"Sin" Scene 11

“The Rise and Fall of Faith.”  Having signed her soul over via contract, Faith has achieved overnight super-stardom, but finds life as a celebrity challenging.  As she spirals out of control Devlin, Santana and Luis watch.  Santana is delighted—things are moving along exactly as planned.  Luis is cynical—he’s seen it all before and knows how it will all end up.  Devlin is feeling the beginnings of a change of heart.  He too has seen it all before but he’s tired of it, and he knows he was complicit in Faith’s journey of self destruction.  It was fine when it was just his own decline, but now he’s dragged Faith into it all, feels disgusted at himself and the situation, and is feeling the first glimmers of accountability.  The song ends with Faith collapsing, exhausted, and Santana dropping a knife onstage, cruelly suggesting that Faith end her life for the “ultimate cure” to her newfound problems.

This was a show highlight—it was the fastest song, has the most “action” and the mash-up of a bouncy ragtime tune with a deeply cynical and bitter take on the perils of showbiz was always welcomed by LA audiences, most of whom are acutely familiar with the scenario presented in one way or another. 

The concept of someone hitting it big, fast in showbiz and then being chewed up and spit out is nothing all that new or innovative of course, but it is a concept that has always fascinated me (and many others, clearly). 

As I’ve mentioned before, I’ve seen a lot of “stars” burn out around me, and it’s possible I got close to something like a “rise and fall” during my animation career a couple of times…maybe the rewards were just never high enough for me to risk everything on.  Or maybe I figured out at a young age that there actually isn’t anything that’s worth risking everything you have.  Certainly not fame or fortune, which are incredibly fleeting at even the best of times.  But I do feel empathy for anyone who has ever gotten in over their head and found it hard to get out again, and while this song is cynical, I think it’s still compassionate.  Neither Luis, Devlin nor even Santana really want Faith to fail, they’d like to be surprised by someone finally breaking the chain of the inevitable; everyone is attracted to strength and confidence.  But it just doesn’t often seem to work out that way unfortunately, with the way we’re wired, or something. 

At any rate, I thought it would be a nice add this moment to “Sin” to quickly show Faith’s arc—her story isn’t the main narrative so I didn’t want to spend too much time on it, but it was important to show her as sympathetic…you start out laughing at the cliché of someone naïve succumbing to the temptations of showbiz life and it’s fun to watch people do extreme things that many of us would never do, or get punished for making foolish mistakes, even while a part of you might envy that sense of unbridled ego-fulfillment and freedom.  Ultimately, however, by the end of the song it’s growing increasingly not funny at all and leads into the most serious moment in the show, or maybe anything I’ve ever done, in the song that follows this one. 

I actually wrote “The Rise and Fall of Faith” as an instrumental when I was around 12 or so…I had learned how to play “The Entertainer” on piano; I think I spent all summer working it out with my music teacher until I could play it perfectly.  It was always a crowd-pleaser in my house (particularly with my dear old grandma) and a nice contrast to the usual sentimental ballads I usually played. 

One night I had a dream that I was playing a ragtime song of my own invention in front of a crowd and doing it perfectly.  “The Rise and Fall of Faith” was the song, note-for-note, although it was just an instrumental then.  I woke up, played it and notated it in my sheet music workbook for future reference. 

The melody never left my head but I didn’t officially record it until around 1999 or so…I had been blown away by the revival of “Chicago” when it came to LA.  I listened to the cast recording endlessly, studying it, and was particularly fond of the “Hot Honey Rag.”  I’d just never heard anything like it before and was addicted to that sound. 

Eventually I tried to recreate the ragtime sound using an arsenal of sampled instruments and that’s more or less what I’ve used for backing tracks for the song in the show since.  It’s a messy, thick sound where it should be tight and clean, but it’s the best I could do.  I was happy how it turned out and got a lot of great feedback for it.  If I have any wish for a revival, it would be that I could get that song recorded with real instruments.

