by cleargreenwater » July 26th, 2012, 1:06 pm
I just realized thinking about it here that for me, I don't prefer the Broadway songs /that they re-wrote to fit the plot/ as much as their Rhythm of the Pridelands counterparts--i.e., Shodowland and Endless Night versus Lea Halalela and Lala. I think I had gotten so used to thinking of them as background/mood music that to hear them with functional lyrics is.....I love both versions of each really, I don't dislike either, but they'll always sound a little forced compared to the RotPLs versions.
(He/They) Live In You and One By One though, I find I like the Broadway versions better. This could be because I've actually seen the Broadway production and the scenes that go with are so powerful/beautiful that they blow RotPL out of the water, or that, like above, unlike being changed to tell a story they always did--so then it's just a matter of, okay the function is the same, which one is more powerful sounding? And "They Live In You" wins hands down against "He Lives In You" in that regard to me. I find it deeper in the TLKoB version. And in the case of "One By One", I think the joy/life/liveliness of the song come across more in the TLKoB version, too.
But that's cool, I actually never thought about it enough to come to conclusion. But that's I think what it is--when they rewrote a mood piece to advance the plot I think it looses a little of it's dreamlike quality (though still very deep and moving songs,) that the Rhythm versions had, but in the case of songs that already had a plot or a purpose, I find the Broadway versions really knock it out of the park.