Broadway Preaches: America

May 30, 2020

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When words alone fail us, music does not.

This is a showtune-inspired response to recent racist incidents in the US.

It’s important that the main piece ends the way that it does.
But after you’ve had a moment, listen to the outro. It’s equally important. And when you’re ready, get a bit more hopeful with Broadway Preaches: Action for Change.

listen to the main song compilation:

A shtetl iz Amerike, (America is a shtetl)
amekhaye khlebn! (Where I swear life is great!)¹What other place can compare? The American Dream!²I see Americans, all Americans, free forevermore.³

So…you think justice has a voice?⁴Life is alright in America – if you’re all-white in America.⁵What’s white looks whiter; what’s black looks blacker…
I ain’t done nothin’, but I’m going to die.⁶Molasses, to rum, to slaves: ’Tisn’t morals, ’tis money that saves.
Shall we dance to the sound of the profitable pound?⁷

You’re living in America; leave your conscience at the tone.⁸Listen to the sound, take a look around:
We’re the other national anthem, folks,
the ones that can’t get in⁹…immigrants. We get the job done.¹⁰Their dreams were yours; their dreams were mine,
but in those dreams were hidden dragons.¹¹

Let us at last make this the land of opportunity for all people, not just the owners.¹²
Do you hear the people sing, singing the song of angry men?
It is the music of a people who will not be slaves again:¹³No more the meek and mild subservients we, we’re fighting for our rights militantly.¹⁴Tell those with power, safe in their tower, we will not obey.¹⁵“Life, liberty, and the pursuit of happiness…”
We fought for these ideals, we shouldn’t settle for less.¹⁶There’s a hunger in the land; there’s a reckoning still to be reckoned.¹⁷

Picket lines and picket signs, don’t you punish me with brutality!¹⁸And say to the others who did not follow through:
“You’re still our brothers, and we will fight for you.¹⁹We’ll bleed and fight for you. We’ll make it right for you.”²⁰

Brother, brother, brother, there’s far too many of you dying,²¹dying in America.²²All this pain and devastation, how it tortures me inside.²³

Every day I wake up knowing what you’ve lost and what is owing:²⁴A day of justice we have been denied, where a man can live, and a child can play.²⁵

There’s a cry asking WHY,²⁶ when did man lose his reason?
Save us, my God, if you’re there….God, can you not feel the terror?
Like a fire in the air,²⁷ when’s it gonna end? When we gonna live?

Something’s gotta happen, or something’s gonna give²⁸ –
gotta rise up, tell your sister that she’s gotta rise up.²⁹

Will justice be demanded by ten million righteous men?³⁰Revolution, justice, screaming for solutions, forcing changes.³¹If you don’t like what we say, try living here a couple days.
Watch all your friends and family die.³²

I hate you.
God damn America.³³

I hope that you burn.³⁴

listen to the outro:

No man, no madness, though their sad power may prevail, can possess, conquer, my country’s heart: They rise, to fail.³⁵

Bless my homeland forever.³⁶

_____________________________________________________

Sources
¹“A Shtetl Iz Amerike”, Ragtime (Original Broadway Cast)
²“The American Dream”, Miss Saigon (1995 US National Tour Cast)
³“Is Anybody There?”, 1776 (Film)
⁴“Everything You Ever”, Dr. Horrible’s Sing-Along Blog (Neil Patrick Harris)
⁵“America”, West Side Story (1961 Film)
⁶“Nothin’”, Scottsboro Boys (Original Cast)
⁷“Molasses to Rum”, 1776 (1972 Film)
^{8, 22} “What You Own”, Rent (2005 Film)
⁹“Another National Anthem”, Assassins (Original Cast)
¹⁰“Yorktown”, Hamilton (Original Broadway Cast)
¹¹“Sunset Boulevard”, Sunset Boulevard (Alan Campbell)
^{12, 33} “The Night That Goldman Spoke”, Ragtime (Original Broadway Cast)
¹³“Do You Hear the People Sing?”, Les Misérables (1985 Cast)
¹⁴“Sister Suffragette”, Mary Poppins (1964 Film)
^{15, 19} “Seize the Day”, Newsies (Original Broadway Cast)
¹⁶“Cabinet Battle #1”, Hamilton (Original Broadway Cast)
¹⁷“At the End of the Day”, Les Misérables (1985 Cast)
^{18, 21} “War / What’s Going On”, Motown the Musical (Original Cast)
²⁰“Dear Theodosia”, Hamilton (Original Broadway Cast)
²³“The Plagues”, The Prince of Egypt (1998 Film)
²⁴“He Wanted to Say”, Ragtime (Original Broadway Cast)
²⁵“’Till We Reach that Day”, Ragtime (Original Broadway Cast)
²⁶“I Know Where I’ve Been”, Hairspray (Queen Latifah)
²⁷“Madame Guillotine”, The Scarlet Pimpernel (Original Broadway Cast)
²⁸“Look Down”, Les Misérables (2012 Film)
²⁹“Rise Up”, Hamilton (Original Broadway Cast)
³⁰“Make Them Hear You”, Ragtime (Brian Stokes Mitchell)
³¹“La Vie Boheme”, Rent (2005 Film)
³² “Hasa Diga Eebowai”, The Book of Mormon (Original Broadway Cast)
³⁴“Burn”, Hamilton (Original Broadway Cast)
³⁵“Anthem”, Chess (Rodrick Dixon)
³⁶“Edelweiss”, The Sound of Music (1965 Film)

