World-Building for Musical Theatre
Of course, through lyrics.
World-building is the process of creating a fictional world. This includes geography, society, culture, ecology, science, politics, religion, and even language. It is a tool for writers that shows how its mechanics and its characters interact with the environment.
While world-building is often linked to fantasy and science-fiction writing, it is a key to providing an immersive experience for any story and can be used in any genre of writing. We can draw from world-building techniques to craft our own fictional worlds.
I have wondered about the way we read and write, more so the writing. I asked myself about the choices we make, especially when introducing a fictional world no matter the medium.
A few months ago I read Jane Austen’s Pride and Prejudice, and later I re-read a few of the notes I had taken, and I flipped my pages back to the beginning. Pride and Prejudice is not a fantasy nor is it a science-fiction type of story, yet Austen built her fictional world with the “real”. We writers choose how we want to start our stories, and we know what the opening will be. This is how Austen opens her novel:
“It is a truth universally acknowledged, that a single man in possession of a good fortune, must be in want of a wife."
A few key words in this first sentence are truth, single man, good fortune, want, wife. We can dissect this sentence and ask ourselves why Austen chose to start with this statement. One, she probably wanted us to know that “truth” will play a major role in the novel. In the novel, wives are, perhaps, possessions in the story and there is value in having one—so there are societal pressures of marriage, as well as expectations of wealthy man actively seeking to marry.
The narrator or the immediate dialogue of a character, or a description of a place, was a choice of the writer to start the story in that way—the writer wants you to know and pay attention to what they are writing. And notice how economical this is in just one sentence! Naturally there is more to build as the story progresses, but one can immerse themselves immediately.
As someone who went on to study the art and craft of musical theatre writing, I couldn’t help but think how world-building looks like in lyrics—not stage directions, though I know they contribute to the process of creating a fictional world. Now I don’t recall being taught during grad school to close read a lyric in such detail, or anything in regards to world-building'; it is something I had to do research on my own, which I continue to do. Graduate school was fast-paced and production/product driven.
In what follows, I am analyzing at the opening numbers of Hadestown, West Side Story, and Heathers the Musical, specifically at the first lyric verse of each song. Like the master of literature Jane Austen, I want to showcase how the economy of words in each lyric show how much we can understand from a few lines regarding world-building.
Opening Number: “Road to Hell” from Hadestown the Musical
At the start of the song, after a few train onomatopoeias and interjections, Hermes sings:
“Once upon a time there was a railroad line
Don't ask where, brother, don't ask when
It was the road to Hell, it was hard times
It was a world of gods...and men!”
How does the lyric verse world build?
Immediately we are in fairytale or folk land when the adverbial phrase “Once upon a time” appears… Hermes drops us in the story where, not so long ago, there was a certain type of living between Gods and men, and where a railroad line connected their interactions, from Hell to Earth to the Heavens.
Stories with Gods and men deal with mythology, and based on these four lines of the verse, we know the story is a mythological one, especially when the narrator affirms that this story used to be like this.
When the railroad is mentioned as a mode of transportation, we know it is part of the major plot. The writer selected each and every word they used; it is not coincidence. There is purpose and the writer wants us to know that.
Hell is mentioned, so we are expected to know more about the underworld, and how this landscape plays a role in the story.
Anais Mitchel, writer of the show Hadestown cleverly weaves the world through a narrator by exposing what we are expected to see as the songs progress. The rest of the song lands on the major characters and so on. Next, let’s analyze West Side Story.
The “Jet Song” from West Side Story
There is a prologue with no dialogue or lyrics at the start of the story until we reach the “Jet Song.”
“When you're a Jet, you're a Jet all the way
From your first cigarette to your last dyin' day
When you're a Jet, if the spit hits the fan
You got brothers around, you're a family man”
How does the lyric verse world build?
Let’s take a look at all the nouns being used in the verse. They are Jet, Cigarette, Day, Spit, Fan, Brothers, Family man. From the beginning of the song we hear/read Jet and it ends with family man. It tells the listener to pay attention to these two words.
