Still Only Singing in the Building
A few weeks ago, I posted here a gorgeous song that Meryl Streep sings beautifully and evocatively in Season 3 of the Hulu series Only Murders in the Building.
I thought I’d post a few other songs that range between excellent and great fun from the series. This one falls into the “great fun” category.
It’s a tongue-twister patter song that Steven Martin performs, called “Which of the Pickwick Triplets Did It?” There are two backgrounds to the number it helps to know.
The first is the song’s context in the loopy Broadway musical being put on in the series. The musical, Death Rattle Dazzle, is itself a murder mystery where the three top murder suspects are (for some intentionally idiotic and unexplained reason) three toddler babies. It's being directed by Martin Short's character, who also supposedly wrote all the songs. (Apparently in an also unexplained, incredibly fast period of time...)
The other background is that Steve Martin's character in the series, 'Charles-Haden Savage,' is a former, big TV star in a detective show. And for the musical, Martin Short has asked him to step out of his comfort zone to play a constable. The problem is that Steve Martin's series character, 'Charles,' has a total, overwhelming inability to get through the song during rehearsals. He has such difficulty with it, in fact, that he keeps hallucinating during his attempts in front of the cast. And even quits the show at one point, because he just can’t get it, and it's too stressful. This performance here is the first rehearsal actually on a stage and with an orchestra. With everyone in the production watching closely, nervous about whether can ever make it through. And yes, he nails it.
(In an interview later, Steve Martin said, “It was a thrill to sing and a thrill to be done with." When you see the song, and what he has to go through, you'll understand.)
By the way, after the rehearsal performance, a woman stands up in the seats and yells at the stage. She's the real inspector of the murder.
The songs for the series were written by Benj Pasek and Justin Paul, who wrote the stage musical Dear Evan Hansen, and the move musicals La La Land and The Greatest Showman. I find their work very professional and sometimes very good -- they won an Oscar for Best Song, after all, with "This is Me" from The Greatest Showman -- though not (for my taste) especially memorable overall, and so (for my taste...), they had the good sense to bring in other accomplished writers to collaborate with them on most of the songs. And the results working together were excellent. For Meryl Streep’s song noted above, it was co-written with Sara Bareilles. For this tongue-twister patter song, they worked with Marc Shaiman and Scott Wittman whose credits include the musical Hairspray (winning the Tony Award for Best Score) and the recent Some Like It Hot, which is currently running on Broadway.
And for a fun P.S., collaborators Shaiman and Wittman were asked about working with Pasek and Paul. And they sent their reply as a lyric to the tune of the song --
Which Of The Broadway Writers Wrote It?
Who Of The Four Had The Wherewithal?
Was Is Marc & Scott
Placing Rhymes In Each Slot?
Or Did All Alliteration Come From Pasek & Paul?
Which Of The Broadway Writers Wrote It? Four On A Page Seemed A Lot At First
But We Laughed And We Sang
Till The Set Bell Rang
Then Steve Martin Sang It Sweet
For The Masses Who Can Tweet And Quote It
The Answer Is All Of The Big Four Broadway Writers Wrote It!
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