Welcome back to Emma’s Ensemble Feature! Today I’m going to cover 5 ensemble numbers that I absolutely love! It broke my heart that I could only pick five! However, I’m delighted to share that most have been done here at Encore!
Coming up first, we have “Seize the Day” from Newsies. This number is incredible because it starts off as a ballad with beautiful harmonies but evolves into a show stopping dance number. It truly is the number that highlights many skills from an ensemble that can do it all!
Next, we have “One Short Day” from Wicked. This number is wonderful because it gives a lot of examples of world building through costuming and lyrics where we both see and hear the culture of The Emerald City and we get two beautiful moments where Elphaba notices for once she fits in, and also the moment that Elphaba and Glinda declare that they’re best friends.
Then we have “Biggest Blame Fool” from Seussical: the Musical. Even though Seussical was not a commercial success on Broadway, it was perfectly rebranded for educational theater. When I was making this list, “Biggest Blame Fool” is also the moment in Seussical where our central conflict gets introduced and the majority of the cast and the ensemble is included.
Following that, we have “Too Darn Hot” from Kiss Me Kate. This number has incredible choreography, featuring both tap dance breaks and swing dance. For those of you who don’t know, Kiss Me Kate is a musical based of Shakespeare’s Taming of the Shrew and also is a Cole Porter musical that was created in Broadway’s Golden Age, but has been revived numerous times since.
Finally, “He Lives In You (Reprise)” is a beautiful number from The Lion King. This number could’ve easily been a solo or duet, but it chose to incorporate the ensemble both on and off stage delivering vocals and filling the stage and dancing at the end. It is one of my favorite things when a act one solo comes back as an ensemble number in act two and this is no exception.
That concludes my list of five strong ensemble numbers in musical theatre! I hope you enjoyed this list, if you want to see an amazing ensemble number featured in this list, we are producing Disney’s The Lion King Jr., running November 8-24, 2024. Tickets can be purchased today!
Photos by Cindy Kane Photography and Larry McClemons.