In this week’s episode, Zach Lloyd and John Combs demonstrate a need for a broader definition of reprise in musical theater by examining reprises in two contrasting versions of Shrek the Musical, the original 2008 Broadway production, and the recently revised 2024 National Tour.

This episode was produced by Zachary Lloyd along with Team Lead Jennifer Weaver. Special thanks to peer reviewers Gregory Decker and Shersten Johnson, along with Michael Buchler for his early feedback and Jeanine Tesori for her support.

SMT-Pod’s theme music was written by Maria Tartaglia, with closing music by Yike Zhang. For supplementary materials on this episode and more information on our authors and composers, check out our website: https://smt-pod.org/episodes/

[Intro Theme by Maria Tartaglia.]

[“Overture/Big Bright Beautiful World” from Shrek the Musical begins to play. As the Overture finishes, the track fades to background music as the episode proper begins.]

Hello everyone. I’m Zach Lloyd.

And I’m John Combs.

You were just listening to the Overture of Shrek the Musical. For those who were not aware: yes, there was a musical adaptation of Shrek in the late 2000’s, and it wound up being one of the most expensive and unlikely Broadway ventures of its time. At an estimated cost of over $25 million, Shrek the Musical opened to Broadway audiences on December 14, 2008, after an extensive development period.

And it was quite a spectacle. From ornately designed costumes and complicated motorized stage and set pieces to Hollywood-level prosthetics and live 3D motion capturing and computer modeling, Shrek the Musical was pushing boundaries. And it did so not just with the sets and costumes, but also with the musical score.

With the book and lyrics written by playwright David Lindsay-Abaire and a musical score by Jeanine Tesori, this creative duo, who had never worked together until they were paired by Dreamworks producers for this show, exceeded all expectations. Amidst the pressures of the Dreamworks machine, this artistic pair beat the odds and delivered a tight book and heartfelt score that is still regularly performed worldwide, even today.

The eclectic musical score features an assortment of common song types and tropes that we would normally expect to find in a musical, including character introduction songs, I want songs, love duets, villain numbers, and some catchy ensemble performance numbers. The score also relies on some tried and true musical theater formal/structural practices.

Yet it is Tesori’s approach to one particularly well-known musical theater practice that forms the foundation of our conversation with you all today: the reprise.

As a frequently used element in Broadway musicals, the term reprise traditionally refers to the performed return of a song within a show. Reprises serve as a musical anchor for audience members while simultaneously functioning to draw a listener’s attention toward the musical’s changing dramatic narrative. While the simplest of reprises just repeat the same musical material, it is often situated in a different narrative context, meaning it may now take on a new dramatic interpretation. But what happens when the reprise is more complex than a simple copy/paste situation? What about reprises where only some elements of a song are brought back? Or what if the reprise’s function fundamentally changes?

And what happens when a show is revised? Shrek the Musical opened on Broadway in 2008, but the show’s book and score have gone through substantial revisions over its various versions starting with the launch of its first national tour back in 2009. As we will discuss later in our episode today, changes made to the musical continued as Tesori and Lindsay-Abaire returned to work on the 2024 second national tour. How did their changes affect reprise in the new version of Shrek the Musical?

We hope to speculate about all of this and more, in today’s SMT-Pod episode. I hope you stay and listen!

[opening section of “Morning Person” from Shrek the Musical plays as transition music]

Before we get started with our examples, it’s important that we first clarify what we mean by “reprise” and discuss our analytical objectives.

Absolutely. At its most traditional–and as I mentioned earlier–a reprise is the performed return of a song within the show. For example, in South Pacific, the song “Some Enchanted Evening” first appears near the beginning of Act 1. Then it is repeated–or reprised–in the finale of Act 1 and reprised again near the end of Act 2. Noteworthy of these reprises is that, even though Emile first sings the song and the first reprise, Nellie sings the second reprise at the end of Act 2. Let’s have a listen to the initial appearance of “Some Enchanted Evening” and then the reprise at the end of Act 2.

