The Glorious Ones, an off-Broadway musical with Broadway quality, showcases the talent of Lynn Ahrens and Steven Flaherty.
Vintage Ahrens and Flaherty
The thing about musical soundtracks is it’s hard to know whom to single out. It’s the music, the lyrics, the context given by the book, and, of course, the talent of the performers. But when all you have is on the CD, there's nothing normally seen on stage to help you understand the songs. That’s why I always listen several times to a musical soundtrack such as The Glorious Ones before forming any opinions.
The bottom line is this is vintage Ahrens and Flaherty. If you don’t like their work, you really don’t like musical theater. Stephen Schwartz, who wrote music and lyrics for Wicked and Pippin, called Ahrens and Flaherty’s Ragtime the best American musical of the past 25 years.
Shining Moments
You simply have to single out Marc Kudisch, who is well-known to Broadway audiences, and Natalie Venetia Belcon, in the lead roles. The Glorious Ones is based on a novel of the same name and tells the story of Flaminio Scala (Kudisch), the most famous of the traveling commedia dell’arte performers who roamed 16th century Italy.
Regarding the music, I had the pleasure of listening to Stephen Flaherty talk about his composing process, and he was quick to point out that he listens to and enjoys all kinds of music. It shows in his composing. There is whimsy and pathos to his score here, flavored with longing and anger that fuel many performers, driven to do what they do, never revealing that it never gives them quite enough of what they can’t do without. You pick this up from the wonderful opening numbers “Prologue” and “The Glorious Ones.”
Two songs in particular highlight Lynn Ahrens’ lyrics, Flaherty’s music, and the performers talents. In the heartbreaking “My Body Wasn’t Why,” when Belcon sings, “Ordinary little dreams, even clever women dream them,” you know this is a rare moment when a hard and talented women has gotten past the lies she always tells herself about how wonderful her life is and how right her choices have been.
Then in “I Was Here,” Kudisch sings “I say we yearn to leave something that lasts, to be known for what little we’ve done.” The music embodies motion and never-satisfied yearning, the lyrics capture the actor’s heart, and the performance lets us see the actor in a mask and under the mask at the same time. This is a good song.
About the Show
“I Was Here” was the first song written for the show and that was way back in the early ’90s. Ahrens actually began working on it with another collaborator in the 1980s, put it aside to pick it up with Flaherty, put aside again when the author of the novel on which the show is based heard “I Was Here.” With her encouragement, the team kept working. The show opened in Pittsburgh and then was brought to Lincoln Center’s off-Broadway Newhouse Theater.
The Gorious Ones played a too-limited run in 2008 and deserves to live on in this fine CD.
The Glorious Ones Release Details
- Artists: Lynn Ahrens and Stephen Flaherty
- Label: Jay Records
- Release Date: December 2008