What 100 Musicals Taught Me About Public Speaking
This is the tenth in Authentalk’s series about how to write subject matter-specific speeches. Call it “Musiciain.”
I love musicals!
My first show ever was Annie at Studio City’s Showboat Youth Theater. I played Mr. Bundles and Secretary Howe, two roles that required a level of gravitas I probably did not possess as an elementary schooler.
He’ll be a star, I tell you! A star!
I had a speech impediment as a kid, so I needed practice saying things clearly, then with feeling, then in a way that made an audience care.
By high school, I was doing speech and debate. I won the DTASC monologue contest as a senior, and a lot of my speech style came from theater. I still do community theater now in Sun Prairie because I think it keeps me sharp. Public speaking is a sport and theater is one of the gyms.
Recently, I gave myself a communication exercise: I ranked my top 100 musicals and added my favorite song from each one.
Will they be married someday? Yes. But first, he’ll play a hanging judge and she’ll play his unwitting victim in And Then There Were None.
The Full List
Here are the 100 musicals, in order, with my favorite song from each one, and what I think each choice tells me about myself. #1 is the most resonant.
The Sound of Music (Edelweiss) [Home]
Peter Pan (Never Neverland) [Wonder]
Man of La Mancha (The Impossible Dream) [Idealism]
Pacific Overtures (Someone in a Tree) [History]
Into the Woods (No One Is Alone) [Community]
Assassins (Another National Anthem) [Exclusion]
Guys and Dolls (Luck Be a Lady) [Performance]
West Side Story (Tonight Quintet) [Conflict]
Camelot (Guinevere) [Idealism]
Parade (All the Wasted Time) [Love]
Hamilton (Satisfied) [Conflict]
1776 (Sit Down, John) [History]
Ragtime (Ragtime) [History]
Matilda (When I Grow Up) [Wonder]
Fiddler on the Roof (Tradition) [Community]
The Book of Mormon (Man Up) [Performance]
Les Miserables (The Confrontation) [Conflict]
Jesus Christ Superstar (The Last Supper) [Conflict]
Hadestown (Wait for Me) [Idealism]
The Producers (Springtime for Hitler) [Satire]
Cabaret (Willkommen) [Performance]
Kiss Me, Kate (Brush Up Your Shakespeare) [Style]
Pippin (Corner of the Sky) [Ambition]
Chicago (Razzle Dazzle) [Performance]
The Music Man (Ya Got Trouble) [Performance]
South Pacific (Some Enchanted Evening) [Love]
Sweeney Todd: The Demon Barber of Fleet Street (Johanna Quartet) [Conflict]
Groundhog Day (Seeing You) [Redemption]
Next to Normal (Light) [Redemption]
Lord of the Rings (Now and for Always) [Community]
Company (Being Alive) [Love]
Carousel (Soliloquy) [Identity]
Gypsy (Rose’s Turn) [Ambition]
The King and I (Shall We Dance) [Love]
Little Shop of Horrors (The Meek Shall Inherit) [Ambition]
Monty Python’s Spamalot (You Won’t Succeed on Broadway) [Satire]
How to Succeed in Business Without Really Trying (Brotherhood of Man) [Performance]
You’re a Good Man, Charlie Brown (Happiness) [Wonder]
Oliver! (Who Will Buy) [Wonder]
In the Heights (Champagne) [Love]
The Phantom of the Opera (Down Once More) [Identity]
The Lion King (He Lives in You) [Identity]
Annie (It’s the Hard-Knock Life) [Community]
Show Boat (Old Man River) [History]
Porgy and Bess (Summertime) [Home]
Annie Get Your Gun (Anything You Can Do) [Conflict]
Beetlejuice (Say My Name) [Performance]
Finian’s Rainbow (Look to the Rainbow) [Idealism]
Damn Yankees (Goodbye, Old Girl) [Love]
Oklahoma! (People Will Say We’re in Love) [Love]
Candide (The Best of All Possible Worlds) [Satire]
My Fair Lady (I Could Have Danced All Night) [Redemption]
Dreamgirls (And I Am Telling You) [Performance]
Rent (What You Own) [Identity]
Wicked (Wicked Witch of the East) [Exclusion]
Spring Awakening (Don’t Do Sadness / Blue Wind) [Conflict]
Dear Evan Hansen (You Will Be Found) [Community]
The Rocky Horror Show (The Time Warp) [Style]
Once Upon a Mattress (Normandy) [Satire]
A Funny Thing Happened on the Way to the Forum (Comedy Tonight) [Satire]
The Pajama Game (Hey There) [Longing]
La Cage aux Folles (I Am What I Am) [Identity]
Shrek the Musical (Who I’d Be) [Exclusion]
