Chapter Three

CHARACTER AND THE VOICE

OF THE MUSICAL

Are There Real People in Musicals?

A

BETTER book is what made the musical seem to be-
come integrated, a better book that demanded more
care in thinking about the kinds of numbers that would
be able to interrupt these good plots. That is part of the argu-
ment so far. But we have not faced the character issue fully
enough. Integration theory holds that the new musicals deep-
ened the psychology of the characters, as though the way now
stood open to the presentation of real people in real situations.
“West Side Storyis about real people: real life, real love,” says
one of the best books on the mid-century musical, Ethan
Mordden’s Everything’s Coming Up Roses.^1 Is this true?
The doubling effect we have described when characters
change from book to number would mean the answer is no, if
by real we mean life as it is normally lived in the world of fact
and event outside the theatre. Book and number routines are
for the stage. Yet Ethan Mordden knows that and still uses
“real” for West Side Story. I think he is right, but I want to
know why reality comes to mind when we are obviously deal-
ing with theatrical performance.
The conclusion of West Side Storygives us something new in
musicals—a plot that ends in grief. Tony has been killed, and
the grief is left to Maria. In some sense she is real at this point—
as real as stage characters can be. All stage characters have been
transformed beyond real people by being written in the first

(^1) Mordden, Everything’s Coming Up Roses, p. 245.