No Way to Stop It: Difference between revisions

"No Way to Stop It"
"No Way to Stop It"
Song
Published	1959
Songwriter(s)	Oscar Hammerstein II
Composer(s)	Richard Rodgers

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"No Way to Stop It" is a show tune from the 1959 Rodgers and Hammerstein musical The Sound of Music, but not included in the later film version from 1965.^[1]

The song features the characters Max Detweiler and Baroness Elsa Schräder, with Captain Georg von Trapp joining in later.^[2] It was first performed by Marion Marlowe, Kurt Kasznar and Theodore Bikel.

Summary

Captain von Trapp anticipates the German annexation of Austria, and argues with Elsa and Max about how to respond to the Nazis, who have begun to overrun the country.^[3] While the Captain holds Austrian nationalist views and believes he must stand up to the Nazis, Elsa and Max say there is nothing anyone can do, and that the Captain should be flexible and make the Nazis think that he is on their side.

The song shows the three's different motivations and clashes of egos, and becomes a song about Max and Elsa trying to convince Georg to forget about everything going on around him and just to think about himself. The song's circular melody parallels its circular argument. In the end, Georg decides he cannot marry a woman with no political convictions. The song is a turning point in the musical for Captain von Trapp, marking the point where he breaks off his relationship with Elsa, leaving him free to marry Maria.

The song was not used in the film adaptation, where instead the engagement is called off because Elsa is too rich and powerful, wanting an extravagant life in Vienna, and the Captain, who has fallen in love with Maria, wants a simple life in the country. The "political dispute [was essentially replaced] with a solely personal and individual squabble".^[4]

Significance

"No Way to Stop It" is one of only two numbers in the play in which Max and Elsa sing. Along with "How Can Love Survive?", which was also cut from the film, it is the only number that addresses her relationship with the Captain.

The satiric,^[5] cynical^[6] number, which is about "amoral political compromising" (and in fact an anti-protest song), is theorised by Broadway Musicals: A Hundred Year History to be the first-ever rock song to be introduced to a Broadway musical. The book cites its similarity to songs by The Kingston Trio from around that time.^[7] The song, along with "How Can Love Survive", was cited in The Oxford Companion to the American Musical: Theatre, Film, and Television as an example of Rodgers and Hammerstein's "wry sense of sophistication".^[8]

The American Musical and the Formation of National Identity compares the song to "So What?" from Cabaret, in that they both "articulate [the] general sense of indifference among many constituencies that would eventually allow the Third Reich to expand its influence beyond the point of return". Both these songs include the theme of obsessive circular motion in order to create a sense of inevitability. In the case of "No Way to Stop It", the lyrical motif is the orbit of various satellites, and by the end of the song, it is implied that "I" is the centre of the universe.^[2] As a result of "No Way to Stop It" and the duet "How Can Love Survive" (in which the Captain and the Baroness "attempt to work out their competition and the complexities of a dually rich marriage") being cut from the film, class and political tensions are eliminated, secondary characters become less complex, and Maria and the children become most of the film's focus.^[9]

Broadway Musicals: A Hundred Year History refers to the song as a "gem".^[7]

Cambridge Guide to American Theatre described both No Way to Stop It and How Can Love Survive? as having "ironic wit".^[10]

References

^ Brantley, Ben (2000). The New York Times Theater Reviews 1997-1998. The New York Times Book Co., Inc. p. 244. ISBN 9780815333418. Retrieved July 14, 2012.
^ ^a ^b Knapp, Raymond (2005). The American Musical and the Formation of National Identity. Princeton University Press. pp. 244. ISBN 9780691118642. Retrieved July 14, 2012. no way to stop it sound of music.
^ Miletich, Leo N. (1993). Broadway's Prize-Winning Musicals: An Annotated Guide for Libraries and Audio Collectors. The Haworth Press, Inc. pp. 35. ISBN 9781560242888. Retrieved July 15, 2012. no way to stop it sound of music.
^ Wolf, Stacy Ellen (2002). A Problem Like Maria: Gender and Sexuality in the American Musical. The University of Michigan Press. p. 219. ISBN 9780472067725. Retrieved July 14, 2012.
^ Hischak, Thomas S. (2007). The Rodgers and Hammerstein Encyclopedia. Greenwood Press. p. 259. ISBN 9780313341403. Retrieved July 14, 2012.
^ Hischak, Thomas S. (2004). Through the Screen Door: What Happened to the Broadway Musical When It Went to Hollywood. Scarecrow Press, Inc. p. 158. ISBN 9780810850187. Retrieved July 15, 2012.
^ ^a ^b Lewis, David H. (2002). Broadway Musicals: A Hundred Year History. McFarland & Company, Inc., Publishers. p. 70. ISBN 9780786481149. Retrieved July 14, 2012.
^ Hischak, Thomas S. (2008). The Oxford Companion to the American Musical: Theatre, Film, and Television. Oxford University Press. p. 696. ISBN 9780195335330. Retrieved July 14, 2012.
^ Wolf, Stacy Ellen (2002). A Problem Like Maria: Gender and Sexuality in the American Musical. The University of Michigan Press. p. 227. ISBN 9780472067725. Retrieved July 14, 2012.
^ Don B. Wilmeth, Tice L. Miller (1996). Cambridge Guide to American Theatre. Cambridge University Press. pp. 360. ISBN 9780521564441. Retrieved July 14, 2012.

