What do “Put on Your Sunday Clothes”, “With A Little Bit of Luck,” “Seventy-Six Trombones,” and “To Life” all have in common? They are all boisterous musical numbers, involving a whack of choreography by a whole bunch of people, placed shortly after their respective musicals’ opening numbers, I Want and Conditional Love songs. This is not by accident.
Jack Viertel, in his Secret Life of the American Musical: How Broadway Shows are Built, describes this number as “The Noise.” It may or may not forward the plot in any significant way. That’s not its most important job, which is to impart an energy boost to the audience after getting them oriented to the world of the story, the inner life of the protagonist(s), and the push-and-pull tension in a key relationship. Some of that may have involved some quiet reflection. The I Want and the Conditional Love song were probably mostly solos or duets. They got us on board the train. Now it’s time to take off down the tracks in a clatter of joyous noise.
According to Viertel, “Musicals depend on these rhythmic energy shifts. Quiet thoughtfulness must be followed by noisy energy, and vice versa.” Theoretically, again according to Viertel, “The Noise” usually shows up as the 4th or 5th musical number, but that rule isn’t cast in stone. It’s really the necessity for shifts in energy that dictates precisely when “the noise” is going to appear.
For example, In Hello Dolly, it’s the seventh number, after three opening numbers (Overture, “Call on Dolly” and “I Put My Hand In”), two Conditional Love songs (setting up a push and pull between Horace’s “It Takes A Woman” and Dolly’s reprise of that number) and Dolly’s I Want song, “World, Take Me Back.” But, the only one of those that could really be called quietly thoughtful is Dolly’s reprise of “It Takes A Woman.” All the rest are upbeat numbers, with “World, Take Me Back” starting out restrained but building to exuberantly insistent. The momentum has been building. Now, “Put on Your Sunday Clothes” gets bigger and bigger, as more and more of the cast join the stage with every verse, until they’re singing at the top of their voices while chugging toward New York City, and the train that is this musical has clearly left the station.
By contrast, in My Fair Lady, The Noise comes early, ahead of the Conditional Love songs. That’s because we have an Overture for the opening number, then Higgins’ I Want song (“Why Can’t the English?”), which is as much spoken as sung, and Eliza’s wistful “Wouldn’t It Be Loverly.” Each of these represent the character brilliantly. And now, it’s time for something rousing to amp up the audience’s energy and get them fully invested in the show.
The Music Man’s first five numbers are not typical. "Rock Island" and "Iowa Stubborn" are the opening numbers that introduce us to the world of the show while coaxing us to look at our problematic hero with a sympathetic eye. But we won’t get an I Want song from him, at least, not yet. It wouldn’t do to look too closely into the motives of the rakish con artist we’re supposed to be cheering for, at least, not until we’ve looked into the inner world of the woman who’s supposed to be able to reform him. So, he gives us the fast-paced “(Ya got) Trouble” instead, where we get to see his skill at manipulating a crowd. Then “The Piano Lesson” gives us an unusual I Want song for Marian, in the form of a battling duet between her and her mother, all about how Marian prioritizes culture and literature over common-sense necessities like landing a husband. The song is largely spoken, and largely accompanied with a very simple piano melody. Then Marian’s Conditional Love song, “Goodnight My Someone” shows up as a wistful serenade to the man she hopes will someday enter her life. The relationship tension is there because we’ve already seen the man, and she’s already wisely dismissed him as a “common masher.” At this point, we’re ready for something rousing. "Ya Got Trouble/Seventy-Six Trombones" delivers with a number that overpowers our reservations and has us aching to join the fun.
Fiddler on the Roof has The Noise appearing during song number 5. Again, the placement is right because of how it forwards an ebb and flow of energy that keeps the audience engaged. Fiddler’s first number is Tradition, an energetic production number that brings the entire cast onstage. Then we have “Matchmaker, Matchmaker” taking the place of a Conditional Love song. There isn’t time in this story to fully develop three romances, so instead, we get a song that highlights the tension between Tevye’s daughters’ longing for love and the reality that their poverty might land them with something far less. It starts out bright and beckoning, then turns comically horrifying, and ends with pleading reluctance. That’s followed by Tevye’s I Want song, “If I Were A Rich Man” that’s not really about a longing for money, but to be able to provide a better life for his family, to be respected, to rest, and to be free to devote himself to religious studies. It’s a solo, but it builds to about as big as a solo can get. Then, the energy quiets down with the haunting “Sabbath Prayer.” The scene that follows, Lazar Wolf’s bargaining with Tevye for Tzeitel, could easily be a downer, since he’s old enough to be her grandfather and she’s secretly devoted to someone else. But “To Life” fits in right there, a roof-raising drinking song that even has the power to pull the Russians into celebrating with the Jews.
The Noise is not the only song that is designed to amp up the energy. It’s just usually the first one that does so in a big way. Its job is to get us past any remaining reservations and barrelling forward wherever the story is going to take us. From this point forward, the audience needs to be all in.
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