“for me” and not for her daughters—and would go on scream-
ing “for me” while the orchestra faded out with scratchy vio-
lins. “A woman having a nervous breakdown should not get ap-
plause from the audience,” Sondheim thought.^10 There would
be a “chilling moment” in the theatre, then “the daughter
would come out of the wings applauding her, and they would
go on.” Shifting the applause function to Louise would have
removed the conventional sign of the gap, the moment of au-
dience applause at the end of a number.
In the Gypsyplanning, this matter of applause became deci-
sive. When Oscar Hammerstein saw the number during the
tryout run, he advised Sondheim to let the audience do its own
applauding. “The audience is so anxious to applaud her that
they are not listening to the scene that follows,” Hammerstein
is reported to have said. So Sondheim let Ethel Merman bring
the number to a close and draw her applause from the audi-
ence. Hammerstein was making a practical point in advising
Sondheim to let the number come to a clear ending. I am put-
ting the same point in theoretical terms. The ending of a num-
ber normally requires definition in a musical, on the one hand
to let an audience show its appreciation for a strong perfor-
mance, and on the other, to distinguish the closure of one or-
der of time, the repetitive order of the number, from the re-
sumption of the other, the progressive order of the book. (The
dance-rape in West Side Storyallows for no applause, though. It
is exceptional.)
Laurey Makes Up Her Mind
Finally, in what is often set forth as the classic case of integra-
tion, Laurey’s dream at the end of act 1 in Oklahoma!is a
“recognition” of the mistake she is making by taunting Curly
and pretending to favor Jud. The ballet was originally entitled
“Laurey Makes Up Her Mind,” as though the crucial turn of
the plot occurred in the dream, but in fact Laurey goes on to be
50 CHAPTER TWO
(^10) Secrest, Stephen Sondheim, p. 139.