External links

[1] Brantley, Ben (2000). The New York Times Theater Reviews 1997-1998. The New York Times Book Co., Inc. p. 244. ISBN 9780815333418. Retrieved July 14, 2012.

[i9780691118642-2] Knapp, Raymond (2005). The American Musical and the Formation of National Identity. Princeton University Press. pp. 244. ISBN 9780691118642. Retrieved July 14, 2012. no way to stop it sound of music.

[3] Miletich, Leo N. (1993). Broadway's Prize-Winning Musicals: An Annotated Guide for Libraries and Audio Collectors. The Haworth Press, Inc. pp. 35. ISBN 9781560242888. Retrieved July 15, 2012. no way to stop it sound of music.

[4] Wolf, Stacy Ellen (2002). A Problem Like Maria: Gender and Sexuality in the American Musical. The University of Michigan Press. p. 219. ISBN 9780472067725. Retrieved July 14, 2012.

[5] Hischak, Thomas S. (2007). The Rodgers and Hammerstein Encyclopedia. Greenwood Press. p. 259. ISBN 9780313341403. Retrieved July 14, 2012.

[6] Hischak, Thomas S. (2004). Through the Screen Door: What Happened to the Broadway Musical When It Went to Hollywood. Scarecrow Press, Inc. p. 158. ISBN 9780810850187. Retrieved July 15, 2012.

[books.google_a-7] Lewis, David H. (2002). Broadway Musicals: A Hundred Year History. McFarland & Company, Inc., Publishers. p. 70. ISBN 9780786481149. Retrieved July 14, 2012.

[8] Hischak, Thomas S. (2008). The Oxford Companion to the American Musical: Theatre, Film, and Television. Oxford University Press. p. 696. ISBN 9780195335330. Retrieved July 14, 2012.

[9] Wolf, Stacy Ellen (2002). A Problem Like Maria: Gender and Sexuality in the American Musical. The University of Michigan Press. p. 227. ISBN 9780472067725. Retrieved July 14, 2012.

[10] Don B. Wilmeth, Tice L. Miller (1996). Cambridge Guide to American Theatre. Cambridge University Press. pp. 360. ISBN 9780521564441. Retrieved July 14, 2012.

