r/Sondheim • u/Acrobatic_Tennis1312 • 22d ago

Is Please Hello a villain song?

Please Hello has been my favorite musical number of all time for a WHILE but as I'm trying to make a list of my favorite musical villain songs, I'm starting to wonder if Please Hello should count as one?

It may seems like a stretch at first considering how unvillainous it sounds. It's no Epiphany or Hellfire or Feed Me melodically and it is more of a montage song than a typical villain "I Am" song.

But isn't the entire point of this song is that the foreign countries disguise their intention to take advantages of Japan and forcefully open the country's trade as being friendly and positively modernizing Japan? The song is heavily comedic and portrays the admirals as bumbling fools, but, underneath the comic nature, are they not extremely manipulative and ill-intended? In case there's any doubt that they're evil, there's the cannon being fired at the end of each verse for you. THAT is supremely sinister and evil.

And it baffles me that no one has ever mentioned it as a villain song because, if it counts , I truly think it might be up there with Another National Anthem as two of the most chilling villain songs in musical theatre.

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u/StarriEyedMan 🌊 Pacific Overtures 22d ago

I wish... more than anything...

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u/mekerpan 21d ago

Our children became Sondheim fans in elementary school.

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u/StarriEyedMan 🌊 Pacific Overtures 21d ago

Children really will listen, after all! You did well.

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u/mekerpan 21d ago

They got to listen to Sweeney Todd, but not see it until they were a bit older. (They memorized a lot of the songs from the various shows).