Do all musicals need an "I Want" Song

I have just come from the New York Times Review of Matilda the Musical, and a number of commentators gave the show a bad review, whilst every profesional reviewer that I had seen had given it a positive spin. I myself am a British person and I have seen the West End production and loved it, so I am biased. I wanted to know how it was being recieved in the US, that's why I am reading the reviews.

This however is by the by. One of the commentators specifically stated that their objection to the show was the absence of an "I Want" song. My question is this: Why is this such a big deal? Do all musicals need an "I want" song? I can see the critism as the show doesn't have an out and out "I want" song, although personally "When I grow up" or "Quiet" could qualify. But I don't see why it is so critical as to damn someone's experience of the whole show. I know everyone is entitled to their opinion and this is just idle curiosity, so what are everyone elses thoughts? Personaly I don't think it is such a big deal. After all, the song used in We Will Rock You (The example on the I Want Song Page), "I Want it All" isn't really that critical to the plot (just serves as an introduction for Britney (in the production I saw) and Meat), nor does it belong to the lead characters of Galileo and Scaramouche. Anyway, this is a big rant and I want the collective opinions of the masses now, so go nuts.

edited 12th Apr '13 2:47:41 PM by singularityshot

Well, everybody always does want something, and you know how characters love singing their thoughts. I agree that it can be a bit overkill, though.

I don’t even know anymore.

I'm kind of a geek for German musicals, and one of the most popular and most successful is Elisabeth, and rather than an I Want song, we get an I Don't Want song - the title character has an epic solo song (think Memory) about shaking off the restrictions of royal life and being her own person, (lots of bird imagery, and some tightrope imagery too, I think)and living her own life. It still has the feel of an I Want song, it's just approached from a different angle...

This is the best of the English translations, sung by the originating actress.

edited 20th May '13 5:59:43 PM by sisi

I don't think every musical needs a specific kind of song, but I could see someone claiming a specific play 'needed' an "I Want" Song in the sense that a major character's (protagonist's?) motivations are otherwise poorly established by the play.

Text I feel is necessary to append to every post.

Theatre critics can be a bit... clueless, from my understanding. Then again, my understanding largely comes from Sondheim's Finishing the Hat.

Elisabet has a proper I want song though, and exactly where most I want songs are, at the very beginning when he sings that she wants to be as free as her father, travelling the world. "Ich gehör nur mir" is mostly there to make the desire at least partly a reality.

Most musical have "I want songs" (official or disguised ones) because they explain the motivation of the characters. But I don't think that they are needed if the motivation is self-evident. So the real question is if it is or not in this specific musical. If it isn't, than it needed one.

(A really well done "I want" song is btw. "Belle", because the song doesn't just introduce Belle and her desires, but the whole village and Gaston along with her.)

I don't think a musical HAS to have an I Want Song, but a character's emotions are usually what gets put into song, and personal wants are usually what sparks the most emotion in a character, so it fits. But, a musical can have more interesting ways to go about the I Want song instead of the obvious.

On the subject of German musicals, Tanz Der Vampire has an effin' sad take on an I Want Song. The main vampire, von Krolock, sings "Die Unstillbare Gier," (The Insatiable Greed) which is about his desire to be happy, but knowing he's a monster who will destroy any chance of it. I hate most "vampire angst" moments, but the song works because he's quick to shrug and keep on being a monster, since knows he can't be anything else.

edited 20th Oct '13 1:23:29 PM by phoenixflame

If it's a sequel, you can replace the I Want song with a Now What song.

But I don't know how many stage musicals get sequels.

We do not talk about that.

edited 2nd Nov '13 6:18:50 AM by maxwellelvis

Of course, don't you know anything about ALCHEMY?!- Twin clones of Ivan the Great

This.

A character needs a motivation, and it's not always possible to achieve the right degree of empathy or comprehension in the audience with context alone. But if context is enough, and the writer decides to put in such a song anyway, then it comes off as That Makes Me Feel Angry.

(This all coming from someone who knows next to nothing about theatre)

edited 2nd Nov '13 10:26:13 PM by BrainSewage

How dare you disrupt the sanctity of my soliloquy?