As a fan of the show (but one who is watched the episodes loooong after they screened initially) I have been expecting a musical episode since season 3. When it finally came it did not disappoint. OUAT is based on the Disney versions of fairy tales - a musical episode was going to happen. At least in the case of this show it fit the world and they did it right.
The actors were all 'auditioned' for vocals and the songs were written to suit what they were capable of. Full credit to the production team here as this resulted in songs that were sung well and suited the actors' vocal capabilities.
I really enjoyed the cliché musical sound to the songs - as each song was sung I felt myself thinking of which musical it was reminiscent of. They were well suited to the characters that sang them and across the board they sounded good. I was genuinely surprised to discover that all of the actors did their own singing - I felt for sure that Josh Dallas was dubbed. But credit where credit is due - they all sang their own songs and they did a great job of it.
As was to be expected, some actors were better than others. Ginnifer Goodwin and Josh Dallas nailed their Disney ballad. Lana Parilla gave a wonderfully evil rendition of her 'bad guy song' and made the most of her vocal capabilities. Colin O'Donaghue sounded great, but I felt that Hook should have sounded more gravelly and 'dirty' so while I DID enjoy the song, I also thought that the vocals were too good (a la Liza Minnelli in Cabaret). Rebecca Mader gave a stunning performance with Wicked Always Wins and truly showed that you don't need a massive range to stand out in a musical. The true stand out for me though was Jennifer Morrison. Not only were her vocals outstanding, she gave the one thing thing that was lacking from the other numbers - emotive and empassioned singing. Morrison's solo was the absolute highlight of the episode!!! Beautiful vocals with emotion and intention that truly moved the story forward - bravo!
While many reviewers have criticised this episode as a gimmick I have to disagree. Given the source material for OUAT this made sense. And the writers gave a plausible reason for why they started singing. The concept that Snow White would make a wish upon a star for the safety of her unborn baby makes sense. The idea that Singing/Music is a magic that can't be beaten makes sense. The idea that this magic would be stored safely within Emma's heart until it was needed works well within the universe of the show. Admittedly, Henry conveniently finding the tape recorder of Emma singing as a child was clunky and very much unexplained; but this IS a show based on fairy tales... I forgave this poor scripting because the songs were so good.
My biggest criticism would be that once the songs were unleashed in Storybrooke the only character who sung to progress the plot of the season was Emma. Perhaps some of the other songs could have been shorter to allow for more singing within the Storybrooke story line. While I'm not a screenwriter I feel that a song from Fiona/Black Fairy would have been an effective (and plausible) way to end the power of song at this point in the characters' timelines. The way the episode ended, it seemed like the singing should continue and of course it does not.
Overall, I felt this was a strong episode. As someone who has studied music and toured in Musical Theatre around Australia and South East Asia I very much enjoyed the musical content. I also felt that the episode progressed the plot effectively. However, I would have liked to have seen a more believable wrap up to the episode to explain why the music (which in my opinion fits in this world REALLY well) ended.
The actors were all 'auditioned' for vocals and the songs were written to suit what they were capable of. Full credit to the production team here as this resulted in songs that were sung well and suited the actors' vocal capabilities.
I really enjoyed the cliché musical sound to the songs - as each song was sung I felt myself thinking of which musical it was reminiscent of. They were well suited to the characters that sang them and across the board they sounded good. I was genuinely surprised to discover that all of the actors did their own singing - I felt for sure that Josh Dallas was dubbed. But credit where credit is due - they all sang their own songs and they did a great job of it.
As was to be expected, some actors were better than others. Ginnifer Goodwin and Josh Dallas nailed their Disney ballad. Lana Parilla gave a wonderfully evil rendition of her 'bad guy song' and made the most of her vocal capabilities. Colin O'Donaghue sounded great, but I felt that Hook should have sounded more gravelly and 'dirty' so while I DID enjoy the song, I also thought that the vocals were too good (a la Liza Minnelli in Cabaret). Rebecca Mader gave a stunning performance with Wicked Always Wins and truly showed that you don't need a massive range to stand out in a musical. The true stand out for me though was Jennifer Morrison. Not only were her vocals outstanding, she gave the one thing thing that was lacking from the other numbers - emotive and empassioned singing. Morrison's solo was the absolute highlight of the episode!!! Beautiful vocals with emotion and intention that truly moved the story forward - bravo!
While many reviewers have criticised this episode as a gimmick I have to disagree. Given the source material for OUAT this made sense. And the writers gave a plausible reason for why they started singing. The concept that Snow White would make a wish upon a star for the safety of her unborn baby makes sense. The idea that Singing/Music is a magic that can't be beaten makes sense. The idea that this magic would be stored safely within Emma's heart until it was needed works well within the universe of the show. Admittedly, Henry conveniently finding the tape recorder of Emma singing as a child was clunky and very much unexplained; but this IS a show based on fairy tales... I forgave this poor scripting because the songs were so good.
My biggest criticism would be that once the songs were unleashed in Storybrooke the only character who sung to progress the plot of the season was Emma. Perhaps some of the other songs could have been shorter to allow for more singing within the Storybrooke story line. While I'm not a screenwriter I feel that a song from Fiona/Black Fairy would have been an effective (and plausible) way to end the power of song at this point in the characters' timelines. The way the episode ended, it seemed like the singing should continue and of course it does not.
Overall, I felt this was a strong episode. As someone who has studied music and toured in Musical Theatre around Australia and South East Asia I very much enjoyed the musical content. I also felt that the episode progressed the plot effectively. However, I would have liked to have seen a more believable wrap up to the episode to explain why the music (which in my opinion fits in this world REALLY well) ended.
