Using Popular Songs

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'The springboard for my work is an image -- a theatrical image -- that can give birth to an entire play. For TONGUE OF A BIRD, the image was of a woman in a 1920's flight suit -- leather jacket, helmet, goggles -- hanging in the air. There's something sinister and inscrutable about it.'

-- Ellen McLaughlin

Here's why and where contemporary playwrights do this . . .

• It's a way for characters to speak their Subtext

  And do it without making us cringe. This is what Wendy Wasserstein did for part of the Act I Curtain Line of THE SISTERS ROSENSWEIG. She has one of her characters sing four lines of Frank Sinatra's old hit, "Just the Way You Look Tonight."

• It can provide an Ironic comment

  Especially in relation to the character singing a few telling lines of the song.

  A variant of this is David Henry Hwang having his lead character in M. BUTTERFLY describe the plot of Puccini's opera, Madame Butterfly as we hear a collage of arias from the opera. All of which helps establish for the audience how much this guy has been blinded -- unknowingly of course -- by western stereotypes of Asian culture and Asian women in particular.

  You can hear a few of these arias by clicking on the linked CD cover to amazon.com. And if you need RealPlayer to play these, you'll find it there as a free download.

• It can establish an attitude toward your Theme

  Particularly at the beginning of an act or scene. When songs are used for this at the opening of the play, a recording of the tune from a CD release is often used rather than having one of your characters sing it.

  Edward Albee goes to the opposite end of this approach in WHO'S AFRAID OF VIRGINIA WOOLF. He has George sing a few lines of the old children's tune, "Who's Afraid of the Big Bad Wolf," as part of the final Curtain Line of the play, substituting the name of the experimental English novelist Virginia Woolf for the critter with all the fur and teeth. The reference to the novelist, though very obscure, relates directly to his Theme of the need to cut through the surface of what appears to be reality to the genuine reality beneath that surface.

• It can help establish the time period of your play

  Charles Fuller does this at the Point of Attack of A SOLDIER'S PLAY by using the Andrews Sisters' hit tune of the 1940's, "Don't Sit under the Apple Tree," a song from the era of the play's main action. Its bouncy up-tempo also creates a strong contrast with the murder that suddenly happens as it's playing.

  You can hear them do similar tunes by clicking on the linked CD cover to amazon.com. And if you need RealPlayer to play these, you'll find it there as a free download.

• It can help establish the mood and emotion of a scene

  Tennessee Williams used the blues song, "I Just Can't Stay Here by Myself" for this in the "Broadway" Act III of CAT ON A HOT TIN ROOF -- accompanied in the original Broadway production by the soon-to-become great American blues musicians, Sonny Terry and Brownie McGhee. The song provides mood for the lull in tension just before the Climax of the play.

  You can hear them do similar blues tunes by clicking on the linked CD cover to amazon.com. And if you need RealPlayer to play these, you'll find it there as a free download.