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@@ Line 1: / Line 1: @@
+<!-- See Wikipedia:WikiProject_Songs -->{{Infobox song
-'''"No Way to Stop It"''' is a [[show tune]] from the 1959 [[Rodgers and Hammerstein]] [[musical theatre|musical]] ''[[The Sound of Music]]'', but not included in the later [[The Sound of Music (film)|film version]] from 1965.
+| name      = No Way to Stop It
+| cover     =
+| alt       =
+| type      = song
+| written   =
+| published = 1959
+| writer    = [[Oscar Hammerstein II]]
+| composer  = [[Richard Rodgers]]
+| lyricist  =
+}}
+"'''No Way to Stop It'''" is a [[show tune]] from the 1959 [[Rodgers and Hammerstein]] [[musical theatre|musical]] ''[[The Sound of Music]]'', but not included in the later [[The Sound of Music (film)|film version from 1965]].<ref>{{cite book | url=https://books.google.com/books?id=geRRHx3m9ZIC&q=%22no+way+to+stop+it%22+sound+of+music&pg=PA244 | title=The New York Times Theater Reviews 1997-1998 | publisher=The New York Times Book Co., Inc | year=2000 | access-date=July 14, 2012 | author=Brantley, Ben | pages=244 | isbn=9780815333418}}</ref>
+The song features the characters Max Detweiler and Baroness Elsa Schräder, with Captain Georg von Trapp joining in later.<ref name="i9780691118642">{{cite book | url=https://archive.org/details/americanmusicalf0000knap | url-access=registration | quote=no way to stop it sound of music. | title=The American Musical and the Formation of National Identity | publisher=Princeton University Press | year=2005 | access-date=July 14, 2012 | author=Knapp, Raymond | pages=[https://archive.org/details/americanmusicalf0000knap/page/244 244] | isbn=9780691118642}}</ref> It was first performed by [[Marion Marlowe]], [[Kurt Kasznar]] and [[Theodore Bikel]].
-==Context==
-Captain Von Trapp has been hearing word that the [[Anschluss]] is approaching, and is formulating a method of evading the grasp of the [[Nazis]]. During this song, the Baroness and Max Detweiler are explaining to him that there is nothing he can do. They think he should be flexible and make the Nazis think that he is on their side. This song is a turning point in the musical for the Captain Von Trapp, marking the point where he breaks off his relationship with Elsa (the Baroness), leaving him free to pursue Maria.
-==Lyrics==
+==Summary==
-[Baroness Elsa Schräder]
+Captain von Trapp anticipates the [[Anschluss|German annexation of Austria]], and argues with Elsa and Max about how to respond to the Nazis, who have begun to overrun the country.<ref>{{cite book | url=https://archive.org/details/broadwaysprizewi0000mile | url-access=registration | quote=no way to stop it sound of music. | title=Broadway's Prize-Winning Musicals: An Annotated Guide for Libraries and Audio Collectors | publisher=The Haworth Press, Inc. | year=1993 | access-date=July 15, 2012 | author=Miletich, Leo N. | pages=[https://archive.org/details/broadwaysprizewi0000mile/page/35 35] | isbn=9781560242888}}</ref> While the Captain holds Austrian nationalist views and believes he must stand up to the Nazis, Elsa and Max say there is nothing anyone can do, and that the Captain should be flexible and make the Nazis think that he is on their side.
+The song shows the three's different motivations and clashes of egos, and becomes a song about Max and Elsa trying to convince Georg to forget about everything going on around him and just to think about himself. The song's circular melody parallels its circular argument. In the end, Georg decides he cannot marry a woman with no political convictions.  The song is a turning point in the musical for Captain von Trapp, marking the point where he breaks off his relationship with Elsa, leaving him free to marry Maria.
-You dear attractive dewy-eyed idealist,
-Today you have to learn to be a realist.
+The song was not used in the film adaptation, where instead the engagement is called off because Elsa is too rich and powerful, wanting an extravagant life in Vienna, and the Captain, who has fallen in love with Maria, wants a simple life in the country. The "political dispute [was essentially replaced] with a solely personal and individual squabble".<ref>{{cite book | url=https://books.google.com/books?id=hagHY0MhYjwC&q=%22no+way+to+stop+it%22+sound+of+music&pg=PA227 | title=A Problem Like Maria: Gender and Sexuality in the American Musical | publisher=The University of Michigan Press | year=2002 | access-date=July 14, 2012 | author=Wolf, Stacy Ellen | pages=219 | isbn=9780472067725}}</ref>
-[Max Detweiler]
+==Significance==
-You may be bent on doing deed of daring due,
+"No Way to Stop It" is one of only two numbers in the play in which Max and Elsa sing. Along with "How Can Love Survive?", which was also cut from the film, it is the only number that addresses her relationship with the Captain.
-But up against a shark, what can a herring do?
+The satiric,<ref>{{cite book | url=https://books.google.com/books?id=CsbEP_Mu50EC&pg=PA259 | title=The Rodgers and Hammerstein Encyclopedia | publisher=Greenwood Press | year=2007 | access-date=July 14, 2012 | author=Hischak, Thomas S. | pages=259 | isbn=9780313341403}}</ref> cynical<ref>{{cite book | url=https://books.google.com/books?id=TwNhr2FWhvEC&pg=PA158 | title=Through the Screen Door: What Happened to the Broadway Musical When It Went to Hollywood | publisher=Scarecrow Press, Inc. | year=2004 | access-date=July 15, 2012 | author=Hischak, Thomas S. | pages=158 | isbn=9780810850187}}</ref> number, which is about "amoral political compromising" (and in fact an anti-protest song), is theorised by ''Broadway Musicals: A Hundred Year History'' to be the first-ever rock song to be introduced to a Broadway musical. The book cites its similarity to songs by [[The Kingston Trio]] from around that time.<ref name="books.google_a">{{cite book | url=https://books.google.com/books?id=BfWyQ39xk0wC&pg=PA70 | title=Broadway Musicals: A Hundred Year History | publisher=McFarland & Company, Inc., Publishers | year=2002 | access-date=July 14, 2012 | author=Lewis, David H. | pages=70 | isbn=9780786481149}}</ref> The song, along with "How Can Love Survive", was cited in ''The Oxford Companion to the American Musical: Theatre, Film, and Television'' as an example of Rodgers and Hammerstein's "wry sense of sophistication".<ref>{{cite book | url=https://books.google.com/books?id=XbBz3C4Gr0EC&pg=PA696 | title=The Oxford Companion to the American Musical: Theatre, Film, and Television | publisher=Oxford University Press | year=2008 | access-date=July 14, 2012 | author=Hischak, Thomas S. | pages=696 | isbn=9780195335330}}</ref>
-[Baroness Elsa Schräder]
+''The American Musical and the Formation of National Identity'' compares the song to "So What?" from ''[[Cabaret (musical)|Cabaret]]'', in that they both "articulate [the] general sense of indifference among many constituencies that would eventually allow the Third Reich to expand its influence beyond the point of return". Both these songs include the theme of obsessive circular motion in order to create a sense of inevitability. In the case of "No Way to Stop It", the lyrical motif is the orbit of various satellites, and by the end of the song, it is implied that "I" is the centre of the universe.<ref name="i9780691118642" /> As a result of "No Way to Stop It" and the duet "How Can Love Survive" (in which the Captain and the Baroness "attempt to work out their competition and the complexities of a dually rich marriage") being cut from the film, class and political tensions are eliminated, secondary characters become less complex, and Maria and the children become most of the film's focus.<ref>{{cite book | url=https://books.google.com/books?id=hagHY0MhYjwC&q=%22no+way+to+stop+it%22+sound+of+music&pg=PA227 | title=A Problem Like Maria: Gender and Sexuality in the American Musical | publisher=The University of Michigan Press | year=2002 | access-date=July 14, 2012 | author=Wolf, Stacy Ellen | pages=227 | isbn=9780472067725}}</ref>
-Be wise, compromise.
+''Broadway Musicals: A Hundred Year History'' refers to the song as a "gem".<ref name="books.google_a" />
-[Captain von Trapp]
+''Cambridge Guide to American Theatre'' described both ''No Way to Stop It'' and ''How Can Love Survive?'' as having "ironic wit".<ref>{{cite book | url=https://archive.org/details/cambridgeguideto00wilm | url-access=registration | title=Cambridge Guide to American Theatre | publisher=Cambridge University Press | year=1996 | access-date=July 14, 2012 | author=Don B. Wilmeth, Tice L. Miller | pages=[https://archive.org/details/cambridgeguideto00wilm/page/360 360] | isbn=9780521564441}}</ref>
-Compromise, and be wise!
+==References==
-[Baroness Elsa Schräder]
+{{reflist}}
-Let them think you're on their side, be noncommittal.
-[Captain von Trapp]
-I will not bow my head to the men I despise!
-[Max Detweiler]
-You won't have to bow your head to stoop a little.
-[Baroness Elsa Schräder]
-Why not learn to put your faith and your reliance,
-On an obvious and simple fact of science?
-Refrain
-[Baroness Elsa Schräder]
-A crazy planet full of crazy people,
-Is somersaulting all around the sky.
-And everytime it turns another somersault,
-Another day goes by.
-And there's no way to stop it,
-No, there's no way to stop it.
-No, you can't stop it even if you tried.
-So, I'm not going to worry,
-No, I'm not going to worry,
-Everytime I see another day go by.
-[Max Detweiler]
-While somersaulting at a cockeyed angle,
-We make a cockeyed circle 'round the sun.
-And when we circle back to where we started from,
-Another year has run.
-[Both]
-And there's no way to stop it,
-No, there's no way to stop it,
-If the earth wants to roll around the sun.
-You're a fool if you worry.
-You're a fool if you worry,
-Over anything but little number one.
-[Captain von Trapp]
-That's you!
-[Baroness Elsa Schräder]
-That's I!
-[Captain von Trapp]
-And I!
-[Max Detweiler]
-And me!
-[Captain von Trapp]
-That all absorbing character.
-[Baroness Elsa Schräder]
-That fastinating creature.
-[Max Detweiler]
-That super special feature,
-[All]
-Me!
-[Captain von Trapp]
-So every star on every whirling planet,
-And every constellation in the sky,
-Revolves around the center of the universe,
-That lovely thing called, I.
-[All]
-And there's no way to stop it.
-No, there's no way to stop it,
-And I know, though I cannot tell you why (sigh).
-Just as long as I'm living,
-Just as long as I'm living,
-There'll be nothing else as wonderful as I.
-I! I! I! Nothing else as wonderful as I!
+==External links==
+* [https://books.google.com/books?id=XDWfT3q4wyUC&dq=%22no+way+to+stop+it%22+sound+of+music&pg=PA166 Analysis of "No Way to Stop It" in "The American Musical and the Performance of Personal Identity"]
+* [https://rodgersandhammerstein.com/song/the-sound-of-music/no-way-to-stop-it/ Lyrics to No Way to Stop It]
+{{Rodgers and Hammerstein}}
+{{The Story of the Trapp Family Singers}}
+{{authority control}}
 [[Category:1959 songs]]
 [[Category:Songs from The Sound of Music]]
+[[Category:Songs with lyrics by Oscar Hammerstein II]]
-{{1950s-song-stub}}
+[[Category:Songs with music by Richard Rodgers]]
-{{Show-tune-stub}}
+[[Category:Songs about Austria]]
+[[Category:Works about Nazism]]

