Feature: April Showers Show Tunes Bring Young Love
By: Matt Tamanini Apr. 19, 2015
"Though April showers may come your way, they bring the flowers that bloom in May!" so go the words of the old Tin Pan Alley song. When the days begin to get longer, and the daffodils work to pop up through the dirt, we know that spring is just around the corner. April is that gateway to birds singing, grass growing, and romance blooming. This month we look at the show tunes that celebrate spring, the season's sweet rains, and the young love that often accompanies the warmer weather.
"It's Spring" from A YEAR WITH FROG AND TOAD | 2002
by: Matt Tamanini | @BWWMatt
I could think of no better way to kick off this list than with a song that celebrates everything that is great about spring, and especially the month of April. This musical by Robert Reale (music) and Willie Reale (book and lyrics), and based on the classic children's books by Arnold Lobel, was considered revolutionary when it came to Broadway. The commercial theatre had rarely seen a show aimed specifically at kids be as successful as A YEAR WITH FROG AND TOAD. Starring everyone's favorite Cousin Larry, Mark-Linn Baker (who was married to Lobel's daughter Adrianne at the time), and Jay Goede, the show earned three Tony nominations in 2003, including Best Musical.
Video: San Antonio's Magik Theatre's 2010 production:
"Soon It's Gonna Rain" from THE FANTASTICKS | 1960
by: Jeff Walker | @jeffwalker66
Is there any show more romantic than THE FANTASTICKS? With a hint of Romeo and Juliet (happy ending-version!), the record-breaking Off-Broadway musical by Tom Jones and Harvey Schmidt has warmed hearts and entertained audiences the world over for decades. Among the poignant musical moments, "Soon It's Gonna Rain" stands as a lovely and pure love duet for the Boy and Girl. Even though narrator El Gallo says it's September, I think of this song as April Love personified. It also tops my list because it represents one of my favorite onstage memories from my young leading man days.
Video: Max Crumm and Samantha Bruce from the Off-Broadway production at THE FANTASTICKS' 2014 Broadway in Bryant Park performance:
"The Rain in Spain" from MY FAIR LADY | 1959
by: Matt Tamanini | @BWWMatt
Though not exactly "young" love, this rain-themed song is the beginning of a burgeoning fondness between MY FAIR LADY's central couple, common flowergirl Eliza Doolittle and misogynistic grammarian Henry Higgins. With lyrics by Alan Jay Lerner and music by Frederick Loewe, the show musicalizes George Bernard Shaw's classic PYGMALION, into what just might be the perfect musical from Broadway's Golden Era. Whether Eliza and Higgins wind up together has been one of the must thoroughly discussed questions in musical theatre for the past 56 years, and if you are inspired by April's romantic rains, you might cause Shaw to roll over in his grave.
Video: Rex Harrison, Audrey Hepburn (with help from Marni Nixon's vocals), and Wilfrid Hyde-White from the 1964 movie version of MY FAIR LADY:
"It Might As Well Be Spring" from STATE FAIR | 1945
by: Jeff Walker | @jeffwalker66
After their stunning success on Broadway with OKLAHOMA!, Hollywood used the formidable talents of the new writing team Richard Rodgers and Oscar Hammerstein II to help create a homespun film musical. The resulting film STATE FAIR may not have been a landmark like OKLAHOMA! or CAROUSEL were to Broadway, but it was pleasant and certainly tuneful. Following a family's journey to the Iowa State Fair, and their romantic entanglements along the way, STATE FAIR introduced one huge standard to the American songbook: "It Might as Well Be Spring."
Video: Rodger's and Hammerstein legend Shirley Jones singing the song on THE DANNY THOMAS SHOW:
"Younger than Springtime" from SOUTH PACIFIC | 1955
by: Matt Tamanini | @BWWMatt
Man, Rodgers and Hammerstein knew how to write a song about the romantic optimism of spring-time, didn't they? In SOUTH PACIFIC, young, head-strong Lt. Cable falls in love with Bloody Mary's daughter, Liat. Though they are separated by a language gap, Cable knows that their love was immediate, and defies the racial boundaries that my otherwise separate them. There is no better representation of what passion spring can bring.
Video: Jason Danieley and Ren Croney from 2005's SOUTH PACIFIC: IN CONCERT FROM CARNEGIE HALL:
"The Word of Your Body" from SPRING AWAKENING | 2006
by: Jeff Walker | @jeffwalker66
Late-nineteenth century German teenagers coming of age to an alt-rock score took Broadway by storm in 2006. SPRING AWAKENING was based on a controversial German play by George Wedekind that premiered in 1891. Steven Sater provided book and lyrics and singer-songwriter Duncan Sheik composed the score. The young characters face their own growing libidos, discover their desires for the opposite sex (and the same sex), and experiment with intimacy throughout the musical. The show also established Jonathan Groff as a young leading man of note, and the multi-talented Lea Michele before she headed to GLEE. "The Word of Your Body" gives two of the characters a chance to think about giving in to the physical desires that usually accompany young love; and bonus, it's from a musical that has "Spring" in its title.