SpongeBob SquarePants (Bikini Bottom Day) [Wonder]
Sunday in the Park with George (Finishing the Hat) [Ambition]
Jekyll & Hyde (Confrontation) [Conflict]
The Scarlet Pimpernel (Into the Fire) [Idealism]
Hairspray (Without Love) [Community]
The 25th Annual Putnam County Spelling Bee (The I Love You Song) [Longing]
The Last Five Years (Shiksa Goddess) [Identity]
Once (Falling Slowly) [Love]
Six (Don’t Lose Ur Head) [Identity]
A Chorus Line (I Hope I Get It) [Ambition]
The Wiz (A Brand New Day) [Redemption]
Newsies (Santa Fe) [Longing]
Fiorello! (Politics and Poker) [Satire]
Hair (Hair) [Identity]
Seussical (Alone in the Universe) [Exclusion]
Funny Girl (Don’t Rain on My Parade) [Performance]
Gigi (I Remember It Well) [Love]
Grease (Summer Nights) [Performance]
Rodgers + Hammerstein’s Cinderella (Impossible) [Wonder]
Cats (Gus the Theater Cat) [Performance]
Moulin Rouge (El Tango de Roxanne) [Style]
Prince of Egypt (Plagues) [Conflict]
Big River (Muddy Water) [Longing]
Bye Bye Birdie (Hymn for a Sunday Evening) [Satire]
Children of Eden (Lost in the Wilderness) [Faith]
Godspell (We Beseech Thee) [Faith]
Mamma Mia (S.O.S.) [Love]
The Apple Tree (Beautiful, Beautiful World) [Wonder]
Joseph and the Amazing Technicolor Dreamcoat (Close Every Door) [Faith]
Waitress (It Only Takes a Taste) [Love]
Titanic (Godspeed Titanic) [History]
Anything Goes (Anything Goes) [Style]
Heathers (Freeze Your Brain) [Identity]
Mean Girls (Revenge Party) [Satire]
Chess (Anthem) [Identity]
The Civil War (Sons of Dixie / By the Sword) [History]
Spider-Man: Turn Off the Dark (Pull the Trigger) [Style]
What I Learned From the List
First, I like sincerity more than coolness.
Some people would be embarrassed to put The Sound of Music, Peter Pan, Man of La Mancha, Camelot, Matilda, Fiddler on the Roof, and The Music Man this high; I’m not. It’s cool to believe in something despite evidence to the contrary (finding youthful inspiration despite growing up in Peter Pan and Matilda, finding hope despite the loss of the country in The Sound of Music, Camelot, and Fiddler).
That does not mean I only like happy shows. Assassins, Parade, Cabaret, Sweeney Todd, Hadestown, and Next to Normal are all high on the list. I want darkness to have moral weight. A show can be grim, but it cannot be empty.
When I coach speakers, I want them to name specific problems, then give people something worth reaching for. Context is what makes communication compelling.
Second, I like songs that make an argument.
“Someone in a Tree” asks how history gets remembered. “Another National Anthem” asks who gets left out of the American dream. “No One Is Alone” argues that pain does not excuse selfishness. “The Impossible Dream” makes a case for moral courage. “Being Alive” argues for vulnerability after a whole show of evasion.
I like when a song, speech, or scene has a claim, a counterclaim, and a turn.
Third, I like ensemble storytelling.
Look at the songs I picked: “Tonight Quintet,” “Ragtime,” “Tradition,” “Johanna Quartet,” “The Last Supper.” I like when multiple people want different things at the same time and the music lets us hear all of them.
That has shaped how I think about public speaking. A good speech is one person managing the voices in the room: the skeptic, the believer, and the person who wants to agree but needs help getting there.
Your Turn
Make a list of something you genuinely love. It could be movies, books, speeches, albums, paintings, athletes, restaurants, video games, Bible stories, campaign ads, TV episodes, whatever.
Rank at least 25 of them. Add your favorite moment from each one. Find the common themes.
If you want to become a better communicator, study what you already love. Your favorite stories are clues; they display the structures you return to and the kinds of conflict you understand.
I love musicals because they make communication bigger than ordinary life. That is also why we give speeches; we speak because something needs to be felt in the room.
Try this! You may find your next great speech hiding inside your favorite song.