rebecca l farnum

Broadway Preaches: America

When words alone fail us, music does not.

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One response to “Broadway Preaches: America”

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Broadway Preaches: America

When words alone fail us, music does not.

Comments

One response to “Broadway Preaches: America”

Leave a Reply Cancel reply

The Day the Sky Fell

On the day the sky fell And life turned to rubble I looked around and cried.

My soul whimpered "It hurts."

My heart whispered "I know."

"What do I do?" my soul asked. "Sit", said my heart. "Sit, and I shall sit here with you."

"But it's broken," my brain wailed. "We need to fix it."

"We will," assured my heart.

"When?" accused my brain.

"When we can see through the pain," my heart replied.

"We cannot fix what we do not understand. So for today, come. Sit with us. Feel. The pain will help teach us what we need to know."

My brain sat. And after a few moments, whimpered "It hurts."

Reaching out its hand, my soul whispered back "I know."

Holding them both, my heart pointed out "It should."

On the day the sky fell And life turned to rubble I looked around and cried.

In Between the Explosions

I’m tired.

I am so, so tired, looking around at the world.

The hopeful voice in me says “THIS is the world”, looking at a child laughing a tree dancing a whale breaching

The somber voice in me says “no, THIS is the world”, pointing out a labor camp a forest fire an oil spill

And I scream and curse, cry and sob, rant and rail as the optimist and the pessimist within me do battle

Until the timeless voice in me, made not of joy or pain, but simply the wisdom of the ages, speaks up:

“It is ALL the world This beautiful ugliness This glorious tragedy This fragmented unity”

Life started with a speck of dust on fire It has been a series of messy outbursts ever since What a privilege, to make love in between the explosions

I do not come in peace

I do not come in peace I come in righteous anger the fury of ages past pounding in my blood

I do not come in peace I come in weary sorrow the anguish of endless sobs lumping in my throat

I do not come in peace I come in abject horror the echo of tortured screams ringing in my ears

I do not come in peace but peace is where I want to go and so

I come in steadfast resolve the demand of equal rights sounding in my steps

I come in open protest the tension of deferred dreams thumping in my chest

I come in hopeful yearning the promise of future days singing in my soul

I do not come in peace but peace is what I mean to build

Dissent

On the day hope died, she whispered a benediction: "They are writing not for today, but for tomorrow."

Do you know the way to the revolution?

Excuse me, I’m looking for the revolution.

Do you know the way?

I trained all my life, eager to vanquish foes defeat evil fight injustice.

When I was fifteen, a cousin invited me to a poetry slam sharing the story of their pain. “No, I can’t go to that. I'm training for the revolution. Do you know the way?”

When I was twenty, a friend invited me to a concert singing the song of their hope. “No, I can’t go to that. I'm training for the revolution. Do you know the way?”

When I was thirty, a colleague invited me to a play telling the tale of their history. “No, I can’t go to that. I'm training for the revolution. Do you know the way?”

“Do you know the way to the revolution?” I asked this of everyone I met.

Then one night, a man overheard my question Called over to me “Yes! I know the way to the revolution. Follow me.”

Excited, I went with the man Finally, I would join the revolution

He led me down a road toward noisy clamour and loud footfall

My heart raced

A door opened.

I rushed my way in Sword drawn, ready to take on all comers.

Came to an abrupt halt. Confused.

The clamour was joyful music and the footfall was not made by soldiers at war.

I looked around suddenly realising I spent my life training to fight when what was asked of me was to dance.

The poetry slam. The concert. The play. Time and time again, I had been invited to the revolution. Ignored it. Too caught up in my own fantasy of what the revolution should look like.

I stood frozen terrified ashamed No idea what to do next.

