On this quarantine edition of the Showtune Countdown, Mark Blankenship is joined by Tony Award-winning composer Jeanine Tesori. Mark and Jeanine chat about Soft Power, Fun Home and the time she saw William Finn creating Falsettos.
During their interview Jeanine talks about why the satirical songs in "Soft Power" sound jaunty and uplifting, even when they're saying dark things: "I was raised by a very strict Sicilian doctor, and the way that he would convey a message -- even if it was, "What you did was so great!" -- he was so strict and so hard that I would think, "I'm not even listening to the content. I'm listening to the delivery." It's scary! So [in Soft Power], when you have something that's bouncing along, your emotions are thinking, "Everything's okay. Everything's great" And when someone is saying something about artillery or the Second Amendment, it's very compelling, because two things are hitting us at once."
Listen to the full podcast in the player above.
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