Kimberly Akimbo - London (rumour)

I mean fair enough for best musical.
But shouldn't best score stand up independently?
I mean like I said music is perhaps THE most subjective aspect of musical theatre and so granted it's difficult. And I guess you can get into a debate about what "best score" should stand for. IMHO it should be for the best music that you can stick the CD on and love before seeing the show. 

Might be 800+ individuals but they clearly have much in common. And there is a pattern in what Tony awards "reward." 

But what you’ve just described is…not a musical theatre score!

You've said yourself, you haven't seen the show so how can you possibly say the score isn't good without listening to it in context? Each song in the show lets you know more about the characters and moves the story along. The story of the show is good but the score helps make it great.

I think the point is the Tony award for Best Original Score is there to recognize excellence in composing new material for theater, not composing in general. 

When it comes to the score for a piece of theater, it's best when it complements and works in synergy with the book.  Sure, a score may include many ear-pleasing melodies, but if it doesn't work dramatically, if it fails to underscore the characters' qualities, if it doesn't ever move the plot further... then it's not a great score for theatre, no matter how nice it may be to listen to it as a standalone body of music.  

I saw 'Kimberly Akimbo' on Broadway for the first time before the recording was even released, and as I sat there I couldn't stop smiling because of how well balanced it is, and because of how well the songs and the libretto work together at telling the story of these characters.  Even the most whimsical moments - say, when Kimberly's school mates start to sing backing vocals in Aunt Debra's numbers - make sense because, well, they're actually the school show choir and they respond as a group of teen-age friends to what Debra's proposing that they do, etc.  

Think of 'Anagram', which they performed at the Tony ceremony... you have Kimberly's part that starts in a rather conversational place, but grows to a melodic climax ("I wonder what you see 
when you look at me") when she begins to realize that she kinda really likes Seth.  At the same time Seth is lost in his own little world, scrambling letters in his head, and doesn't really notice any of that.  And yet you have no doubt that they're really connecting while Seth's (spoken) thoughts so perfectly counterpoint Kim's (sung) ones.  

Think of 'Better', which is over the top and loud and a bit wacky... because Aunt Debra's personality is precisely that, and when selling her "philosophy" to Kim and the other kids she really is convinced that she's in the right and that she's doing something good for Kim.  And, because she's at a bit of a desperate point in her life, she needs to do something major about it! And precisely because it's such a catchy and big sing you as the audience buy that all the kids are like "ok, she's a bit cuckoo but I like her, after all", because that's the effect she's had on you by the time the song finishes.  

Think of 'Hello, darling': no, it's not a "pretty" piece of music, there's plenty of unusual intervals and changes of tempo, a clashing chord here and there, and I don't think it's a song one would want to listen to on repeat in isolation.  Plus Alli Mauzey intentionally sings it with a slightly annoying vocal quality.  But hey, Pattie (Kim's mum) which is being introduced with that song has plenty of flaws, and her thoughts are all over the place, so of course her "melodic" line is far from linear and the dynamics of the number are jumpy to say the least... 

I could go on, but I'll stop here To me, this is what composing for theater is about!  

 

That's for something to do with a 13 Going on 30 musical. Presumably a concert performance or similar, seeing as that's the going trend.