The Musical as Drama

ber softens Voltaire’s original “we must cultivate our garden”
ending, but it sets forth the penchant for inclusion that the
musical format thrives on.
Legitimate drama has its large scenes, too, but the ensem-
ble numbers of a musical do something that does not happen
in legitimate drama. The characters express themselves simul-
taneously. And the build-up of a number to a simultaneous
performance is often a dramatic event in itself. Normally, the
build-up occurs toward the end of each act of the book, and
the act reaches its climax when that ensemble potential is real-
ized. The earlier climaxes were sometimes called finalettosand
the ending of the entire show the finale ultimato. They were
important enough to need fancy names.
The ensemble as a dramatic event could have its impact
earlier as well, especially in the kind of number that begins as
asolo and expands. At an early moment in George and Ira
Gershwin’s Lady, Be Good!(1924), Ukulele Ike comes on carry-
ing his favorite instrument and sings a chorus of “Fascinating
Rhythm.” Why he is singing this song is a mystery in the plot,
but the answer is obvious when it comes to the performance,
which has Adele Astaire and her brother Fred join Ukulele Ike
on the second chorus, with the orchestra coming in to replace
the ukulele as accompaniment. This number exists to spread
out to the other performers, from Ukulele Ike through the As-
taires to the chorus of singers and dancers who have now been
drawn to the stage for the third, fourth, and fifth choruses of
the number. By now everybody is singing and dancing “Fasci-
nating Rhythm,” which has grown into an ensemble number,
the first showstopper of Lady, Be Good. I have used the names
of the original performers in 1924 to suggest the impact the
number originally had (Ukulele Ike was the stage name of Cliff
Edwards, who was well known, and the Astaires were just then
coming into their own as stars). This number was geared to its
original performers rather than to the plot, but the principle
operating here is the same as the principle operating at the end
of act 1 in A Little Night Music: the musical fulfills its intentions
in the teamwork of ensemble performance, no matter how
many good solos are heard along the way.

THE ENSEMBLE EFFECT 79