Top 5 Broadway Songs With Spring Vibes

Reader, it feels like spring is kinda, sorta, maybe here now. The weather has consistently been above freezing (mostly), the snow has stopped (mostly), there are flowers bravely making their way out of the ground, and the air is full of pollen and the ground is mainly mud. Nothing says spring in Canada more than that does. But this basically spring weather means it’s time for the latest installment in this ongoing series of “Seasons of Broadway” (I possibly need to work on the name). We’ve already talked about Broadway songs with autumn vibes and with winter vibes, so now it’s time to talk about Broadway songs with spring vibes.

To me, songs with spring vibes are songs about starting fresh, about shaking off the cobwebs and the darkness of winter, and getting out into the world again (either literally or metaphorically). These are all songs with a little bit of hope in them, songs that start to let the light in. This may be an eclectic list, but all of the songs on it have that much in common.

So, without further ado, let’s get right into the list!

Honourable Mention: “I Do” from Shucked

I might have fibbed a bit, because this song doesn’t actually have anything to do with the themes I mentioned above, I just think it’s pretty. This is a love song about mismatched couples who are only able to communicate their feelings to each other by pretending they’re singing about someone else, and something about the earnest and generally cute nature of the song feels like spring to me. It’s got such a genuineness to it, that I think it only works in spring. Other seasons are too cynical for this song.

5. “Thoroughly Modern Millie” from Thoroughly Modern Millie

Okay, now we’re getting into the major themes I mentioned above, starting off strong with “Thoroughly Modern Millie” a song that is metaphorically about shaking off the cobwebs. In this case, this is a song about shaking off the darkness of the war years and going boldly into the modern world of the 1920s as a Bright Young Thing. There’s this overall vibe to the song of forgetting about the past, about living for the now, and having fun, that feels very much like that feeling when winter is finally over and you just want to get out and enjoy things again. This song isn’t the big party that summer is, it’s more an announcement that the party is starting, and it won’t be held back anymore, and honestly, isn’t that what spring really is?

4. “Paris Holds the Key (To Your Heart)” from Anastasia

This is another one of those metaphorical spring songs, because within the show, it functions like the dawning of spring. Act 1 of Anastasia feels like winter; it’s set in Soviet Russia, where things are bleak and starved and devoid of hope. At the beginning of Act 2, our heroes arrive in Paris, and the contrasting world of hope, light, and joy feels like the dawning of spring after the dark Russian winter. That’s really what this song is, it’s a whirlwind of excitement and brightness that is almost overwhelming for our protagonists in the sharp contrast to what came before, but it’s also incredibly freeing. Again, it’s a metaphorical spring, but the vibes are spot on.

3. “Light” from Next to Normal

This is a quieter song than the previous entries. It’s not an overwhelming whirlwind of joy; this song is more like a single bud of a flower poking up out of the frozen ground, the first sign that something better is on the way. Next to Normal is a dark, harsh show that spends quite a lot of time at the highest of emotional heights, so it’s suitable and quite cathartic really that its finale brings things down a bit to a place of quieter, more steady hope. This is a song about how life continues to go on, and even when the journey is hard and dark, there will eventually be light again. There is hope in the darkest of times, and that feeling of dawning hope, of light coming around again, is very much the feeling of spring. