this is my obligatory gushing about Starry because holy shit that musical is SOMETHING ELSE. the music? beautiful. the vocals? incredible. the lyrics? like poetry. stan matt dahan & kelly lynne d’angelo. like, it took me a while to pin it, but part of the reason why I love Starry SO MUCH is because the ending is so fucking satisfying. We are hearing Vincent’s “theme” from the very first notes being played in “Prologue” and all throughout the soundtrack, we hear these notes from the get go and we spend the entire musical hearing them, and they’re not attached to anything; just notes, and then suddenly at the end of “The Red Vineyard”, we essentially hear the start of “Prologue” again, and then it goes into “The Starry Night” and it all. comes. together. suddenly, we know exactly what we’ve been listening to right from the start, and we hear the music accompanied by the lyrics (WHICH ARE FKN BEAUTIFUL) and it all just clicks in together; we’re hearing Vincent.
then, we get “Wheat Fields/Finale Ultimo” and in case “The Starry Night” wasn’t satisfying enough, this song just wraps it all up brilliantly. we hear from pretty much everyone, and then we get to Theo and Jo, and Vincent’s little reprise of “The Starry Night” is just *chefs kiss*. And we go into Jo’s monologue, and this is The Moment™️ for me. The voices start overlapping, and Mariah vocalises until we get to what seems to be the climax of the song: “What happens when we’re something after all? / The answer’s in the sky!” (idk what the proper lyrics are but this is what I gather) and UGH. Mariah’s vocals following the amazing ensemble is just frikkin incredible, and in my absolutely unqualified opinion, it’s the most satisfying musical/vocal moment in musical theatre.
listen to Starry. take an hour and just soak in the absolute excellence that it is, and then buy the CD so this show can go on Broadway and take over the world.