Here is the original.

[“Some Enchanted Evening” from South Pacific, New Broadway Cast Recording (2008)]

And then the final reprise at the end of Act 2.

[“Some Enchanted Evening (Reprise)” from South Pacific, New Broadway Cast Recording (2008)]

Often, reprises are marked next to the name or title of the number when it appears in the score or the musical’s program. This is the case in the South Pacific example John just mentioned. However, songs, and even track titles, are not a reliable delimiter of reprise because it is not always clear where a song begins or ends, and reprises can be embedded within other musical numbers.

Composers will sometimes insert parts of a previously-heard melody into another number. This can make the names of songs or track titles unreliable when analyzing reprise.

As will become evident in our discussion of reprise later, we believe that a broader definition of reprise would help analysts more easily analyze reprises in musical theater. For us, reprise is the re-presentation of some coherent and identifiable musical element. I wish to clarify further that a musical element can be a song, melody, phrase, or motive. This definition of reprise also requires that contextual features such as applause and/or the start and stop of musical accompaniments occur between the initial song and the reprise proper. In other words, something has to happen between the initial song and its reprise sonically, visually, or via that staging to delineate the original presentation and its re-presentation. Otherwise, we wouldn’t know when the song ended and when the reprise began.

So, an encore would count as a reprise under this definition?

As a matter of fact, yes! An encore would be a form of reprise since applause would separate the initial presentation from the reprise itself.

And you might be thinking - how does one determine song or reprise boundaries in a sung-through musical, or a song with silence or underscore? In those situations, other contextual factors such as a change in scene, character’s exit, onset of transition music, or the demarcation of formal functions can be used to delimit songs and reprises.

At this point, it’s also important for us to be upfront about our analytical objectives. In analyzing reprise, we are focused primarily on making a formal argument about reprise. That is, we are interested in looking at how reprise works on the formal level - its interaction with and disruption of other aspects of musical form. We believe that these interactions can create a new layer of meaning, which we explore through our interpretations of the examples from Shrek the Musical.

And while reprises can recontextualize previously heard material, we do not postulate that this is always the case. For our purposes today, we’re looking primarily at the formal implications of reprise.

Right. And for us, the power of a reprise comes from how carefully crafted it is - and as we will see in Shrek the Musical, composer Jeanine Tesori takes an inventive approach to reprise. In fact, Tesori herself has commented on the dramatic role of reprise in her own shows. Let’s listen.

To me, musicals are also meditations. And, [when I’m] looking at something, time is in the round, and […] I’ll think, “Oh, I know what this should recall,” because it becomes its own collective memory. At 8:05 or whatever time those [house] lights come down, the audience starts with […] as much of a blank slate, and then they have their own memory. And that’s why reprises to me are so effective. It brings you into an agreement with the same memory at the same time—you may not recall exactly where you heard it, but […] a well-placed reprise makes people realize that they’ve gone through something together. And now they have a collective sense of what they have gone through, so that at 10:15 when they hear parts of “Rose’s Turn” that they heard at the beginning, they understand [all] that they’ve been through something, and they together have formed a memory of what they first experienced together. It’s Theme and Variations, used to me, at its most turbo-charged.

I really love the language she uses here - “meditations”, and with this the understanding that it helps the audience know that they’ve “been through” something together.

And with the replacement of unique songs with additional reprises in the 2024 version of Shrek, the revised show heightens that sense of meditation. And through this, it strengthens the sense of community that audiences feel when watching the show because there are more opportunities for audience members to relate to one another, and know that they’ve experienced something together.

And, since every performance of a show is unique in its own way, reprises increase the audience’s sense that they have experienced something that no one else has experienced which is really quite special.

To view how reprises typically work, let's turn to the most stereotypical usage of reprise in Shrek the Musical. In this example of reprise, Shrek’s material from the opening number, “Big Bright Beautiful World” returns near the end of Act Two in the number aptly titled “Big Bright Beautiful World (Reprise).” In the opening number, Shrek is talking about how the world may be big, bright, and beautiful for others, but that is not the case for himself as an ogre and an outcast from society. Let's listen to a bit of this original material before we turn to the reprise.

[“Overture/Big Bright Beautiful World” (3:51 - 4:22)]

Later in the show, after Shrek has gone through the grueling journey of saving Princess Fiona, he realizes that his love for Princess Fiona is what he has actually been searching for. Solitude is no longer desirable, and he wants to spend the rest of his life with her. In the last possible moment, Shrek interrupts the wedding between Lord Farquaad and Princess Fiona where he is permitted to share his feelings for Fiona. Starting with a solemn and reflective clarinet introduction, the reprise of “Big Bright Beautiful World” is Shrek’s attempt at convincing Princess Fiona that their love is worth fighting for. Here is what that reprise sounds like.

[“Big Bright Beautiful World (Reprise)” (0:12 - 0:48)]

From the moment Shrek begins singing in the reprise, it is clear that this material is related to the opening number of the show, and the power of this particular reprise comes in the clear reference to that earlier material. This connection to the beginning of the musical highlights the drastic difference in Shrek’s position on love and solitude.

Exactly. At the beginning of the show, Shrek is rough around the edges and quite jaded over how those around him have treated him all his life. The rock influence of his material in the opening number, in conjunction with lyrics that talk about how happy he is to be alone, helps audience members to understand his current outlook. Yet, over the course of the show, we have the opportunity to see Shrek’s edges become softened and to see him start to tear down some of the walls he has built over time to allow people like Princess Fiona in. In doing so, he realizes that true love does exist and that he could have that if he didn’t push her away.

This change is spotlighted by the reprise, which essentially bookends the dramatic arc of Shrek and Fiona’s relationship. So when the reprise arrives at the end of the show with a slower tempo, a softer demeanor with a more lush orchestration, and altered lyrics that reflect Shrek’s acceptance of his love for Fiona, it really highlights this fundamental change in Shrek’s character and sets Shrek and Fiona up for their happily ever after.

While this reprise is certainly the most traditional reprise in the original version of Shrek the Musical, the opening number is actually a bit more complex than we may have led on. Given that our episode today centers on innovative reprises, and part of that is our focus on presenting a broader, more inclusive, and perhaps more flexible definition of reprise, it makes sense to dig a bit more into the show’s opening number.

The show’s opener, “Big Bright Beautiful World”, doesn’t begin with Adult Shrek like the film, and instead begins with Shrek’s mother, father, and a young Shrek, at age seven. The parents are actually the ones to establish the “Big Bright Beautiful World” material as they sing it to Shrek on his seventh birthday before kicking him out, as is apparently traditional in ogre families. Shrek’s parents send the young ogre out on his own as the scenery transitions to Shrek’s famous swamp, of course, aligning musically with a transition section. Bursting forth from an outhouse located on his property, Adult Shrek makes his entrance and continues with his portion of “Big Bright Beautiful World.” Let’s first take a listen to his parents at the top of the number, followed by the rock build-up to Adult Shrek’s entrance and a bit of his material.

[“Overture/Big Bright Beautiful World” (1:32 - 2:21)]

[“Overture/Big Bright Beautiful World” (3:51 - 4:22)]

While it may seem strange to call this a reprise because it technically takes place within the same musical number, based on our definition of a reprise as a “re-presentation of material,” and even taking into account the characteristics of more traditional reprises that we continue to employ in our broader definition, this one checks out. There is a definite stylistic change between the parent’s material and that sung by Shrek, and there is a temporal displacement of this material, though the displacement is experienced by Shrek’s character aging by a few decades and not necessarily by the audience watching.

This example also features a shift in the drama as the parent’s gentle and playful material comes back in a more abrasive as Shrek realizes how much of an outcast he truly is. While this sets up Shrek’s storyline, this prologue of sorts does act like a reprise in many ways.

Thinking back on our definition of reprise, this example also includes a full break in the musical number. Halfway through the number, the music intensifies as the scenery transitions from baby Shrek’s journey in the woods to adult Shrek’s swamp. Once the swamp transition is complete, the music completely halts, allowing for a few sound effects and some dialogue from Shrek before his entrance. The music returns with his entrance, of course. The sonic space and the scenic transition account for the separation between the first presentation of material and the re-presentation of material in our definition of reprise.

And this is not the only example of this type of nontraditional reprise that Tesori uses in Shrek the Musical. Just a few songs later are two musical numbers situated back-to-back, in which the composer herself denotes the second song as a reprise.

“What’s Up, Duloc?” is the musical’s introduction to Lord Farquaad, the ruler of the Kingdom of Duloc, whose short stature is overshadowed by his larger-than-life personality. Throughout the number, we learn of all the cruel things Farquaad has enacted upon the citizens of Duloc in order to curate his idealistic kingdom, clearly painting Farquaad as the story’s antagonist.

To give you an idea of what this number sounds like, we will play you two excerpts. We will first play an early verse, followed by the ending of the original number.

[ “What’s Up, Duloc?” (verse 1)]

[ “What’s Up, Duloc?” (ending)]

The number itself serves to paint Farquaad as a villain, which is, of course, directly confirmed in the scene that follows. As the number comes to a close, Farquaad announces that they will be holding a raffle to see who would be going on his behalf to rescue Princess Fiona. Cue Shrek’s entrance which miraculously solves Farquaad’s raffle problem. As a reward for fetching Princess Fiona from the tower, Farquaad agrees to return the deed to Shrek’s land, allowing him to return to a life of solitude after Farquaad had dropped all of Duloc’s fairytale creatures into Shrek’s swamp earlier in the show.

Just as soon as Shrek agrees and the guards escort them off stage, the orchestra launches directly into a reprise of “What’s Up, Duloc?” Let’s take a listen.

[“What’s Up, Duloc? (Reprise)” audio from the proshot released in 2013]

This example, again, follows many of our markers for reprise, with references to the re-presentation of similar musical material, but also similar musical styles.

There was also a complete break between the musical numbers. During the raffle scene, there are also orchestra/sound cues as well that help to add sonic space between the musical numbers. Yet, the proximity of the original number to the reprise, which ensures that there is practically zero change in the dramatic context, marks this reprise as non-traditional. In many ways, this example of reprise functions more as a continuation.

The beginning of the reprise also employs a musical vamp that is highly reminiscent of the original number's ending. This infuses the reprise with the feeling of a restart and colors the reprise more like a continuation of the previous song than more of a traditional reprise. So, while they are clearly two separate numbers in the score, they do feel like one singular number.

Apart from the reprise-as-continuation demonstrated in “What’s Up Duloc?”, Tesori highlights her compositional prowess with a more complex example of reprise in the Act I Finale. The Act 1 Finale features the reprise of three separate themes previously heard. The three melodies reprised in the Finale are from: The brief overture to Act 1; Shrek and his parent’s number from the opening of Act 1, “Big Bright Beautiful World”; and Fiona’s number about her coming of age, “I Know It’s Today.” Both the dramatic and musical elements of this reprise are complex. But let’s set the stage by discussing the dramatic context of “Who I’d Be” first.

When the audience reaches the finale of Act 1, “Who I’d Be”, Shrek and Donkey have just rescued Fiona. As the sun begins to set, Fiona seeks shelter, all the while Donkey ruminates on the fact that, if they could escape a dragon, they could do (or be) anything they wanted. Donkey ultimately asks Shrek what he would be if he weren’t an Ogre, which launches us into Shrek’s hypothetical wish.

