u/whyoudothislol

Stating the obvious first. Of course the medium of musical theater is surreal in nature. I've never burst out into song because I started crying. Yet it feels like most book musicals keep that surrealism to isolated incidents. It’s a dream ballet, an isolated hallucination, or a neat psychological metaphor that tidies itself up in time for the eleven o'clock number.

Outside of a few brilliant downtown/experimental outliers (like A Strange Loop, Mr. Burns, or Dave Malloy's work), the form rarely commits to the structural madness of Charlie Kaufman (Synecdoche, New York, Adaptation) or the Daniels (EEAAO). In those worlds, the premise isn't a gimmick (like in If/Then which I hate but that's a whole other post), the surrealism is baked into the engine of the show itself. Which ultimately gives it the feel of it breaking the narrative/structure, and the fourth wall.

I'm currently writing a musical exploring ancestral memory and severe isolation that tries to ditch the traditional safety net entirely (letting recursive loops, hallucinations, and temporal collapses genuinely dictate the world of the show rather than resolving into a tidy musical structure).

For writers and avid theatregoers:

1. Why do you think book musicals are so resistant to unhinged, non-resolving psychological surrealism? Is it purely a commercial/development pipeline issue, or is there something about musical structure that inherently resists that kind of dread and collapse?

2. What pieces come closest to pulling this off for you, and where do they usually draw the line?

Stating the obvious first. Of course the medium of musical theater is surreal in nature. I've never burst out into song because I started crying. Yet it feels like most book musicals keep that surrealism to isolated incidents. It’s a dream ballet, an isolated hallucination, or a neat psychological metaphor that tidies itself up in time for the eleven o'clock number.

Outside of a few brilliant downtown/experimental outliers (like A Strange Loop, Mr. Burns, or Dave Malloy's work), the form rarely commits to the structural madness of Charlie Kaufman (Synecdoche, New York, Adaptation) or the Daniels (EEAAO). In those worlds, the premise isn't a gimmick (like in If/Then which I hate but that's a whole other post), the surrealism is baked into the engine of the show itself. Which ultimately gives it the feel of it breaking the narrative/structure, and the fourth wall.

I'm currently writing a musical exploring ancestral memory and severe isolation that tries to ditch the traditional safety net entirely (letting recursive loops, hallucinations, and temporal collapses genuinely dictate the world of the show rather than resolving into a tidy musical structure).

For writers and avid theatregoers:

1. Why do you think book musicals are so resistant to unhinged, non-resolving psychological surrealism? Is it purely a commercial/development pipeline issue, or is there something about musical structure that inherently resists that kind of dread and collapse?

2. What pieces come closest to pulling this off for you, and where do they usually draw the line?