v t e Rodgers and Hammerstein
Richard Rodgers Oscar Hammerstein II
Stage musicals	Oklahoma! Carousel Allegro South Pacific The King and I Me and Juliet Pipe Dream Flower Drum Song The Sound of Music A Grand Night for Singing State Fair Cinderella
Productions	I Remember Mama Annie Get Your Gun Happy Birthday John Loves Mary Show Boat The Happy Time Burning Bright
Films	State Fair (1945) Oklahoma! Carousel The King and I (1956 film) South Pacific Flower Drum Song State Fair (1962) The Sound of Music The King and I (1999 film)
Television	Cinderella Carousel Cinderella (1997) The Sound of Music Live! The Sound of Music Live
Songs	"Oh, What a Beautiful Mornin'" "The Surrey with the Fringe on Top" "Kansas City" "I Cain't Say No" "Many a New Day" "It's a Scandal! It's a Outrage!" "People Will Say We're in Love" "Lonely Room" "The Farmer and the Cowman" "All Er Nuthin'" "Oklahoma" "If I Loved You" "Soliloquy" "You'll Never Walk Alone" "It Might as Well Be Spring" "That's for Me" "A Fellow Needs a Girl" "So Far" "Some Enchanted Evening" "There Is Nothing Like a Dame" "Bali Ha'i" "I'm Gonna Wash That Man Right Outa My Hair" "I'm in Love with a Wonderful Guy" "Younger Than Springtime" "Happy Talk" "You've Got to Be Carefully Taught" "I Whistle a Happy Tune" "Hello, Young Lovers" "Getting to Know You" "We Kiss in a Shadow" "Something Wonderful" "I Have Dreamed" "Shall We Dance?" "No Other Love" "I Enjoy Being a Girl" "The Sound of Music" "Maria" "My Favorite Things" "Do-Re-Mi" "Sixteen Going on Seventeen" "The Lonely Goatherd" "Climb Ev'ry Mountain" "So Long, Farewell" "No Way to Stop It" "Edelweiss"
Related articles	"Something Good" The Sound of Music (1965 soundtrack) The Sound of Music: Music from the NBC Television Event

v t e Trapp Family
Members	Georg von Trapp Agathe Whitehead von Trapp Maria von Trapp Agathe Maria Franziska Johannes
Memoir	The Story of the Trapp Family Singers
Films	The Trapp Family (1956) The Trapp Family in America (1958) The Sound of Music (1965) The von Trapp Family: A Life of Music (2015)
Other adaptations	The Sound of Music (1959 musical) Trapp Family Story (1991 anime) The Sound of Music Live! (2013) The Sound of Music Live (2015)
Songs	"The Sound of Music" "Maria" "My Favorite Things" "Do-Re-Mi" "Sixteen Going on Seventeen" "The Lonely Goatherd" "Climb Ev'ry Mountain" "No Way to Stop It" "So Long, Farewell" "Edelweiss" "Something Good"
Albums	The Groovy Sound of Music (1964) The Sound of Music (1965 soundtrack) The Sound of Music: Music from the NBC Television Event (2013)
Related	Elisabeth von Trapp The von Trapps Trapp Family Lodge Trapp Family Austrian Relief