Musically, the melody of “Who I’d Be” is a veiled restatement of the overture. As the song builds to its climax, Shrek’s material from “Big Bright Beautiful World” returns as an excuse for him to stop dreaming about what he could have been. This in turn builds into a rousing quodlibet with Shrek, Fiona, and Donkey. A quodlibet is when multiple characters are singing at once. Shrek continues with a restatement of the “Who I’d Be” chorus, Donkey sings material related to “Travel Song,” and Fiona reprises material from “I Know It’s Today.”

Before we dive into the reprises in “Who I’d Be,” let’s talk about the source material for each of the reprises. The first reprise is Shrek and his parent’s opening number, “Big Bright Beautiful World,” which we’ve discussed earlier in our episode. Here is a brief reminder of what the opening number sounds like.

[“Overture/Big Bright Beautiful World” (verse 1)]

As you’ve heard, the meaning of the song is ironic. The title refers to a “big, bright, beautiful world” which is available to anyone except Shrek. His parents describe life beyond home as a place where dreams come true, happiness is everywhere, and you always have friends to help you out, except all this will not be available to Shrek. This makes the song comical but also sets up Shrek’s cynicism and reclusiveness as an adult.

And as we’ll discuss in a moment, the irony of the song and Shrek’s “I don’t care attitude” are part of what make the reprise in the Act 1 finale all the more meaningful. The second source material is from Fiona’s initial material in “I Know It’s Today.” In this number, the audience is introduced to Fiona and her confidence that her “prince” will one day rescue her (if not “today”), since this has happened to other princesses in fairytales. The song progresses by introducing Fiona at different ages of her life: first Young Fiona, followed by Teen Fiona, and then Adult Fiona.

[“I Know It’s Today” chorus, mm.140-148]

Finally, the Act 1 Finale features a reprise of the melody from the Overture. As we listen to the overture again, listen to the majestic descending line with the brass and woodwinds, which is then followed by the more energetic rising line. Both the stately descent and the energetic ascending material do come back. Let’s listen to the overture.

[“Overture/Big Bright Beautiful World” opening]

Now while both of these melodies do not come back verbatim, they do appear in the [Act 1] finale in a disguised form.

So, let’s dive into the reprises in the Finale. Here’s the opening bit.

[play opening of “Who I’d Be”]

[atop recording] Listen to the melody - do you hear the descending line of the overture there?

Now, let’s listen to a little more of the Finale. Here’s a section where the melody gets a little more active. Do you hear the return of that energetic ascending line from the Overture here?

[continue “Who I’d Be”]

As the song goes on, Shrek continues to sing about what his life would “be” like. He speaks of “love”, “finding destiny”, and even having a “hero’s ending.” But amidst all of this, Shrek finally realizes that the “big, bright, beautiful world” he’s describing is not for him, just as his parents described at the beginning of the show. Listen to this excerpt where Shrek describes his dream with the reprise of the music from “big, bright, beautiful world.”

[“Who I’d Be” mm. 55-63]

All of this in turn sets up the tension at the end of Act 1. Shrek, Fiona, and Donkey are all waiting or hoping for something. Shrek is hoping to become a hero and have a “happy ending”; Fiona is waiting for her true love to appear; and Donkey is waiting for Shrek to be a friend. During the quodlibet, the trio reprises music from their respective songs earlier in the show: Shrek continues with a restatement of the “Who I’d Be” chorus, Fiona reprises material from “I Know It’s Today,” and Donkey sings material related to “Travel Song.” Let’s listen!

[Play “Who I’d Be” mm. 67-86]

This finale to Act 1 not only provides a complex reprise of material from multiple sources, but it also fulfils a function commonly seen in previous musicals: the conditional love song. In many musicals, there is a song in the first act where the two romantic leads sing about love, just not that they love each other. In “Who I’d Be,” both Shrek and Fiona sing of love, but it has not yet been defined that the two are explicitly referring to their love for one another. So even though the finale is not strictly a duet between Fiona and Shrek, the quodlibet allows it to provide that “conditional love” song function.

