Meadowlark (song)

Last updated

"Meadowlark"
Song
Written1989
Songwriter(s) Stephen Schwartz

Meadowlark is a song from the musical The Baker's Wife , with music and lyrics by Stephen Schwartz. [1] It has been performed by several famous Broadway singers such as Carole Demas, Patti LuPone, Betty Buckley, Liz Callaway, Alice Ripley, Susan Egan, Judy Kuhn, Julia Murney, Sarah Brightman, Lea Salonga, Alex Newell, Tituss Burgess, [2] and Andrew Rannells. [3]

In the musical, it is sung by the character Geneviève, trying to decide whether she should stay with her husband or run off with a younger man. She likens her situation to the fairy tale about a meadowlark who lived with a king who adored her. One day, the sun god approached the meadowlark and urged her to come with him. The meadowlark refused and perished. At the end of the song, Geneviève decides to leave with the younger man.

Related Research Articles

<i>Song and Dance</i> 1982 musical

Song and Dance is a musical comprising two acts, one told entirely in "Song" and one entirely in "Dance", tied together by a unifying love story.

<i>Godspell</i> Musical

Godspell is a musical composed by Stephen Schwartz with book by John-Michael Tebelak. The show is structured as a series of parables, primarily based on the Gospel of Matthew, interspersed with music mostly set to lyrics from traditional hymns, with the passion of Christ appearing briefly near the end.

The Grammy Award for Best Musical Theater Album has been awarded since 1959. The award is generally given to the album's producers, principal vocalist(s), and the composer and lyricist if they have written a new score which comprises 51% or more playing time of the album, though the number of recipients has varied over the category's tenure.

<i>Pippin</i> (musical) Musical with music and lyrics by Stephen Schwartz

Pippin is a 1972 musical with music and lyrics by Stephen Schwartz and book by Roger O. Hirson. Bob Fosse, who directed the original Broadway production, also contributed to the libretto. The musical uses the premise of a mysterious performance troupe, led by the Leading Player, to tell the story of Pippin, a young prince on his search for meaning and significance. The 'fourth wall' is broken numerous times during most traditional productions.

<span class="mw-page-title-main">Tuc Watkins</span> American actor

Charles Curtis "Tuc" Watkins III is an American actor, known for his roles as David Vickers on One Life to Live, Mr. Burns in The Mummy, Bob Hunter on Desperate Housewives, Congressman Roger Harris on Black Monday, Hank in The Boys in the Band, Troy on The Other Two, and Colin McKenna on Uncoupled.

<span class="mw-page-title-main">Sutton Foster</span> American actress (born 1975)

Sutton Lenore Foster is an American actress. She is known for her work on the Broadway stage, for which she has won the Tony Award for Best Actress in a Musical twice, in 2002 for her role as Millie Dillmount in Thoroughly Modern Millie, and in 2011 for her performance as Reno Sweeney in Anything Goes, a role which she reprised in 2021 for a production in London and for which she received a nomination for the Laurence Olivier Award for Best Actress in a Musical. Her other Broadway credits include Grease, Little Women, The Drowsy Chaperone, Young Frankenstein, Shrek the Musical, Violet, The Music Man, Sweeney Todd: The Demon Barber of Fleet Street, and Once Upon a Mattress. On television, Foster played the lead role in the short-lived ABC Family comedy-drama Bunheads from 2012 to 2013. From 2015 to 2021, she starred in the TV Land comedy-drama Younger.

<i>Wicked</i> (musical) 2003 musical by Stephen Schwartz

Wicked is a musical with music and lyrics by Stephen Schwartz and a book by Winnie Holzman. It is a loose adaptation of the 1995 Gregory Maguire novel Wicked: The Life and Times of the Wicked Witch of the West, which is in turn based on L. Frank Baum's 1900 novel The Wonderful Wizard of Oz and its 1939 film adaptation.

Paris is a musical with the book by Martin Brown, and music and lyrics by Cole Porter, as well as Walter Kollo and Louis Alter (music) and E. Ray Goetz and Roy Turk (lyrics). The musical, which premiered on Broadway in 1928, was Porter's first Broadway hit. The musical introduced the song "Let's Do It, Let's Fall in Love" sung by the show's star, Irene Bordoni. The story involves a young man from a very proper family in Newton, Massachusetts whose mother is horrified by his intention to wed a French actress.

<span class="mw-page-title-main">Andrew Rannells</span> American actor (born 1978)

Andrew Scott Rannells is an American actor. He is best known for originating the role of Elder Kevin Price in the 2011 Broadway musical The Book of Mormon, for which he was nominated for the Tony Award for Best Performance by a Leading Actor in a Musical and won the 2012 Grammy Award for Best Musical Theater Album. He received his second Tony nomination in 2017 for his performance as Whizzer in the 2016 Broadway revival of Falsettos. Other Broadway credits include Hairspray (2005), Jersey Boys (2009), Hedwig and the Angry Inch (2014), Hamilton (2015), The Boys in the Band (2018), and Gutenberg! The Musical! (2023). For his performance in the Off West End production of Tammy Faye, he was nominated for a Laurence Olivier Award.

