I am Woman, Hear Me Score

Buried in the penultimate paragraph of this piece in the Independent by Claudia Pritchard which previews the new musical, The A to Z of Mrs P, is this little footnote:

"The A-Z of Mrs P is the first major musical by a female lyricist and composer team..."

Now this doesn't quite make sense. The lyricist and composer "team" in this case is Gwyneth Herbert who is providing both music and lyrics. The book writer is Diane Samuels.

But there is a point to be made about the male dominance of musical theatre writers. There have, of course, been some top-flight female writers. Off the top of my head: Betty Comden (On the Town), Dorothy Fields (Sweet Charity), Carol Bayer Sager (They're Playing Our Song), Lynn Ahrens (Ragtime). The notable thing about that list, however, is that they are all lyricists (and some librettists too). No composers.

Why is this? I really have no idea. Maybe it's evolution. Maybe it's the cultural norms of a patriarchal hegemony. Who knows? But it is a curious thing that an art form whose audience is predominantly female should have so few female composers.

Gwyneth Herbert, exception though she may be, sounds more than promising. It's worth taking a listen to this demo of the new song, Lovely London Town, sung by Isy Suttie and taken from the forthcoming musical. I don't know much about the character or story (or, frankly, anything) but I do know that this is an interesting song.

If there is a common criticism of songs from new musicals, it is that they are too generic. I've probably used the word myself before. What is meant by it? Well, it's simply that the music sounds too general. It may be musically correct, it may be tuneful, it may sound inoffensively nice; but if it has nothing distinctive to offer, then it will ultimately lack character. And that's not good, especially in musical theatre.

The good news is that it doesn't take much to make the music distinctive. Going back to "Lovely London Town". It's relatively simple; for the most part, four chords underneath and a repeated four-note melody in a triplet rhythm on top. Yes, there are some nice musical sound effects in the middle (something tinkly and something that sounds like a miniature anvil) but these are for colour, not character.

The character bit is the wordless backing vocals, a chorus of humming and ah-ing that continues throughout the whole song. The light and swoopy sound is immediately evocative. You only have to listen to the first few notes and you know this character is a dreamer. For my money, the simple chords and melody also suggest an introverted or reserved nature. This woman may be a dreamer but she's content in her own dream and doesn't need to tell the world about.

As I said before, I know nothing of the story so I could be way off the mark here. Alternatively (but far less likely) the composer could be way off the mark and have misjudged the drama and written the wrong kind of characterful music. But characterful it is which, to my ears, puts it ahead of much of the competition.

So does this mean that The A to Z of Mrs P will be a rip-roaring runaway success? Impossible to say but hope it is. One thing is clear: the show does have a thoughtful composer capable of writing distinctive music. And that's significant.

The fact that she's a woman is less so.