Let’s switch gears now and talk about the different versions of the show and its many revisions.

Following its Broadway run, Shrek the Musical was sent off on its first national tour in 2009. During the process of mounting the tour, Tesori and Lindsay-Abaire ended up making some revisions to the musical, setting up a long lineage of edits to be made to the work over its 16-year life-span. One of the most notable changes in that adaptation was the replacement of the number “Donkey Pot Pie” with a new number, “Forever.” This change has been a permanent replacement in all future iterations of the show.

At this point, I believe the show has been revised four or five times from the original Broadway run. Changes have been made for the first national tour, revisions were made when the show went up for regional and community licensing, more edits for the young adult and junior versions, and now most recently the 2024 non-union national tour.

And it is this most recent tour’s changes that have been the most substantial, of course, this is considering that many of the other revisions have been for different settings of the show (i.e., for school children) and haven’t necessarily been billed or advertised as the Broadway version of Shrek the Musical. In preparing for this new national tour, which will have closed by the time this episode airs, Tesori and Lindsay-Abaire have spoken about how this version of the musical feels more like them, given that these edits were made without the intense pressures surrounding the original production.

Yet, what is interesting, is that in revising the show, many of the changes actually removed several of the more interesting and recognizable Tesorian songs.

In the process of streamlining the show to make its run time shorter, to allow for the show to be more ensemble-driven, and to make the show more economically viable for that matter, many large-scale changes were made. In comparing the run times between productions, over 40 minutes of material were cut from the Broadway version to the new tour, and there are certainly benefits to doing something like this.

It makes the show easier to sit through with smaller children, and since most of the changes were to streamline the show and focus more on the central storyline, it also helped to make the show’s narrative a bit easier to follow. These both make the show more accessible to younger audiences, as well as audiences who might not be as experienced in theater and want a more gentle introduction to the art form.

The shorter run time also means it costs less to run the show, and with the edits to the scenery, the removal of technical elements such as the live, 3D modeled mirror, and a reorchestration for a smaller ensemble, the show likely became profitable for its national tour.

One thing that I found interesting when we saw that show back in April of 2024 was how different the overall treatment of reprise was in this newer version of the show, and how in many ways, the show fell back into more traditional tropes when it came to streamlining the material.

Yeah, let's talk about this a little bit. First and foremost, all of the reprises that we’ve talked about earlier in the episode, remain in the show, but several songs were removed from the 2024 national tour including “Don’t Let Me Go,” “Donkey Pot Pie,” which remains cut, “This Is How A Dream Comes True,” “The Ballad of Farquaad,” and the number “Build A Wall.” Of those songs, three were replaced by short reprises of earlier, more central musical numbers.

“This is How A Dream Comes True,” which originally took place in Princess Fiona’s castle as Shrek comes to rescue her, was cut and substituted for a reprise of “I Know It’s Today,” a number that previously showed Princess Fiona moving from a young child, through her teenage years, and coming into her adult self while praying that each new day would be the day she was rescued. While the original number, “This is How a Dream Comes True,” featured brief callbacks to “I Know It’s Today,” the material was really woven throughout the number. This contrasts greatly with the very traditional reprise that occurs in the 2024 tour as Shrek is slaying the Dragon.

Let’s take a listen to the chorus of “I Know It’s Today,” followed by the reprise added in the 2024 version. As you will hear, the harmonic progression, melody, and style are the same, and the new lyrics demonstrate the change in the narrative – no longer is she trapped in her tower, but she has been rescued at last.

[“I Know It’s Today,” final chorus]

Unfortunately, there are currently no plans to produce a cast album with these changes, so you are forced to listen to my own rendition of the reprise.

