Random Musings

The musical “Cinderella” runs at the Esplanade Theatre next month, and I am not going to miss it for the world.

It’s features a Rodgers & Hammerstein score, plus the most beautiful female voice in the world (Lea Salonga)…so how could I miss it??

Anyway, since I’ve already bought my tickets, I decided to do a bit of research and get myself familiarised with some of the songs, cos I’ve never watched the R&H version of “Cinderella” before.

And I stumbled upon this:

Now, when I heard the first two lines of the male’s song when he started singing (2:31 onwards), my jaw literally dropped.

This, my friends, is another example of the genius of Rodgers & Hammerstein:

“Ten minutes ago I saw you,
I looked up when you came through the door,
My head started reeling, you gave me the feeling
The room had no ceiling or floor.”

Now this is why R&H are R&H – You’ve got one of the finest lyricists that ever worked in Broadway theatre, and the greatest composer of tunes that Broadway has ever known.

The melody of the first two lines is instantly appealing. This is what you would call a strong tune. It makes you want to listen on.

And the lyrics…oh my!

The thing that sets people like Oscar Hammerstein apart from other mere mortals is stuff like inner rhymes.

Notice how he not only writes a double inner rhyme…but a TRIPLE inner rhyme?!? (Reeling, feeling and ceiling.) That’s just totally insane and that was what blew my mind the moment I heard it. It was a triple inner rhyme, and yet the lyric was so perfectly structured and made perfect sense. (Inner rhymes are highly deliberate devices in lyric-writing, which require lots of brilliance to construct.)

Now this is another reason why Rodgers & Hammerstein are, in my books, the greatest Broadway duo ever.