Pantomime has a long and proud tradition of using pop music, songs from musicals, and variety classics to add some musical spectacle to proceedings.
The best pantomimes I’ve seen cleverly re-write the lyrics of the number to fit their pantomime to perfection.
It’s one of my favourite tasks when it comes to writing bespoke scripts (like I did for the original versions of Robin Hood, Once Upon a Time in Pantoland and Jack and the Beanstalk – Alpine Edition). You can add character development and humour, as well as personalising the song to help your cast members shine in their roles.
If you are re-writing lyrics for the first time, or simply interested in a refresher here’s my advice on how to re-write a show stopping number.
Choosing Your Song
The best songs to choose to re-write the lyrics for are usually those either very close in subject matter, or diametrically opposite to the moment you are creating.
I say this because if the lyrics only need a few small tweaks, that’s often useful because the audience will likely recognise the song and enjoy it in (nearly) its original form.
A great example of this is from Dick Whittington at the London Palladium in 2017. The writers took ‘Flash, Bang, Whallop’ from Half a Sixpence and changed the words to fit the introduction of the dame’s sweet shop in old London Town. “Flash, bang, wallop, what a picture” is ammended to “Flash, bang, wallop what a sweet shop” etc. A simple switch, and with a few chocolate bars sprinkled throughout the verses for good measure and you have yourself a show-stopping production number to open the sweetshop scene.
Whereas if a song is so different, or opposite in setting, the audience might hear the introduction and be expecting one thing, then be surprised with another. This is where comedy often enters the fray.
Edinburgh Festival Theatre’s Cinderella in 2024 has some brilliant examples of this. Alan Stewart’s Fairy Godmother dame sang “All I Want for Christmas is Youth” a tongue-twister full of all the ailments and injuries of old age. Meanwhile Grant Stott’s wicked stepmother sang “Yes sir, you can boo me” about the joys of being a pantomime villain.
Both examples take a well-known song lyric and turn it on it’s head opening up plenty of room for laughs along the way.
Check the tone
Some songs are big belty numbers like ‘Hey Big Spender’, others are softer ballads, some upbeat like ‘Shut Up and Dance With Me’ and some have a more acoustic sound like many Ed Sheeran songs.
When you are choosing a song for a moment in a pantomime, you want the tone to match the moment. Perhaps it’s a romantic song between your principal leads. Or otherwise a big production number to introduce a new character.
If the song you’ve chosen doesn’t fit the same tone, you may want to consider writing a new arrangement for the production. For example, you could take a ballad and make it an upbeat show-stealer.
Follow the syllabic structure
The syllabic structure of a lyric refers to how the different syllables in a lyric fall on the musical notes as they are sung.
There are two important elements to mastering this skill.
First, each new lyric should have the same number of syllables as the original lyric. Unless an extra syllable is being added for comic effect.
For example, take ‘All I want for Christmas is you’. An incorrect number of syllables might change the lyric to read ‘All I want for Christmas is not you’. Or even ‘All I want for Christmas isn’t you’. It makes sense as a lyric, but it spills over the number of syllables available in the melody, and sounds squished into the space. Whereas there are a number of single-syllable options (which also happen to rhyme) that could work well such as ‘booze’, ‘news’, ‘shoes’ etc.
Secondly, the new lyrics should follow the same stresses as the original lyric. Unless the stress is changed for comic effect. All languages have typical stresses on words, and when these stresses aren’t applied a sentence sounds uneven. Take a name for example. We say ‘AL-ex JACK-son PANT-o-MIME-s’ because it would sound really odd if we said ‘Al-EX Jack-SON Panto-O-mimes’.
This is the same in lyrics, so if you’re writing a lyric or rhyming couplet and it sounds uneven, or as if it doesn’t quite fit, it’s worth checking where the stress falls and whether it falls in the same place as the original lyric or not.
Follow the rhyming structure
The second structure it’s important to identify is the rhyming structure of the original lyrics. You need to replicate this in your new lyrics, otherwise the music and lyrics won’t match up properly.
For example, the rhyming structure in the lyrics for Meghan Trainor’s ‘Made You Look’ chorus is as follows:
“I could have my Gucci on
I could wear my Louis Vuitton
But even with nothin’ on
Bet I made you look (I made you look)”
The lyrics “Gucci on”, “Louis Vuitton” and “Nothing on” all rhyme and half-mirror each other’s structure. So to re-write these lyrics you’d need to follow this syllabic, spoken stress and rhyming structure.
Some songs are more complex than this containing multiple rhymes within a single line of lyrics. Some even rhyme across verses, so keep an eye out for those that are less obvious, particularly in musical theatre songs!
Including jokes
Including jokes in the new lyrics is a great way to add some humour to your musical sequences. However be careful where you place the punchline.
Just like joke-writing which isn’t set to music, it’s important for the punchline and setup to have clarity in their own rights. If a piece of music is fast-paced and includes lots of difficult words to pronounce then the punchline may get lost amongst the other words.
An example of this working brilliantly is in Gilbert and Sullivan’s song for the Modern Major General. The punchline, more often than not, is placed at the end of the line of lyrics and the tempo is ammended to highlight times when the comedy is particularly intricate.
To demonstrate a great example of this in action, here’s a video from the recent ENO production of The Pirates of Penzance:
Amend the tempo
Now that you’ve re-written the lyrics and your new musical number is born, consider the tempo of the music. More often than not in pantomime the tempo needs to be increased from its original setting. Even small increases can result in enormously helpful energy which carries through the whole production.
Concluding thoughts
If you can master the art of rewriting lyrics to a song, your pantomime audience will thank you and reward you with laughs and applause a plenty!
Got your own tips on re-writing lyrics? Or perhaps you’ve seen a magnificent example at your local pantomime? Get in touch and let me know.
