Showstoppers

Stylised blue-green photos of a monk, a pixellated dog, a close-up spore, a person on a hill, a toy robot and a banana wrapped in chains

What makes a song so powerful that it stops the progress of a musical while the audience breaks into tumultuous applause? In this series, the concept of the so-called 'showstopper' is explored; most specifically, three songs are used to exemplify how they have made the musicals for which they were written memorable. This close examination of theatre classics brings forward archival documents that reveal the composing process, explain their impact and argue its transcendence.