[Authors’ recreation of “I Know It’s Today (Reprise)” from 2024 National Tour]

Similar replacements happened in two other spots. A reprise of “What’s Up, Duloc?” replaced “The Ballad of Farquaad” and a reprise of “Big Bright Beautiful World” replaced the song “Build a Wall.” In all three instances, character songs were replaced by short reprises of earlier songs related to that character.

Shrek, Fiona, and Lord Farquaad received this treatment, and Donkey’s song was completely cut from the musical and replaced with Eddie Murphy’s “But You Gotta Have Friends” sung line of dialogue. The musical material was therefore considerably reduced, and many of the show’s more intriguing numbers were removed.

And yet, what I find incredible is how the musical connections become strengthened because of this more intense reliance on previously heard material. The resulting musical score is perhaps more cohesive since so many numbers were cut and three reprises of prior material were added, which assists audiences with connecting storylines and musical moments together.

I certainly agree that the revisions did strengthen the show in the sense that the overall narrative and form of the musical seem to be tighter, though I do mourn the loss of some of those incredible character songs that made the score so endearing in the first place. Numbers such as “The Ballad of Farquaad” really helped to deepen the character of Farquaad, but as the antagonist, it was not necessary to delve so much into his backstory. And while I do miss the number, the reprise of “What’s Up, Duloc?” that takes its place… I want to preface that this is just my opinion… but that the reprise that takes its place is more effective at re-engaging the audience in the marriage plot and communicates the same dramatic information in a more seamless and compact way than the original number.

And the replacement of “This is How A Dream Comes True” was likely due to numerous factors including a scaled-down set for this production, a smaller ensemble cast, and a change to the dragon—no longer is the dragon a gigantic puppet, but it is instead a costume worn by an actor. The reprise helps to accomplish functions similar to those of the original number without relying on the spectacle of an action chase sequence and a massive dragon puppet.

“Build A Wall” was a power rock ballad by Shrek, in which he affirms his desire for isolation because of mishearing a conversation between Donkey and Princess Fiona. “Build A Wall” was replaced by a solemn reprise of “Big Bright Beautiful World,” again accomplishing similar goals with much less material.

[“Morning Person” underscoring as transition music]

By broadening the definition of reprise like we have here, we’ve been able to talk about reprise not just as a type of number, but as a technique used in musical theater.

Even though we’ve only talked about reprise in Shrek the Musical, this definition can be used to explore the repetition of material in other shows as well. In fact, the broader definition can assist those who are interested in analyzing the recurrence of themes, motives, and other melodies that are often repeated in musicals.

And certainly, the analysis of reprise with respect to performance raises some important questions. For example: How do repeated hearings/viewings of a show affect the analysis of reprise? Can one consider a revival of a musical as a reprise writ large? Could reprise be broadened further to include non-musical elements such as costumes, set design, or stage blocking and direction?

And as musicals continue to evolve and change—what constitutes the score of a musical? Which version? These questions remind us that musicals are dynamic, living works of art. We hope that our analysis of reprise inspires you the next time you see a show - whether it’s your first time or your fiftieth!

Thanks for listening!

[Outro music]

We would like to extend a massive thank you to the numerous people who have helped make this episode a reality. First off, thank you to the SMT-Pod Editors, Megan Lyons, Anna Rose Nelson, and Matthew Ferrandina, as well as our two peer reviewers, Gregory Decker and Sherston Johnson, for your guidance and support throughout the SMT-Pod Process.

We would also like to thank Michael Buchler for providing early feedback that has helped to refine the initial ideas presented in this podcast.

And finally, we would like to thank composer Jeanine Tesori for sharing her valuable time with us, along with her endless encouragement for our work.

[Outro Theme by Yike Zhang.]

Visit our website, smt-pod.org, for supplemental materials related to this episode and to learn how to submit an episode proposal. And join in the conversation by tweeting us your questions and comments @SMT_Pod. SMT-Pod’s theme music was written by Maria Tartaglia, with closing music by Yike Zhang.