Ben Upbin - Musical Theatre Songs and The Hero's Journey

    I was walking to my dorm room while listening to music and I came to a realization that I just had to write about. After writing my Campbell essay on probably the most outrageous movie I could possibly think of (Shark Boy and Lava Girl will always be near and dear to my heart), I've realized that the formula for the hero's journey can be applied to almost any kind of story.

    On the way back to my dorm I happened to be listening to the soundtrack for Beetlejuice the Musical, and I noticed that not only were the songs going through Lydia's progression through the hero's journey, but many of the songs represented specific stages in the hero's journey. Say My Name is Lydia's call to action and refusal of the call as Beetlejuice tries to convince her to say his name. Day-O is supernatural aid as Lydia uses Adam and Barbara, her ghost friends, to possess her dad and businessmen. Day-O also contains the bellyof the beast as Lydia, in desperation due to herfailed plan, summons Beetlejuice and he scares everyone but Lydia off. Home is sung as Lydia's atonement with the father. She has run into the netherworld to find her mom but has gotten lost and is now crying singing about how things have changed since she's died. Creepy Old Guy is the apotheosis stage where Lydia and her family createa fake wedding to lure Beetlejuice into a false sense of security before bringing him back to life and stabbing him in the heart, killing him.... again. Lydia then becomes the master of 2 worlds as she sings Shake Senora surrounded by her living and ghost family.

    I think musicals have the potential to be one of the greatest ways to tell a story oof a hero's journey. Singing allows a storyteller to give the audience what would be 5 minutes of dialogue in around 2.5 minutes. because songs canbe from anyone's perspective, singing can give the audience relevent information on the external journey of the characters, but can also detail 1 specific character's internal struggle. Musicals, and live theater of any kind also has the unique ability to let the audience see the ccharacters in person, which lets them empathize and relate to them more.

    Finally, there are many types of songs that musicals employ that also relateto stages in the hero's journey. The "I Want" song is a typeof song where a character sings about something they want or something they want to achieve. It usually contains the words "I want...". These songs would be the lead up to a character's call to action. The "Song Before the Storm" is sung before the climax occurs. This would relate to the character's belly of the beast stage. This song would usually represent the point of no return for the story. Lastly, an "Eleven O'Clock Number", named after the time it would be sung when all musicals used to start at 8:30PM, describes the climax of the story. 

There is an example of a musical that uses these story elements as the main plot, but I'll talk about it in a separate blog post.