A woman walked up to me smiled held out her hand “Want to dance?”

“I... I don’t know the steps.”

“That’s okay. I do. Follow me.”

The End of the Universe

The books we read as teens didn't make us think the end of the universe would start with a whisper.

We sat waiting for the earthquake, the alien invasion, the nuclear bomb.

But life is not like the movies And this is always how it has begun.

With a whisper here a lie there The slow creep-in of hatred and control becoming so pervasive it targets us too.

And so history sits Cassandra in the corner pleading over and over

This is always how it has begun, Warning signs everywhere.

You wanted your epic trilogy But those movies never start at the beginning of the story.

The end of the universe starts with a whisper.

Does the revolution?

Fairy Tale

On the day the sky fell
And life turned to rubble
I looked around and cried.

My soul whimpered
"It hurts."

My heart whispered
"I know."

"What do I do?" my soul asked.
"Sit", said my heart.
"Sit, and I shall sit here with you."

"But it's broken," my brain wailed.
"We need to fix it."

"We cannot fix what we do not understand.
So for today,
come.
Sit with us.
Feel.
The pain will help teach us what we need to know."

My brain sat.
And after a few moments,
whimpered
"It hurts."

Reaching out its hand,
my soul whispered back
"I know."

Holding them both,
my heart pointed out
"It should."

On the day the sky fell
And life turned to rubble
I looked around and cried.

The hopeful voice in me says “THIS is the world”, looking at
a child laughing
a tree dancing
a whale breaching

The somber voice in me says “no, THIS is the world”, pointing out
a labor camp
a forest fire
an oil spill

And I scream and curse, cry and sob, rant and rail
as the optimist and the pessimist within me do battle

“It is ALL the world
This beautiful ugliness
This glorious tragedy
This fragmented unity”

Life started with a speck of dust on fire
It has been a series of messy outbursts ever since
What a privilege, to make love in between the explosions

I do not come in peace
I come in righteous anger
the fury of ages past
pounding in my blood

I do not come in peace
I come in weary sorrow
the anguish of endless sobs
lumping in my throat

I do not come in peace
I come in abject horror
the echo of tortured screams
ringing in my ears

I do not come in peace
but peace is where I want to go
and so

I come in steadfast resolve
the demand of equal rights
sounding in my steps

I come in open protest
the tension of deferred dreams
thumping in my chest

I come in hopeful yearning
the promise of future days
singing in my soul

I do not come in peace
but peace is what I mean to build

On the day hope died,
she whispered a benediction:
"They are writing not for today,
but for tomorrow."

I trained all my life, eager to
vanquish foes
defeat evil
fight injustice.

When I was fifteen,
a cousin invited me to a poetry slam
sharing the story of their pain.
“No,
I can’t go to that.
I'm training for the revolution.
Do you know the way?”

When I was twenty,
a friend invited me to a concert
singing the song of their hope.
“No,
I can’t go to that.
I'm training for the revolution.
Do you know the way?”

When I was thirty,
a colleague invited me to a play
telling the tale of their history.
“No,
I can’t go to that.
I'm training for the revolution.
Do you know the way?”

“Do you know the way to the revolution?”
I asked this
of everyone I met.

Then one night, a man
overheard my question
Called over to me
“Yes!
I know the way to the revolution.
Follow me.”

Excited,
I went with the man
Finally,
I would join the revolution

He led me down a road
toward noisy clamour
and loud footfall

I rushed my way in
Sword drawn,
ready to take on all comers.

The clamour was joyful music
and the footfall was
not made by soldiers at war.

I looked around
suddenly realising
I spent my life
training to fight
when what was asked of me
was to dance.

The poetry slam.
The concert.
The play.
Time and time again,
I had been invited to the revolution.
Ignored it.
Too caught up
in my own fantasy
of what the revolution
should look like.

I stood frozen
terrified
ashamed
No idea what to do next.

A woman walked up to me
smiled
held out her hand
“Want to dance?”

“I...
I don’t know the steps.”

“That’s okay.
I do.
Follow me.”

The books
we read as teens
didn't make us think
the end of the universe
would start with a whisper.

We sat
waiting for the earthquake,
the alien invasion,
the nuclear bomb.

But life is not like the movies
And this is always how it has begun.

With a whisper here
a lie there
The slow creep-in
of hatred and control
becoming so pervasive
it targets us too.

And so history sits
Cassandra in the corner
pleading over and over

This is always how it has begun,
Warning signs everywhere.

You wanted your epic trilogy
But those movies
never start
at the beginning of the story.

The end of the universe
starts with a whisper.