When it came time to put songs together for “Sin” I knew this one was a natural—the idea came to me like a flash and I could see it all instantly.  The words came fast too.  I’d been humming the melody to myself since I was a kid so I knew it intimately, and “The Rise and Fall of Faith” fit lyrically pretty well.  It also beckoned to be a one-off song completely out of the style of any other song in the show, which suggested it would be its own little story.  I thought, of course, about my favorite film ever, “Tommy” and the “Sally Simpson” scene.  I was also thinking, of course, of the dark humor of Fosse and the war scenes in “Pippin,” and the cynical songs of “Cabaret” and “Chicago.”

I had never tried to put words to the song before; when I did I had to sing the guide vocal myself of course.  I knew it was going to be tough but figured if I could do it a professional ought to be able to do it too.   Everyone on the demo did a great job…Chris, Tricia, Kehau and Sean were precise and masterful in their ability to match both the pace and the acting needed to sell the song. It’s probably the best version because we could fix it up in the “studio” (ie, my bedroom).  You can hear that version here:  https://youtu.be/pHHSyFhZ3Rc 

When we did it live in 2011 the performers all looked at me and groaned every time we had to rehearse the song.  But they did it pitch-perfect, as usual, because, again, these were seasoned musical theatre pros who had lots of time to rehearse and Kay Cole’s stern, but steady, hand urging them on.  It never once crossed my mind at that point that the song was damn-near impossible to sing and even less possible to sing with any kind of performance—it was all they could do to spit the words out.  But they did it, and did it so well, I’m in awe.  Kay came up with some light choreography for Kehau that was fun, showing her getting increasingly dizzy and giving her a signature move for “rise” and “fall.”  The video, again, is really bad but it sounds pretty good and this is the only copy I have of this performance unfortunately—I’m glad I have it at all at. https://youtu.be/6oxkaGe0oLY

For the 2015 version, the first thing that happened was that I slowed the song down a bit.  It actually came about because of my husband Renato—he looked at me and shook his head (as he does any time he’s convinced I’m insane, which is a lot) and said, “They can’t sing that fast, you have to slow it down.”

So I did, and it played a lot better, and the performers breathed a sigh of relief—it’s still too fast and you can see in the clip they don’t get all the lines…some nights they did, sometimes they didn’t, but the scene still worked and it kept the night lively and organic; I doubt anyone was hanging on every lyric anyway. 

Saudia in particular gave this number a delightful, cynical, wicked glee that really suited the situation perfectly…Chris is perfect in how he plays along but seems increasingly burnt out and disgusted with the turn of events, while seemingly not able to change them, it worked really well.  Richard was truly great at breaking out of the staid character he was playing and injecting the moment with dry humor while maintaining his official demeanor—he always got a big laugh with “Ain’t showbiz barrels of fun!”  I think the megaphone was his too. 

I had specifically hired dancers in the hopes of being able to flesh out the staging a bit for this song.  I worked extensively with Sarah, Kirby and Natalie to come up with a visual story that would underscore the lyrics, but that fit on a tiny cabaret stage.  I think the audience appreciated it and enjoyed it, and Sarah and the dancers are wonderful here.  It’s just a shame we had such a small space to work with and I never got a good shot of the action with any angle of camera we shot the shows with…still, hopefully anyone watching can see how the song played out, including Faith’s “journey.”  https://youtu.be/JoQmH_YxlGI

This moment is the finale of the middle section of the show, reaching such an apex of frenetic activity and in-your-face lyrics the only place to go from there was down, and it also ends the “lighter” first half of the show—the second half gets really heavy.  It’s the culmination of everything that has been happening in the show so far…Santana has set up her plan, it has worked:  “Satan” has recruited a burnt-out, “fallen” showbiz loser (Devlin) to help her corrupt someone faithful, all under the watchful of “God,” who seems to be captivated by everything going on.  But Santana’s plan isn’t over yet.  Now it’s up to Faith to decide if she’s going to give up or not…