Chapter Four

THE ENSEMBLE EFFECT

Chorus Lines

W

E HAVE just seen why singing and dancing cho-
ruses have been such a long-standing convention
in musicals. “A Weekend in the Country” is an ef-
fective version of what happens at least once in all musicals: the
enlargement of singing and dancing from one or two charac-
ters to an ensemble. There is a drive toward ensemble perfor-
mance in the musical dramatic form, and this drive is the
fullest rendition of what I have been calling the voice of the
musical. In smaller shows, such as William Finn’s Falsettostril-
ogy, the ensemble may amount to a quintet or sextet, but the
drive toward an inclusive group performance will still be there.
It is especially strong in the most successful rock musicals,
Hair(1968) and Rent(1996).^1
The ending of Candideamounts to a formal dramatization of
this principle. In his disillusionment over the failure of Pan-
gloss’s “best of all possible worlds” philosophy, Candide sends
everyone away and prepares to live alone. This would be the
antithesis of a musical’s normal ending, but one by one the
characters return to the stage, Pangloss bearing a fish for din-
ner, the Old Woman twigs for a fire, Maxmillian a broom for
sweeping; the final number, “Make Our Garden Grow,” takes
shape as a sextette. Then the entire company enters and the
number becomes a chorus. The muted optimism of the num-

(^1) The theme of community in both rock musicals receives smart discussion
in Scott Miller, Rebels with Applause: Broadway’s Groundbreaking Musicals. Two
broad surveys of inclusiveness in the American musical have recently appeared:
Most, Making Americans: Jews and the Broadway Musical, and Knapp, The Amer-
ican Musical and the Formation of National Identity.