This seems promising, as though it might be a recognition
scene for the Phantom too. But he has no response. Instead,
there being a lake within the lair, with the true lover swimming
across it at this very moment, the Phantom is allowed to be dis-
tracted from what Christine has sung. His lyric veers off to the
oddity of a hero who is climbing out of the water dripping wet:
Wait! I think, my dear,
we have a guest!Then the magical rope descends to coil around the hero’s neck,
there is some singing back and forth about Christine’s need to
save her lover by leaving with the Phantom, she kisses the
Phantom, the business of burning through the magical rope is
performed, Christine and her lover sail away in a boat, and the
Phantom pulls off one more disappearing trick.
This kind of musical dodges the challenges and opportuni-
ties offered by the genre. Contemporary shows written in the
through-sung mode (such as Les Misérables, Miss Saigon, The
Lion King) resort to the wonders of stage technology in order
to preserve the illusion of a seamless whole. (Sometimes the
technology is not computerized and can be wonderful, as in
the opening procession of The Lion King.) I wish to set Sweeney
Toddin contrast to the Phantomtype of show because it is Sond-
heim’s closest approach to the quasi-operatic mode and yet it
shows how the principles of the musical can be used to create a
different dramatic quality.
For example, Sweeney Todddoes face up to its recognition
scene. In fact, it is two recognitions occurring simultaneously,
Sweeney’s that he has murdered his own wife, Mrs. Lovett’s
that the damper has been put on her own hopes of marry-
ing Sweeney. The solution to the problem of how to express
two recognitions simultaneously is entirely musical. Sweeney
reprises the “Lucy lies in ashes” segment from his earlier
“Epiphany,” Mrs. Lovett reprises her earlier “Poor Thing”
(with new lyrics, which try to justify her having misled Sweeney
about his wife), and Sondheim wedges the two into simultane-
ity by varying the meter of “Poor Thing” from 6/8 to 5/8 in
order to get a fit. The orchestra is a partner here too. It is playing