Below is a rough/preliminary outline for the paper on the effectiveness of non-linear story-telling in musicals, that I will be writing, as part of my Senior year project.
Intro. Research question: To what extent is linear narration a
factor in the success or failure of a musical. Thesis: In
company, The musical's success was based on the wit and raw power of Sondheim's lyrics, the relatability of the main character, and the catchiness of his music. Sweeney Todd was a success
due to it's nature of storytelling. The audience wants justice
for the main character, but once a line of social behavior (killing people so that they can be baked into pies) has been crossed the audience will withdraw, and
judges the hero as villainous. Merrily we roll along flopped on
broadway due to being too sophisticated in its way of
storytelling, for an audience that was used to stereotypical or
linear storytelling. Success in this case, is determined by
performances and revenue.
Part 1: Company.
Part 2: Sweeney todd.
part 3: Merrily we roll along.
Company: Company is a plotless musical, made up of individual vignettes. The vignettes were connected by the main character, Bobby, and him trying to find love. He tied the musical together. The
Unconventional method of storytelling here is that the
characters, except for the main one, are ephemeral and
interchangeable; each character is seen in his own vignette, but does not re-appear until the end of the show. The characters don't seem to notice each other, outside of their individual vignettes, which all involve the main character. Despite it's non-linear method of story-telling, this musical was a smash hit due to
its raw emotion, stellar acting and music. Musical examples of
the varied emotions in the musical include Being alive, Marry
me a little, The ladies who lunch, and barcelona. Some of these
songs make up individual vignettes, while others are parts of
larger scenes. The ambiguous ending, a hallmark of non-linear storytelling, is what made this work a
hit, the audience does not know what happens to the main character in the end,
and we don't need to. Definite endings, as Company shows, are not
always needed for a smash hit. Let the audience decide.
Part 2: Sweeney todd. Though the storyline in this musical is
linear, it has a psychological twist; in that way, we can say
that it's method of story-telling is non-linear. The
psychological twist is that we sympathize with our main character
less and less, when we see that he assists in cannibalism,
thus becoming a serial killer. His initial goal of revenge has turned into senseless murder. Since the
audience has lost faith in/is disgusted by the main character, the
audience's focus shifts to his daughter and we want her to get
away unscathed from her murdering father.
Merrily we roll along: Merrily we roll along's non-linear story-telling device is it's ambiguous ending-beginning., Since the musical
goes in reverse chronological order, most audiences of the time were
confused with the lack of closure in the ending-beginning, and found the story hard to follow. Hence the musical
got bad reviews when it opened and only ran for 16 performances
on Broadway. To my knowledge, no-one has tried a
reverse-chronological musical since. Though the lyrics are brilliant, as exemplified by songs such as Now you know, Franklin Shepherd inc, old friends, Bobby and Jackie and Jack, and Opening Doors, the reverse chronology and ambiguous ending-beginning left most audience members befuddled. We, as an audience, lose
faith in our main character, since he devolved from an optimistic, intelligent composer at the end of the show, into a greedy egotistical studio
executive who doesn't care about the people around him at the beginning.
Conclusion: Linear narration, does not necessarily mean success
for a musical, nonlinear musicals can only succeed if they are
bound together by quality music and lyrics, a story which is not overly complicated/convoluted and simple to follow, and relatable characters.
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