my influences

I wasn't a gopher on Men Shouldn't Sing: I heard Michael Bell overdub some of the harmony parts when I was taking Jazz Theory with him.

So we did discuss his musicals (incl. the 48Hours ones), but ultimately he felt it wasn't something to discuss with high school kids. I quite dug the swinging one when I was in school, though.

I'd say that Michael turned me onto the idea that musicals had difficult harmonies and interesting verses, though. His film played much better at the premiere in Christchurch when I was a teenager, though; I remember Salina Fisher was quite into that score. - As for further Jazz influence:

Steve Nichols at CSM was more into Latin music, though he played plenty of show scores in the pit, so that was a stronger influence when I was a teenager: plus he had us run through all the wedding score books, which was a huge influence on my subsequent songs.

Re: musicals - I think I'm more attracted to hits than to 'book songs' - I tend to think that every song should theoretically be the 'best' song of a given score.

I think that's why my cycle comes across well. Each song was a potential hit!