Considering the process had Dwayne Johnson or Jermaine Clement already had been cast as their characters before you wrote their songs? Was it “Oh, we need a song for Dwayne. He’s in it. We need a song at this point of the story.”? Did you think about their strengths and weaknesses while you were writing their songs at all?
The answer is yes. What’s great about those two examples in particular are there’s so much personality attached to those voices that it does half the work. I’ve been a fan of Dwayne since he was wrestling. I’ve been with him when he was the good guy and the bad guy. That’s like a voice in my head. It’s like writing for a family member. I’m very aware of the voice and what I need to do to serve that voice specifically, and also his incredible personality. The Rock is probably the only person on Earth you could give, maybe Maurice Chevalier back in the day, the lyric “You’re Welcome” and you still love the guy because he’s just so charming. That was enormous fun. It’s exactly the same with Jemaine Clement. I met Jemaine at Aspen Comedy Festival, even before Flight of the Concords, his HBO show, when it was just their live acts. I heard his Bowie tribute back then. As soon as they told me Jemaine was involved it’s, “Oh my god, I’m writing a song for a giant crab. Oh my god, Jemaine is the voice. He’s covered in jewels because he’s a scavenger.” I was like, “I’m writing a glam rock song, and I get to use all of Jemaine’s inherent David Bowie-ness for it.” Again, that did the work of content and form, because I knew I was writing to a voice that would knock that out of the part. The inverse was true of Auli’i. We did a worldwide search for Auli’i. “How Far I’ll Go” existed by the time we cast her. We sort of discovered to our delight that she was a wonderful singer. There have been Disney princesses who do the singing, and there have been Disney princesses who haven’t. I think Lea Salonga did the singing for “Mulan.”That was a route that was possible, but then she sang so beautifully that that empowered us to write more and challenging stuff for her. One of the greatest compliments I got coming out of “Moana’s” opening was [“Frozen” songwriter and “Book of Mormon” Tony winner] Bobby Lopez sending me a tweet saying, “Wow, you got a third act song in there.” In most animated films, the action is so heightened by the time you get to the third act, there’s no time to stop and sing. Because we knew Auli’i could and we were so involved on a collaborative level, there’s a big sung climax to the movie. That almost never happens in animated films because there’s just no time. We were able to have this really cool sung climax, and that’s a testament to Auli’i and the collaboration between the song writing team and the directors.
I know you’re supposed to love all your song children, but is there one in particular from “Moana” that you’re most proud of?
That’s a great question. It changes for me, honestly, just like if you were to ask me that if I had multiple children. It probably changes on the day, that answer. I will say I’m very proud of – I’m trying to keep this spoiler-free – the song called “I am Moana” on the soundtrack. If you asked me my strength as a songwriter, I would tell you I’m never going to be the best melodist, I’m never going to be the best lyricist, but I’m pretty good with a well aimed reprise. I think that’s one of the strengths of “Hamilton” is the right reprise at the right moment can do such incredible emotional damage. [Laughs.] For me, the way in which we used the themes we’d built up throughout the film for Moana to reach a real moment of self-realization, it’s an accumulation of themes that both Mark, Opetaia and I have all written. That [sings musical cue] that is Opetaia’s theme that Mark interpellated in a million beautiful ways throughout the score. Bringing that back. We hear it for the first time when she finds the boat to the cave. That’s in that section. There’s a bit of “How Far I’ll Go” in it. There’s a bit of “Where You Are” in it. It’s sort of a summing up of her whole life through these themes and then going to a new place. I’m particularly proud of that, both in terms of my strength, which is the well-aimed reprise, and also a testament to the collaboration between the three of us.
I know that you’ve made your name for yourself on the stage and you’ve said publicly that eventually you’ll start working on a new musical. Has the “Moana” experience made you consider doing your next musical on the big screen first?
My dirty secret is that I think I fell in love with films before I fell in love with theater, and so I’m always thinking film-ically. If you see “Hamilton” there is something like 70 scenes. There are songs which occur in real time, and there are songs in which 8 years are covered in two verses and two choruses. It’s because I’m never picturing how they’re going to work on stage. I’m just picturing the events as their unfolding in real time. I think it’s a great testament to my collaborators, Tommy Kail and Andy Blankenbuehler that it all feels so theatrical. In my imagination, they’re on the battlefield at Monmouth. They’re in a court room during fucking “Non-Stop.” [Laughs.] My answer is I’m always thinking filmically. The question is, will there be a project I work on that is birthed filmically which is a tougher process to get off the ground than theater necessarily. I guess the answer to your question is, they all start as films in my head and then they go into whatever form, hopefully, serves them best.
After “Hamilton’s” massive success though I can’t imagine you weren’t running into studio head or film execs who weren’t pitching you, “Hey, the next time you have a musical idea, don’t go to the stage. Come to us first. Let’s talk about it.” That must have happened over the past year, right?
I suppose so, yeah. I think we have to first make it clear that we’re not adapting “Hamilton” anytime soon. I just think that there was a such a rush for folks to try to do that and we kind of had to say, “No, no. I want people to see the stage thing I made for the stage, please.” That being said, I hope that whatever form the next musical idea takes, if that’s an option, that that would be a more welcome conversation than necessarily it would have been a few years ago.
My last question for you is, I spoke to Emily Blunt a couple of months ago and she was so excited and nervous about going in to do “Mary Poppins Returns.” Can you talk about what it’s been like to rehearse with her and what your feelings are about the project over all?
She’s so good. I’ve been singing and dancing with her for six weeks now and she’s great at both those things – at both singing and dancing. I think the world discovered she could sing when she did “Into the Woods,” a very challenging role that was sort of iconically created by Joanna Gleason on the stage. Emily was amazing in the film version. It’s been a joy. I mean, it’s just been a joy. I’ve worked in this business enough to know that the person at the top of the call sheet really sort of creates the spirit of the film in a way and she’s so nice, to a fault, and so gracious that it has been a really lovely working environment.
“Moana” is now playing nationwide.