Questioning Songs in Stage Musicals (Part 4) Quiz

Answer: Jesus Christ Superstar

"Could We Start Again, Please?" comes late in Act II, after Jesus has been arrested and his followers realize that things seem to be spinning out of control. Jesus had previously driven the money changers out of his temple. It's sung primarily by Mary Magdalene and Peter the Apostle, with accompaniment from Jesus Christ's disciples.

Andrew Lloyd Webbers and Tim Rice's music and lyrics go:
Mary sings "I've been living to see you, dying to see you, but it shouldn't be like this... Could we start again please?" to which Peter adds, "I think you've made your point now... Before it gets too frightening, we ought to call a halt."

Answer: Side Show

With music by Henry Krieger and lyrics by Bill Russell, "Does Anybody Love You?" is a song from "Side Show" telling the true story of Daisy Hilton and Violet Hilton, twin sisters conjoined at the hip, who had been a sideshow act that rose to fame in vaudeville during the 1930s. The smooth-talking talent scout Terry Connor, who helped the Hilton sisters, sings the song in the first act, after the twins left the sideshow and are adjusting to life, trying to navigate romance, and society.

"Does anybody love you?
Do they know just who you are?
When they see behind the smile, do they see your broken heart?"

Answer: The Secret Garden

Lily Craven, the ghost of Archibald Craven's late wife, and Archibald Craven himself sing "How Could I Ever Know?" from "The Secret Garden", the Tony Award-winning musical with music by Lucy Simon and lyrics/book by Marsha Norman. Archibald has been grieving over Lily's death in childbirth and can't bear to face their son, Colin, because he reminds Archibald too much of Lily. But Archibald's orphaned niece, Mary Lennox, has revived the magical garden which has started healing everyone emotionally.

"How Could I Ever Know?" is the song Lily's spirit and Archibald sing when she comforts him: "How could I know I would have to leave you?
How could I know I would hurt you so?"

Answer: Hadestown

"How Long?" is a duet from the folk-opera "Hadestown", sung by Persephone and Hades in the underworld after Orpheus arrives looking for Eurydice. Persephone pleads with Hades to release the lovers, but Hades resists, concerned that a show of vulnerability will bring about his overthrow. Persephone sings about Orpheus's despair: "All of his sorrow won't fit in his chest / It just burns like a fire in the pit of his chest." Hades responds, "How long? Just as long as Hades is King / Nothing comes of wishing on stars / And nothing comes of the songs people sing".

Answer: 1776

"Is Anybody There" is sung by the Founding Father John Adams in the musical "1776" by composer/lyricist Sherman Edwards. Congress empties after yet another deadlock vote on independence, and Adams is alone with secretary Charles Thomson, questioning if anyone shares his vision for revolution: "Is anybody there? / Does anybody care? / Does anybody see what I see?". Defying those who call for hm to give up, he describes his vision, ""I see fireworks! I see the pageant and pomp and parade / I hear the bells ringing out / I hear the cannons roar / I see Americans - all Americans / Free forever more."

Answer: Avenue Q

With music and lyrics by Robert Lopez and Jeff Marx, "Avenue Q" uses puppets as characters, and focuses on the character Princeton who moves to Avenue Q seeking a purpose for his English degree. He befriends Kate Monster (puppeteered by my cousin Stephanie D'Abruzzo, who was Tony-nominated for Best Actress!). In the musical's opening number Princeton sings "What Do You Do with a BA in English?":
"What do you do with a B.A. in English? / What is my life going to be? / Four years of college and plenty of knowledge / Has earned me this useless degree."

Answer: The Roar of the Greasepaint - The Smell of the Crowd

Music and lyrics for "The Roar of the Greasepaint - The Smell of the Crowd" are by Leslie Bricusse and Anthony Newley - Mr. Newley also starred in the original Broadway production in 1965. And Newley's character, named Cocky sings "Who Can I Turn To?" near the end of Act I after he accidentally causes a bystander's death while playing a surreal game against the cruel Sir.
"Who can I turn to when nobody needs me?
My heart wants to know, and so I must go where destiny leads me..."

Answer: Lizzie the Musical

Along with the questioning songs "Will You Lie?" and "Will You Stay?", "Why Are All These Heads Off?" is also from the all-female punk-rock musical by Steven Cheslik-deMeyer and Alan Stevens Hewitt, about Lizzie Borden's infamous axe murders in 1892. The song is triggered by Lizzie's maid, Bridget Sullivan, who tells Lizzie that her father, Andrew Borden, saw Lizzie in the barn with her secret friend/lover Alice Russell, so in a fit of rage, he took an axe and decapitated the pigeons that Lizzie had been taking caring of.

Answer: Urinetown

"Urinetown" is by Mark Hollmann (music and lyrics), and it is a musical parody of other musicals such as "Les Misérables", "Threepenny Opera", "Evita", "Into the Woods" and several others. The plot involves a twenty-year drought that has led to a ban on private bathrooms, so now everyone has to pay to use public restrooms. The song comes when the female character (sometimes Penelope Pennywise or sometimes Hope Cladwell) regrets having followed the advice of a male character (Bobby Strong or Caldwell B. Cladwell).
"Why did I listen to that man?
He told me to trust him, and now here I am!"

Answer: She Loves Me

"She Loves Me" is the stage musical version of the same source material ("Parfumerie", a 1937 play by Miklós László) that inspired the films "The Shop Around the Corner" and "You've Got Mail". Amalia Balash and Georg Nowack are two clerks working in a European parfumerie in the 1930s, and in person they constantly argue.

But they both are also secretly carrying on anonymous romances through a "lonely hearts" advertisement, and you guessed it, they don't realize that their pen pals are actually each other.

While getting ready for her blind date with her correspondent, Amalia sings: "Will he like me when we meet? / Will the shy and quiet girl he's going to see / Be the girl that he's imagined me to be?" ... "Will he know that there's a world of love / Waiting to warm him?"