After a couple months absence, I am back, comfortable, and at my desk working on my projects. It feels good to be back! In my online absence, I had some time to do some serious cast album listening. I found myself always going back for shows by Tesori, and I dove deep into her catalog. I’ve decided to highlight a number from most major productions and try to paint a picture of how Tesori’s music penetrates into your heart and mind. And because her music is fairly wide reaching in genre, I am limiting the highlights here to Broadway productions only.

Tesori’s catalog goes back to the late 90s, with her first off-Broadway show Violet, which will later go on to be produced on Broadway in 2014. Her first major Broadway show was 2002’s Thoroughly Modern Millie, a show that will ultimately be the beginning of a longtime working relationship with all-star Sutten Foster. Millie shows us Tesori’s strength in creating music to set a very specific scene. Her music easily transports us back to the 1920s and does nothing but enrich the environment created on stage.

Millie was premiered during a pivotal time in Broadway history. Overall sales and attendance were dropping near the turn of the century, and one could argue that there was a bit of a dip in quality shows around the turn of the millenium. The 2000 Tony Award nominees for Best Musical were: James Joyce’s The Dead, A LaChiusa musical, Contact, and Swing, the latter two being jukebox/dance musicals. So, I don’t know, you decide. Anyway, it’s worth noting that Millie won the best musical tony award 2002.

It is my view that Tesori was a integral part a revitalization, of sorts, of Broadway in 2001/2002. Tesori’s entrance onto the Broadway scene happened shortly after 9/11, when the New York theatre economy was impacted, and the millennia beckoned for change. This rise in quality is supported by by Brooks’ The Producers, Andersson/Ulvaeus’ Mamma Mia, Shaiman’s Hairspray, among others.

Tesori’s next show Caroline, or Change premiered in 2004, to positive reviews. Musically, the show is less episodical, where each scene reveals a new smash hit song, like Millie, but rather a montage of songs, vignettes almost, that tell a much different story than Millie. While Caroline was nominated for Best Musical at the Tonys, the show was up against Lopez’ Avenue Q (winner) and Schwartz’ Wicked. A tough competition.

Tesori’s songwriting is on point during the entire score, highlighted by the second act belting showstopper “Lot’s Wife.” The sustained note after “Slammed on the Iron! Slammed on the Iron! Flat, flat, flat!” that leads into a hair raising major lift and tempo change is just spectacular. By this early moment in time, 2004, Tesori had proved herself an adaptable, creative, and original composer. Another highlight for me in Caroline is the “Moon Trio” bit.

Speaking of a diverse repotoire, after the successes of her first two broadway shows, Tesori reunites with Sutton Foster in the musical version of Shrek. Shrek was never my favorite film, but as source material, I thought it had some potential on stage. The 2009 musical gave new life to a story that was already turning into a meme by that point. I’m glad that the movie got the full Broadway treatment, as well a Proshot, locking it into Broadway history. Tesori’s score compliments Lindsay-Abaire’s humor in terms of tone and timing. The stand out number for me is Princess Fiona’s introduction trio “I Know It’s Today.”

Moving forward into 2014/2015, Tesori provides the score to Violet & Fun Home, the latter will go on to win the 2015 Tony for Best Musical, and in the former, she reunites, again, with Sutten Foster.

Violet takes us on a journey through North Carolina to Oklahoma in a young woman’s pilgrimage to be healed from facial disfigurement. Musically, Violet’s score channels Jason Robert Brown’s Parade in style. An American South folk acoustic score with guitars, fiddles, short vignette-like musical segments, elements of Sothern gospel, soul, and church organ, praise Jesus style.

The show’s stand out number is Act 1’s On My Way, capturing the adventure and prospect of hope and healing. An optimistic look toward the future. A refreshing musical number that gives me a feeling of fresh start, hope, and good faith.

Tesori’s most recent Broadway score is Fun Home, which won the Tony in 2015. A coming of age story, Fun Home is a more intimate score, both in subject matter and the minimalist qualities of the music. Passages that invoke thought, questions, and queries. The musical journey is intertwined closely with the book, a pas de duex of melody and story, making the musical score and the libretto/book feel as one unit, like the music is a part of the storyline itself. This is a quality of Tesori’s music that I find hard to describe, but easy to fall in love with.

Since 2015, Tesori has been involved with a number of projects that include Operas and off-Broadway shows. But I will wrap it up here, shortly.

In Fun Home, as a stand out number, and maybe one of her most well known songs, Ring of Keys is tune that most of us can relate to. Being young and seeing familiarity in a stranger. A familiarity that you can’t quite place. Something that feels like home, but you don’t really know what home means yet. Ring of Keys captures the wonder, anxiety, and emotional complexity of learning who you will grow up to be.

All of Tesori’s Broadway albums belong on the shelves of theatre enthusiasts everywhere. If you haven’t had the chance to listen to one yet, check the link at the top!

xoxo AB