The Musical as Drama

did not know who the characters were in the pantomime. Now
we are finding that the sexy barker from the carousel, who
wants to be different and his own man, is drawn by some ro-
mantic power to voice the same tune that the utterly conven-
tional Carrie sang minutes before. Billy did not hear Carrie’s
song. He just knows it, and it indicates that he belongs to the
community no matter how determined he is to prove himself
unique.
Still, he isdetermined. In his would-be individualism, he is
the character who deserves a “Soliloquy,” and the length of the
solo, and its vocal demands, make it seem almost operatic. We
have already noted that it is not—that it is really two standard
popular song formats joined by several good bridges. Billy has
realized that he must prepare himself to be a good father. I
have mentioned that Molnar let this all remain unsaid in the
corresponding moment of Liliom, a tactful and deft decision.
Rodgers and Hammerstein are using the musical’s conventions
to extend and double Billy’s role through explicitness, and one
has to admire the complexity of the result even as one notes
the obviousness of the method. Then Billy goes back to being
the Molnar character and bungles the robbery that is intended
to enable him to provide for his daughter. Over his body, the
play’s representative of community values, Cousin Nettie, asks
Julie to call to mind the message from “the sampler I gave you.”
The message is “You’ll Never Walk Alone,” an overblown ditty
straining to become an anthem, perhaps the most pretentious
song Rodgers and Hammerstein ever wrote.
Why, then, is this moment heartbreaking? Audiences find
the shared lyric—Julie attempts to sing it, cannot, and Nettie
takes it over as her solo—profound and moving, and I think
they are right. It is because the performance of the shared mu-
sic has its own weight of meaning. The performance catches
the feeling of community fully and gives it substance. Billy has
failed to realize what community means. Now he is dead, his
wife faces poverty with a baby on the way—and yet the com-
munity value provides the strength to survive. Julie cannot sing
it yet, but Nettie can, and Nettie has already sung herself into
the heart of community in “June is Bustin’ Out All Over.” The

86 CHAPTER FOUR