The Musical as Drama

is already about the performance of numbers. True, but I think
there is more to it than that. Many songs are called for by the
book without the need to invoke the backstage convention.
When Beadle Brampton sits down at Mrs. Lovett’s harmo-
nium to sing his favorite parlor songs in Sweeney Todd, or
when Frankie writes a song, “It’s Got to Be Love,” and sings it
for her handsome teacher in On Your Toes, they bring about
the same result—putting a song intothe book. The hoedown
that opens act 2 of Oklahoma!is called for by the book. It is a
social event for the characters in the book, as is the dance at
the gymnasium that is supposed to bring the Jets and the
Sharks together in West Side Story. I think songs and dances
are called for in the books of many shows not because the
other convention, that of having characters break into song, is
inconvenient to the writers but because the convention of
breaking into song is such a mine of dramatic advantages that
it becomes worth attention in the book. Books can seem bet-
ter for recognizing song-and-dance numbers because songs
and dances lay claim to the same characters and situation as
the book but are in a fair way to improve on the book’s ver-
sion. The book that proceeds as though these song-and-dance
interruptions are not going to happen may be a good book,
but it is missing an opportunity. Knowing that song-and-
dance interruptions are certainly going to happen makes the
book smarter about the aesthetic design it belongs to. This is
more than a convenience.
The term diegetic, borrowed from film criticism, is coming
to be used for numbers that are called for by the book. It is
meant to cover the backstage musicals plus any other occa-
sions on which characters deliberately perform numbers for
other characters. When Beadle Brampton spies the harmo-
nium and sets about singing old ballads, the number is just as
diegetic as the show dances that are being rehearsed in A Cho-
rus Line. Thus, not all diegetic numbers belong to the back-
stage convention, but all numbers from the backstage conven-
tion are diegetic. What they all have in common is that they
are called for as performances in the book. The diegetic num-
ber is not a case of someone “bursting into song.” Rather,

THE DRAMA OF NUMBERS 103