My second favourite song in "Opening Night" is
2. "Talk to Me:-"
It is a song for the lonely and lost.
It's a song that can only really be appreciated if you see the show, as Van Hove does a LOT with it, but as its likely now that most people will never see it, I'll describe it below. . .
Spoilers follow. . .
A 19 year old fan is run over, and Myrtle is shaken. She wants to have a drink with her ex-husband, Maurice, for old times' sake:
"Talk to me
I'm trying to tell you something
Open up your ears
And hear what I want to say
There isn't anyone else but me here
There isn't anyone else whose listening."
(I think that bit was sung acapella).
Maurice leaves Myrtle by herself, as he goes offstage to join the others for dinner. She's all alone.
A high pitched wind instrument starts to ascend in up and down waves, as if approaching to comfort her.
Then lower pitched alternating fast-played rumbling piano keys form a warm aural embrace around this lonely broken woman, as she sadly sings:
"One More Dream
That will not come true."
A close-up of her face appears on the left of the big screen, looking right.
Somewhere offstage, her unlikeable ex-husband is lonely too. His image now appears on the right of the big screen, looking left, as if he is looking at Myrtle. He sings:
"One More Wish
That has fallen through."
In reality they are both alone, wishing they were talking. In the fantasy world of the screen, they ARE talking.
They both realise they are alone, and now sing their loneliness passionately into the void:
"Always waiting on a corner
In New York somewhere
Caught between the border
Of hell and high water."
That passion is a bridge to repeat the main phrase of the song:
"There isn't anyone else but me here
There isn't anyone else whose listening."
The phrase has changed its meaning. When first sang, it meant the couple had the quiet to talk if they were willing. Now it means the only person they are talking to is themselves.
Myrtle calls the hospital and discovers her fan has died.
Now, in the foreground of the stage, the director, Manny (Hadley Fraser) and his wife (Amy Lennox) have their own argument. She wants to talk:
"Talk to me
I'm trying to tell you something
Open up your ears
And hear what I want to say
There isn't anyone else but me here
There isn't anyone else whose listening."
He's not interested, and she starts insulting him.
Now Sheridan Smith's Myrtle and her ex, Maurice, sing again of their loneliness:
"One More Dream
That will not come true
One More Wish
That has fallen through."
But this time the director and his wife join them in a round of this chorus, four lonely people singing alone yet also singing together only through the magic of theatre.
The bridge engulfs them all, singing together, loudly and more desperately, alone but together, yearning:
"Always waiting on a corner
In New York somewhere
Caught between the border
Of hell and high water. . ."
Together they all sing the main phrase of the song:
"There isn't anyone else but me here
There isn't anyone else whose listening."
The phrase has changed its meaning again. First, it was a request to talk privately, then it was a confession of loneliness, but, now, when all 4 characters make the same confession together, it shows the universality of loneliness, which, if everyone feels that way means that noone is truly alone at all. They are all just experiencing the human condition, which includes loneliness.
The music and the lyrics and the direction are all in perfect sync for this one, which is why, in my opinion, it's a perfect theatrical moment.