Writer's block is a strange thing. When I first came up with The Card Sharks, the ideas flowed so easily. Streets, the opening number, was written in a matter of hours, and the characters seemed to take shape quickly, as if they were actually had been alive once upon a time and I was just learning about them, rather than making them up from scratch. We have Charlie, the mummy's boy, Howie the youngster, Jack the deviant etc etc. I had the plot mapped out and knew the journey each character would go on. I wrote a comedy number, a few ballads, and again, the lyrics and notes all seemed to already exist in my mind, it was just a case of remembering them.
It's becoming increasingly harder to apply the finishing touches the show needs to be ready to perform. A technique I always love in musical theatre is the way one melody can be used so many times throughout the show. The Phantom uses this well, with the title theme returning mysteriously both as Christine heads to her father's grave and also more energetically as Christine and Raoul escape to the opera house roof. Another show that does this expertly is Les Misérables. The beautiful Bring Him Home returning in the finale, Master Of The House returning as Beggars At The Feast and the melody of On My Own being used in Fantine's death scene. Indeed, Valjean's defiant number, Who Am I? where he admits to his crimes, is a nod to One Day More, the rousing full company number that ends act one. Another tool Les Mis uses well is the idea of character themes. Each character has their own theme which we hear when that character enters. Javert, the police inspector who spends the majority of the show pursuing Valjean, has a prominent theme. It's urgent and rhythmic, and is used quite often to almost interrupt whatever music is happening at the time, as Javert appears on the scene. I have always admired this technique and strive to use it in my show. I have Amy's theme sorted. Amy is the love interest of our hero, Chris. Chris is one of the gang and against his better judgement fills deeper into the world of gambling and cheating. Amy's theme serves to remind us of her, gentle and honest, in Chris' (our hero) world of increasing deception and lies. I don't want each character to have a theme as I don't think the show needs it and I don't want to use the technique for the technique's sake. I do think Amy's is important however as, as I said above, it reflects her character.
As I said in my first entry of this blog, I wanted writing it to really motivate me to really get back into the show again, and it really has done exactly that. I'm excited about the characters again, and the songs, and I'm really enjoying exploring them and seeing exactly how they're going to grow.
As always, thanks for reading. Until next time...