<i>The Bakers Wife</i> 1989 American musical by Stephen Schwartz and Joseph Stein

The Baker's Wife is a musical with music and lyrics by Stephen Schwartz and the book by Joseph Stein, based on the 1938 French film of the same name by Marcel Pagnol and Jean Giono. The musical premiered in the West End in 1989 for a short run but, while establishing a dedicated cult following, has not been produced on Broadway.

<span class="mw-page-title-main">Julia Murney</span> American actress and singer (born 1969)

Julia Kathleen Murney is an American actress and singer, also known for television commercial voice-overs. Until 2005, she was commonly known as the Broadway actress who had technically never appeared on Broadway. This was because her fame came mostly from her performances on the Broadway charity circuit, and not traditional Broadway productions. She played the role of Elphaba in the musical Wicked, both on the US national tour (2006) and on Broadway (2007). She is also a two-time Drama Desk Award nominee, for The Wild Party (2000) and Falling (2013).

<i>Falsettos</i> 1992 musical by William Finn and James Lapine

Falsettos is a sung-through musical with a book by William Finn and James Lapine, and music and lyrics by Finn. The musical consists of March of the Falsettos (1981) and Falsettoland (1990), the last two installments in a trio of one-act musicals that premiered off-Broadway. The story centers on Marvin, who has left his wife to be with a male lover, Whizzer, and struggles to keep his family together. Much of the first act explores the impact his relationship with Whizzer has had on his family. The second act explores family dynamics that evolve as he and his ex-wife plan his son's bar mitzvah, which is complicated as Whizzer comes down with an early case of AIDS. Central to the musical are the themes of Jewish identity, gender roles, and gay life in the late 1970s and early 1980s.

<i>Gutenberg! The Musical!</i> 2005 musical by Scott Brown and Anthony King

Gutenberg! The Musical! is a musical written and composed by Scott Brown and Anthony King. Brown and King developed the show at the Upright Citizens Brigade Theatre in New York City, where versions of it played over the course of more than a year. The show was part of the 2005 New York Musical Theatre Festival and, in more final form, the 2006 Festival, and ran at the Jermyn Street Theatre in London in January 2006.

"No Good Deed" is a musical number from the hit Broadway musical Wicked. It is sung by Elphaba, the main character of the show. It is widely regarded as the most powerful piece of the musical; and the most emotional.

<span class="mw-page-title-main">Alex Newell</span> American actor and singer (born 1992)

Alex Eugene Newell is an American actor and singer. They are known for their role as Unique Adams on the Fox musical series Glee and Mo on Zoey's Extraordinary Playlist. Newell also starred as Asaka in the Broadway revival of Once on This Island at the Circle in the Square Theatre in 2018. For their role in Shucked, they won the 2023 Tony Award for Best Featured Actor in a Musical. Newell and J. Harrison Ghee were the first openly non-binary actors to be nominated for and win a Tony Award.

"Honor to Us All" is a song written by composer Matthew Wilder and lyricist David Zippel for Walt Disney Pictures' animated film Mulan (1998). Recorded by singers Beth Fowler, Marni Nixon and Lea Salonga, the latter two of whom provide the singing voices of Grandmother Fa and Fa Mulan, respectively, the song is a character number performed by several older Chinese women and female members of Mulan's family as they prepare the main character to be evaluated by the Matchmaker in the scene towards the beginning of the film.

"Dreams Come True" is the series finale of the American musical television series Glee. It is also the 13th and final episode of the show's sixth season and the 121st episode overall. Written by the show's co-creators Ryan Murphy, Brad Falchuk, and Ian Brennan and directed by Bradley Buecker, it aired on Fox in the United States on March 20, 2015, along with the previous episode, "2009", as a special two-hour finale.

"How Lisa Got Her Marge Back" is the eighteenth episode of the twenty-seventh season of the American animated television series The Simpsons, and the 592nd episode of the series overall. It aired in the United States on Fox on April 10, 2016.

Unique (<i>Glee</i>) Fictional character from the Fox series Glee

Unique Adams is a fictional character from the Fox musical comedy-drama series Glee who first appeared in "Saturday Night Glee-ver", the sixteenth episode of the show's third season. Portrayed by actor Alex Newell, Unique is notable for being the show's first transgender character. Introduced as shy teen boy Wade Adams, the character is the featured vocalist of New Directions' rival group Vocal Adrenaline. She quickly finds the confidence to perform as trans woman Unique. She later transfers to William McKinley High School at the beginning of the fourth season in order to be in a place where she can be her true self.

References

  1. "Watch This Stephen Schwartz-Approved A Cappella Cover of 'Meadowlark'". playbill.com. January 18, 2019. Retrieved May 14, 2020.
  2. "Andrew Rannells, Kimberley Locke, Alex Newell, Tyne Daly Raise $285k for APLA in the 29th Star Studded S.T.A.G.E Gala". The Huffington Post. April 11, 2013. Retrieved April 12, 2016.
  3. "Meadowlark". Musicalschwartz.com. Retrieved June 5, 2008.