Low male voice repertoire in contemporary musical theatre: a studio and performance guide of selected songs 1996-2020 by

Vocal Considerations. 
Musical Style. This is a gentle, poignant ballad first performed by one of the greatest comic 
actors in Broadway History. Lippa’s score is incredibly varied stylistically throughout the musical – this 
torch song is written like a product of a bygone era, with hints of Sondheim through varied harmonic 
choices in a “pop-sounding” ballad, and a vocalist should be able to sing both in a character and 
contemporary legit style. 

---

85 
Range. (D
♭
2 
– D
♭
4
) This piece was originally recorded in D
♭ major, which is the key available in 
The Singer’s Musical Theatre Anthology series. Most production recordings found on YouTube have 
performances in E
♭ major – it may be the case that the licensed version has the second key as their 
standard. Similar instances with modified keys occurred with selections from Nathan Lane’s production 
of The Frogs, as well as the “Hellfire” publication change noted in a previous chapter. The lower key 
would allow a young low-male voice to freely express or use speech to voice exercises throughout the 
piece without worrying about technical facility at their second passaggio. This piece could be paired 
nicely in a teaching setting with “Litanei” (Schubert) or other lied from the Romantic era that use warmth 
in their middle voice to set an environment or tell the story, without resorting to a loud dynamic. 
Vocalism. Nathan Lane uses the sustained melody in the bridge and final verse to humorous 
affect with his use of straight tone, dialect, and vibrato on the second, unaccented syllables of descriptive 
text. Individually, his choices may cause a listener to wince due to the disruption of vocal color or line; 
by purposefully adding in a multitude of these choices it almost pokes fun at the more traditional legit 
style of music that “Happy/Sad” alludes to.
9
In addition, the whole song is about the yin and yang, or 
dark and bright portions of Gomez and Wednesday’s characters, so a variation of style can evoke more of 
that dualism as well. This piece can also be incredibly touching when singing far more often in a 
contemporary legit style. The lowered key and scalar melody allows for the occurrence of open timbre 
vowels in notes between D
♭
3
-A
♭
3
. Merwin Foard’s rehearsal recording, used in the motion picture The 
Standbys includes a much more present and consistent use of vibrato; he fills the spaces in the 
introductory verse with consonants, and sings fully sustained offbeat second syllables as written (“ha-
ppy”, “contradict-tions”, “wel-come”) that allow the warmth of his voice to mold the character, while still 
giving clear and crisp consonants
10
. Additionally, Foard backphrases in the bridge, shortening his 
9
Ibid. 
10
Various Artists – Topic, “Happy/Sad,” September 3, 2020, video, 4:19, https://youtu.be/dSFaLlAjaAA. 

---

86 
sustained legato lines through which a Bel Canto influence may have affect the clarity of text necessary 
within the contemporary aesthetic.
11
Songs in a Similar Style. “Ariadne” from The Frogs (2004), “Love Who You Love” from A Man 
of No Importance (2002), “Good Thing Going” from Merrily We Roll Along (suggested in the E
♭ key). 
11
Ibid. 

---

87 
Table 9.3. “Barry is Going to Prom”