History Main / MedleyOverture

** The Overture is a medley of "New York, New York," "Lucky to Be Me," "Lonely Town" and "I Can Cook, Too."

[[AC:{{Music}}]]

In UsefulNotes/TheGoldenAgeOfHollywood, many movie musicals had song medleys for the TitleSequence, generally not following the typical Broadway form. During the UsefulNotes/FallOfTheStudioSystem, when the movie musical genre became dominated by lavish or slavish recreations of hit Broadway productions, they did often use Broadway-style overtures that would be labeled as such on soundtrack recordings.

** The 1993 stage version has one for each act. They're called "Overture" and "[[AWorldwidePunomenon Underture]]."

* The Overture from ''Gentlemen Prefer Blondes'' has an introduction featuring the title phrase from the title song and a Charleston-rhythm brass pyramid, which is followed by "Sunshine," "You Say You Care," the first part of "Diamonds Are a Girl's Best Friend" and "Bye Bye Baby." The gratuitously jazzy coda contains an excessive number of modulations but no identifiable tune, instead using a series of musical phrases associated with the music of the 1920s.

* The Overture from ''Gentlemen Prefer Blondes'' has an introduction featuring the title phrase from the title song and a Charleston-rhythm brass pyramid, which is followed by "Sunshine," "You Say You Care," the first part of "Diamonds Are a Girl's Best Friend" and "Bye Bye Baby." The gratuitously jazzy coda contains an excessive number of modulations but no identifiable tune.

** The Overture begins with an introductori fanfare with rushing scales, bells, and the principal motif of "The Sound Of Money." This leads into a medley based on portions of "Momma, Momma," "Who Knows," "Ballad Of The Garment Trade" (as a transition), "Have I Told You Lately?", "The Sound Of Money" (another transition, this one in [[UncommonTime 5/4]]) and finally a very soft and mournful version of "What Are They Doing To Us Now?" as the curtain opens. The OpeningBallet (included on the original cast recording in lieu of the Overture itself) can be considered an extension of this medley, since it is based mostly on "What Are They Doing To Us Now?" and "The Way Things Are," with snippets of "Ballad Of The Garment Trade" and "ShaveAndAHaircut" mixed in, though it simply fades out instead of reaching a proper ending.

** The Overture from ''Theatre/PrincessIda'' is relatively short and simple, having no fast section after the lively opening, based on the chorus to the Warriors' Trio. The slow remainder is based on Ida's invocation to Minerva.
** The Overture from ''Theatre/TheMikado'' (arranged by Hamilton Clarke) uses "Miya sama" (march), "The Sun, whose rays" (ballad), "There is beauty in the bellow of the blast" (A), "Braid the raven hair" (B) and "Ye torrents roar! ye tempests howl!" (coda).

** The Overture (or Introduction) from ''Theatre/TheGondoliers'' begins in lively fashion with "Here we come at the risk of our lives," then gradually softens to lead into the requisite ballad, "When a merry maiden marries." However, what follows is neither fast nor in AABA form; instead, the overture ends with the gavotte "I am a courtier grave and serious." However, D'Oyly Carte musical director Malcolm Sargent later appended "Dance a cachucha" for a livelier ending.
** The Overture from ''Theatre/TheGrandDuke'' uses the introduction to "The Good Grand Duke of Pfennig Halbpfennig" (march), the accompaniment to "Why, who is this approaching?" (transition to ballad), "My Lord Grand Duke, farewell" (ballad), "Do you know who I am?" (A), "Well, you're a pretty kind of fellow" (B), "Strange the views some people hold" (B, exposition only), and a coda with no new tune.

* ''Film/{{Xanadu}}'' does this during the extended LogoJoke that leads into the movie's title.

** The Overture from ''Theatre/TheYeomenOfTheGuard'' (by Sullivan) is unique among the Savoy overtures in being composed in a single sonata allegro section instead of "march-ballad-A-B-A-B-coda". The opening fanfare draws from "When our gallant Norman foes", then leads by way of "When a wooer goes a-wooing" to the dominant for a blend of "Were I thy bride" and "All frenzied, frenzied with despair they rave". The recapitulation stays in the tonic and re-visits all four melodies plus "Oh! A private buffoon is a light-hearted loon" and, in the coda, a snippet of the Act II finale.

* The London staging of''Theatre/CharlieAndTheChocolateFactory'' didn't have an overture (it had an animated prologue humorously detailing the making of a bar of chocolate instead, but that was cut with the show's first cast turnover in 2014, so the show started out "cold") but it does have an Entr'acte featuring the show's three most uptempo numbers: "The Amazing Fantastical History of Mr. Willy Wonka", "Don'cha Pinch Me Charlie", and "A Little Me". The last serves as the aforementioned exuberantly fast coda, owing in part to [[MediumAwareness the conductor turning out to be Willy Wonka]], who's in a hurry to get the tour of his factory started.