Monday Music 3 – 2019 | The Ardenna Crossing

So, Grease, West Side Story, My Fair Lady, Dr Horrible, and finally, the last of my favourite musicals that I’m going to dedicate a Monday Music post to:

Once More With Feeling

There aren’t many TV shows that could pull off having a musical episode. In the wake of Buffy The Vampire Slayer’s success in doing just that, several other shows have tried with varying results. I went into it with very low expectations at the time. I thought it would be a bit silly. I had no idea just how well-written the songs were going to be. I should have known better. The rest of the writing on the show was top notch, so why would this be any different.

So much preparation went into this episode, something that creator Joss Whedon had wanted to do since the beginning, and it shows. It was his first attempt at writing music and he took inspiration from Steven Sondheim, amongst others. The actors, many of whom had no experience with singing, had months of vocal coaching. Broadway’s Tony Award winner, Hinton Battle, was brought in to play the demon, Sweet.

The songs in the episode cover a wide variety of styles from rock to ballad to a Gershwin-inspired dance number for Xander and Anya. The lack of professional singing ability of the cast makes the whole plot of the episode more believable as the characters themselves are unaware of why they have suddenly burst into song.

Here are a few of my favourite songs from the episode.