industry take years to finalize piece. Take Disney Theatricals, who began work on the musical adaptation of Frozen shortly after the movie’s smash success. The musical did not premiere until August of 2017, five years later. In that time, many songs are written that never see the light of day. Lines are added, dropped, or altered. Characters become supporting or starring. Everything can and will change up until opening night. This is a healthy part of the creative process. Things must be tested and changed, tweaked, added, or removed in order to reach the best possible final product. And, in most cases, that final iteration is the best. Recently, however, as musicals gain more fame prior to their Broadway debuts, the kinds of cuts made between regional or Off-Broadway productions and Broadway productions have become a point of interest. In some cases, they are legitimate and necessary to streamline the focus or timing of a production. In others, though, they are a window into the glaring faults of Broadway as an industry that puts pressure on theatre to be a business first and an art form second.
Anaïs Mitchell’s mythological folk musical Hadestown had a following long before it hit the Broadway stage. From its initial concept album to its New York Theatre Workshop to the Canadian production to the London Production and, finally, to the Broadway production the show underwent many edits. Inevitably, the cuts and additions could not and would not please every follower. This is, perhaps, most evident in the discourse on the removal of Persephone’s verse in “Chant II.” Though there were many lyrical changes, Persephone did have a verse in “Chant II” in every iteration of the show through Broadway previews. By opening night, though, it had been cut. Realistically, the length of the show was a factor for the creative team during previews. Unless you are Angels in America, Harry Potter, or Shakespeare, running past the standard two-hour-forty-five-minute run time is a tough sell to producers. No matter how good the show is, audiences only have so much of an attention span especially in the modern era. Though bits and pieces may be artistically viable, if they are not absolutely essential to the show’s narrative, they have to be cut for the good of the show. I, too, was saddened at the removal of Persephone’s verse which I found visceral and honest. I admit, though, that the show functions exactly the same without it. I don’t feel it changed the plot progression or even Persephone’s character in any significant way.
That is not to say, however, that the sacrifice of material for the sake of run time is always justified. As I mentioned earlier, Broadway is a business, and producers have expectations about what audiences will and will not sit through. The removal of non-essential scenes and songs absolutely typical and healthy for streamlining a show. The problem is that “non-essential” is not objective. Especially in contemporary theatre, spectacle plays a key role in drawing audiences. I don’t mean spectacle purely in technical terms, though flashy sets and stunning costumes certainly play a role. Spectacle often means belting impossibly high money notes eight times a week (which, by the way, increasingly demands female leads on Broadway to sing in an unhealthy and unsafe manner, but that’s another discussion entirely.) The soft, stirring ballad is not a seller the way a pop anthem is. Don’t get me wrong, I love “Defying Gravity” as much as the next girl who got into theatre as an angsty teenager, but it isn’t everything there is nor should it be. This brings me to Disney’s musical adaptation of its beloved Frozen.
I have to preface this, in full transparency, by admitting I love Frozen. Honestly, Disney Theatricals has generally always impressed me. Every show they’ve created from Beauty and the Beast to Newsies has been a feat of musical theatre. To me, Frozen was surprisingly well-formed for a show built from the ground up in only five years. Disney truly leaned into the complexity and darkness present in the story and made it suitable to an older, Broadway audience. The new music is intensely theatrical but mature and engrossing. The addition of one song in particular struck me as a masterpiece of the musical version: Anna’s heart-wrenching ballad, True Love, which follows Hans’s leaving her to die. True Love is a deeply moving piece that sees Anna reflect on the ignorance brought on by her neglected childhood, leading to the climactic line, “turns out you can’t find love if you don’t know what it is.” This, more than any other addition, summarized and supported the central themes of the musical. It explains Anna’s decision to go after Elsa rather than Kristoff even if she may die – it is her sister she is confident in, not the love of a man. It gives Anna introspection, a reflection on the fairytales we spin ourselves and the red flags we overlook in pursuit of them. And, frankly, it follows the classic musical theatre model of the Act Two ballad that relays the moment of great recognition in the central character, a recognition that (usually) drives the resolution. I would argue, then, that True Love is crucial to the heart of Frozen’s narrative arc.
Why do I bring all this up? Because the National Tour of Frozen premiered a week ago, with several key changes to the production. Many of these support the needs of a touring production (ie. minor set tweaks). Some are striking changes for a tour, though, such as a new song, I Can’t Lose You, which completely replaces For the First Time in Forever (Reprise), which is still in the Broadway production. Furthermore, True Love has been completely cut. Whether or not these song changes/cuts will be applied when the Broadway production undergoes its cast change has not yet been made clear. Regardless, I was shocked and disappointed by the removal of True Love. Again, I understand shows have to meet a run time, especially a touring show that will see many young audience members. True Love, however, feels too integral to Anna’s character to remove. The pacing and progression of Act Two had completely shifted from the Broadway production. Truthfully, there were other songs that could’ve been shortened or removed. Elsa still retained three times the amount of solo songs as Anna. That is likely because a high, pop-belting number like Monster is more of a show-stopper than a soft, emotional ballad like True Love. And while I adore Monster, balance is crucial. Not every song can be a Let It Go, songs like True Love have an equal value to the piece, though Disney Theatricals did not seem to think so. It’s a reminder that sometimes, especially in the professional theatre industry and in companies, like Disney, for whom theatre is income, narrative can fall victim to bottom line. I do feel that True Love is one of those victims.
Ultimately, there is no easy way to classify scenes or songs as absolute necessities to a piece of theatre. A story can be told so many ways, have so many directions, it is near impossible to really know what serves it best and what audiences will respond to most. Composers and book writers have the unfeasible job of trying to please everyone. I do think it is important to keep in mind, though, that the commerciality of Broadway can lead to detrimental cuts. While I confess I am not personally a fan of Be More Chill, I am well aware that most of its supporters claimed the pre-Broadway version was far superior. As theatre artists and audiences, we must all be careful not to hold Broadway as the pinnacle of all theatre. Certainly, it produces incredible works of theatre, but it is not the only venue. New, exciting, different works are being produced in regional and non-profit companies all over the country and the world where the pressures of conformity and sales are less extreme. It is integral that we all remember the purpose of what we are viewing or creating and find a venue which will suit the version of itself a show truly wants to be.
Watch Patti Murin perform “True Love” here.