The verse is filled with language that is used within gangs, groups, and communities that embody brotherhood, family, and connection. In this verse, to be a Jet is to be family.
The lyrics then answers the invisible question: what does it take to be a Jet? Smoking. What else? The idiom “Spit hits the fan” or “Shit hits the flies” which means a chaotic, messy, or disastrous situation unfolding; things are going to get bad is balanced with the statement, “You got brothers around, you’re a family man.” When you are in need, you have a us, the Jets; we are your family.
The verse builds the fictional world by establishing a gang, community, or group that calls themselves Jets. It establishes protection, camaraderie, family and brotherhood. This is an important group and the writer wants you to know.
What’s more, the Jets will continue to show up as the story unfolds. Questions that we can ask ourselves—or those who have not seen the show—would be, what are the roles of the Jets in this society? What trouble will they face? Where does the community live? are we in a small town? in a city? etc. Eventually the rest of the song gives us hints as to where we are aside from the visual set design.
Sondheim, the writer of West Side Story, too, cleverly weaved a story (which is Romeo and Juliet) a world of tension, if a gang exists, there has to be someone an opposition.
Lastly, Heathers the Musical
Opening Number: “Beautiful” from Heathers the Musical
“September 1st, 1989
Dear diary
I believe I'm a good person
You know, I think that there's good in everyone, but—
Here we are, first day of senior year!
And, uh, I look around at these kids that I've known all my life and I ask myself – what happened?”
How does the lyric verse world build?
Heathers the Musical is one of my favorite shows! It’s that funny rock snarky coming-of-age show that will keep you entertained—I highly recommend you watch it if you can.
What is happening in the verse? We are immediately dropped on a date and an event that will unfold throughout the song. That date is September 1st, 1989 which, according to the character, is the first day of senior year.
The time is the end of the 80s, so this time period will play a big role as to how teenagers spent their time in and out our school. Senior year is a keyword, we are in High School land following a seventeen (perhaps) year-old student.
The protagonist believes they treat everyone with respect and believes the same to be true for everyone. She ponders about her high school years and surroundings, which, clearly, to her, there has been a major change, because she is comically asking what happened to her peers. That is curiosity not only for the character but us as well. Somehow we want to know about the change whether it was positive or negative.
The protagonist is somewhat likable, right? She likes to write in her diary; she believes she is a good person, and she is someone that attempts to find that good in everyone. She is not a troublemaker.
The writers build the world of the story around the canon that, to a character who appears to be good, something bad will happen to them. She is a smart person and clearly observes that her peers have changed. This sort of “change” will play a major role in the story, and it begs us to ask ourselves if Veronica, the protagonist, will also go through the same change as her peers. A coming-of-age that can take a positive or negative turn.
The writers, for this character, as opposed to the last shows I mentioned, the speech pattern and language of Veronica is that of a teenager, and a bit more conversation-like; Hermes’ is also conversation-like but more poetic and peppered with a lot of assonance; and West Side Story’s is aggressive with plenty of alliteration with harsh consonant sounds, and images like cigarettes, spit, dying.
This type of world-building through lyrics adds to the flavors of characterization.
In addition to set designs, stage directions, and costumes, lyrics help with the process of world-building. When you see the shows, you are immediately drawn deeper into the fictional worlds of their writers simply by the visuals and dialogue—and lyrics have a major role; they are bricks to the story.
One tip about world-building that works for me is the use of the familiar from the world I live in—the beauty of it, sometimes the ugly—and I bring it into the fictional world I’m creating. Language, accents, culture, etc. is very important to me; for example, in my play Atari I have a character, a mother, who says a refrain for every occasion, which often times it is a very Mexican thing when we can’t find the words to express what we are sayin—very poetic. How am I building my fictional world? Mostly by using language that my characters can only speak; activities known to them; religions they practice, etc.
World-building does not have to be just for fantasy and science-fiction; we can also use it for our plays, musicals, short-stories, films, etc.
I hope you found this helpful!
—José
Words are a powerful tool in which we use to portray our beginnings our unwinding road, our wants and desires. Words are a building block that help builds that foundation of life’s uncertainties and shapes our characters.