The Song Before the Storm

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    "Tomorrow is the judgement day
    Tomorrow we'll discover
    What our God in Heaven has in store!
    One more dawn
    One more day
    One day more!"

    —Les Misérables, "One Day More"

    So the Climax of the musical is about to begin. Something may happen At the Opera Tonight, or fate and destiny could be working to bring the characters together for some sort of final showdown. Either way, the writers find it that it's important to remind us just how important what is happening is. So they introduce a song to bring everything dramatically together. A classic example of this type of song seems to be cutting between the heroes doing a Hero Song and the villains doing their Villain Song, as they each do their own particular preparations.

    Frequently overlaps with Massive Multiplayer Ensemble Number, which can be about a wider range of subjects, but must include counterpoint and various character perspectives.

    Examples of The Song Before the Storm include:

    Film


    Live Action Television

    • "Walk Through the Fire" from the Buffy musical episode "Once More, With Feeling".
    • In the Musical Episode of Even Stevens, there's "Sixth Period", in which the two lead characters of the show express their fears about their upcoming classes.
    • "Teardrop" by Massive Attack at the end of the first season of Prison Break, a night before the breakout.
    • "Brigadoom" from Lexx. It's really almost more of a Backstory Musical, but it does also fill this role because it sort of pumps them up as well by showing them the history of how Kai fought so hard in the past and how he shouldn't let that go to waste and they all must once again struggle valiantly to defeat new Big Bad Mantrid rather than running.


    Music


    Theatre

    • "One Day More" from Les Misérables.
    • "Tonight" from West Side Story is one of the classics, setting up for the big rumble that changes everything.
    • "Prima Donna" from The Phantom of the Opera qualifies, certainly in the stage production.
      • "Notes (Reprise) - Twisted Every Way" could apply as well (this song is called "We Have All Been Blind - Twisted Every Way in the movie version, as "Notes (Reprise)" was cut from this version).
    • "Luck Be A Lady" from Guys and Dolls.
    • Sweeney Todd: The Demon Barber of Fleet Street has the Fogg's Asylum sequence. As the final confrontation looms, the chorus asks "Who could see how the road would twist?" as the lunatics escape to echo the Beggar Woman's Cassandra Truth across the city.
    • "I Hope I Get It" from A Chorus Line.
    • Though it was a Cut Song, "We'll Have Tomorrow" from Little Shop of Horrors would have been a perfect example of this.
      • The start of "Suppertime Reprise (Sominex)" could count, but the storm sort of starts in the middle of it.
    • The Act One finale of Urinetown. Just for extra emphasis, it goes into slow motion. "Why Did I Listen To That Man?" features no less than four alternating, then simultaneous takes on the collapsing situation... then The Hero Dies and things truly explode two songs later.
    • Godspell subverts it with "On the Willows", which is light and soft, but the lyrics talk about the coming sacrifice as one by one the apostles say goodbye to Jesus after Judas has been exposed. Heartwrenching if done properly.
    • "It's Time" from The Evil Dead Musical. The gist of the song is that Ash has decided it's time to man-up and kick a whole mess of ass. In the next few scenes, he kills things that are immortal.
    • A light-hearted, waltzy version appears in A Little Night Music: "A Weekend in the Country".
    • "Comfort and Joy" from Bat Boy: The Musical
    • In Vanities, "I Can't Imagine" plays this straight, but its reprise, "The Argument" is a song during the storm (the breakdown of the characters' friendship).


    Web Original

    • "So They Say" from Dr. Horrible's Sing-Along Blog. Dr. Horrible prepares his Death Ray, Captain Hammer sings about doing the weird stuff and Penny sings about her future.
    • "Voldemort is Going Down" from A Very Potter Musical.
      • "No Way" in the Sequel, in which Draco finally gets to be a part of a 4 part harmony.
    • The fanmade Phoenix Wright - The Musical features a song called Tomorrow's Trial, taking place the night before the final faceoff between Phoenix and Von Karma.


    Western Animation

    Why did our mothers start this war?
    What the fuck are they fighting for?
    When did this song become a marathon?

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