Video: Jonathan Groff and Lea Michele from the Original Broadway production:
"River in the Rain" from BIG RIVER | 1985
by: Matt Tamanini | @BWWMatt
Though not a romantic love, in BIG RIVER, Huckleberry Finn and Jim share a special bond that transcends simple friendship. Despite ships returning runaway slaves, con men, and slave owners, the pair attempts to sail north, where Jim can live as a free man, and Huck can avoid becoming "civilized." The pair sing of the beloved Mississippi River that will hopefully take them where they want to be. This song is a simple, love song to the power and majesty of "Big Muddy."
Video: Daniel Jenkins, Ron Richardson, and the Original Broadway company perform "Muddy Water" and "River in the Rain" on the 1985 Tonys telecast:
"Singin' in the Rain" from SINGING IN THE RAIN | 1952
by: Jeff Walker | @jeffwalker66
What more can I say? April brings showers, and Hollywood brought us the essential song-and-dance man Gene Kelly. In 1952, one of the best movie musicals ever was released, and "Singin' in the Rain" entered our popular culture iconography as a joyous celebration of love and abandon. The film has been adapted for the stage here and in the UK, but you just can't beat Gene Kelly.
Video: Gene Kelly in the iconic 1952 film SINGING IN THE RAIN:
"Make Our Garden Grow" CANDIDE | 1956
by: Jeff Walker | @jeffwalker66
Leonard Bernstein did not do things halfway. A few years earlier, he established his Broadway composing career with the dance-heavy tuner ON THE TOWN with lyrics by old pals Betty Comden and Adolph Green. This time he worked with dramatist Lillian Helman (and many others) from the source material by French novelist Voltaire to create a modern operetta filled with arias, ensembles, choral sections, and pastiches of music from around the world. The "best of all possible worlds" was not all it could have been in 1956, so the show has been tinkered with nearly continually since 1974. One of the constants among the many versions of the score is the stunningly beautiful finale "Make Our Garden Grow" where the title character, Candide, is reunited at last with his love Cunegonde, and they promise to establish a fruitful life together.
Video: Kristin Chenoweth, Paul Groves, Patti LuPone, Jeff Blumenkrantz, Janine LaManna and company in the 2005 NY Philharmonic Concert:
"I Feel So Much Spring within Me" from A NEW BRAIN | 1998
by: Matt Tamanini | @BWWMatt
There are few people in the modern musical theatre that can create a song as moving and emotional as William Finn. In his musical A NEW BRAIN, which features a book by James Lapine, Finn turns a jingle written for a children's show, "Frogs Have So Much Spring Within Them," into a moving anthem about a man who has finally found the balance between the conflicting aspects of his life.
In A NEW BRAIN, Gordon is a composer who suddenly discovers that he has an arteriovenous malformation (much like Finn did in real life), and requires immediate brain surgery. Through his life-and-death battle, operation, and subsequent coma, Gordon realizes how important the people in his life are to him, and that he still has many songs left to write.
Video: I included two videos of this one, first a short clip of original Gordon, Malcolm Gets, on THE ROSIE O'DONNELL SHOW, and then a full version from the 2008 NYU-Steinhardt Graduate Music Theatre Showcase:
Malcolm Gets on ROSIE:
NYU-Steinhardt:
Clearly there are plenty of other show tunes that evoke the spring and it's romantic precipitation; "It's Raining on Prom Night" from GREASE, "A Little Fall of Rain" from LES MISERABLES, "Don't Rain on My Parade" from FUNNY GIRL, "Stranger to the Rain" from CHILDREN OF EDEN, and "Love Fell Like Rain" from BROOKLYN, just to name a few. What are your favorites that we didn't include on the list? Let us know in the comments below or on Twitter at @jeffwalker66 and @BWWMatt. Jeff and Matt also write about TV, movies, and theatre in Washington D.C. (Jeff) and Orlando, Florida (Matt).
We will be back next month with a list of songs that celebrate "The Lusty Month of May!" If you enjoyed this list, check out our January feature on the Most Hummable Sondheim Songs, February's Valentine's Day list of Broadway's best Anti-Love Songs, and March's Ides themed collection of Shakespeare Inspired Show Tunes.
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