Thoughts on 2-person musicals?
I only know of three— The Last Five Years, Rooms: A Rock Romance, and Daddy Long Legs— but I adore 2 person musicals. As a storyteller, I respect and appreciate how difficult it must be to put together a whole show with only two characters. It’s shockingly complicated to do, to keep an audience’s attention with only two characters. The plot needs to be well thought out and the performers have to be outstanding. All the fat has to be trimmed to keep it moving. Because there’s no other characters for the leads to lean on, they need to be able to build a connection directly with the audience. Daddy Long Legs does this by having Jerusha’s letters to Daddy also addressing the audience, like she’s speaking them to us and not just him. Last Five Years does it by having the story go backwards in time for Kathy and forwards for Jamie— if it was staged chronologically for both, I think it would be extremely boring and trite. I’ve never seen Rooms staged so I can’t speak to that part of it, but the music is killer and the leads inject so much personality into their singing, I can’t help but be fond of them. I’d love to hear others thoughts on this! I’m sure there are other 2 person musicals out there that I’m missing. I sometimes also think about what stories could make a good 2-person musical, or if they would need a full cast to make it work. I’m curious to hear if anyone has ideas :)