NY Public Library for the Performing Arts Curator Doug Reside on Opening Numbers!

BroadwayWorld.com continues our exclusive content series, in collaboration with The New York Public Library for the Performing Arts, which delves into the library's unparalleled archives, and resources. Below, check out a piece by Doug Reside (Lewis and Dorothy Cullman Curator for the Billy Rose Theatre Division) on opening numbers:

The first few moments of a musical can be crucial to the show's success. While an orchestral overture may quiet the audience, an opening song must capture their attention and bring them into the world of the show.

Scholars of English literature and high school students may remember that the medieval poem Beowulf begins with a "Hwaet!," a difficult-to-translate Old English monosyllable that probably was meant to silence the crowds at the mead hall and compel them to attend to the poet. Likewise, in the 19th century, before the days of amplified sound, the comic operettas of Gilbert and Sullivan often employed something of the same technique by starting the action with a song sung by a chorus in unison, often addressing the audience directly as the sailors do in the opening number of H.M.S. Pinafore. If anyone had started to doze off during the overture, the song likely jolted them awake.

Today, a musical like Wicked accomplishes the same goal in a very similar way. The audience is startled to attention by the first notes of the opening music and the wild action of the winged monkeys and the "time dragon clock," which is quickly followed by the chorus singing (loudly, and, at least partially, to the audience), "Good news! She's dead!" The music, visuals and action on stage draw the audience in quickly and effectively.

Other modern musicals begin somewhat more quietly, but by breaking with tradition manage to have the same attention-grabbing effect. Oklahoma! reportedly shocked audiences by starting not with a chorus of beautiful women (as many of the musicals of the early part of the 20th century did), but with an older woman churning butter and the offstage voice of a cowboy singing a folksy solo about the beauty of the morning. The Sound of Music begins with a somber Maria regretting the fact that her "day in the hills / have come to an end," especially since these "hills are alive with the sound of music." Rodgers and Hammerstein caught the attention of war-weary New Yorkers with quiet declarations of the beauty of life, something perhaps shocking for an audience still processing the atrocities of a horrific world war.

Perhaps more than simply a way to grab the audience's attention, an opening number can be an important way for a show to transition the audience into the world of its characters. In many cases, the opening number (and sometimes the closing number) is the only time the characters acknowledge and speak directly to the audience. In his fascinating book From Ritual to Theatre: The Human Seriousness of Play, anthropologist and scholar of ritual Victor Turner describes these moments as "liminoid," times between two realities in which the definitions of each not yet fully marked. Tevye from Fiddler on the Roof address the audience in the opening number, but rarely elsewhere in the play; he starts to address his monologues to God rather than the audience. This season's Honeymoon in Vegas offers an interesting new example of this approach: at first, Jack sings the opening number, "I Love Betsy," directly to the audience, but as the number goes on, he sings to the citizens of Brooklyn.

I now invite you, dear reader, you who I now in the tradition of an opening number directly address, to post in the comments below your own thoughts on how musicals over the past few seasons have transitioned their audience from between the world outside the theatre lobby and the one on stage. Which shows do you think have done this effectively? I'm eager to hear your thoughts!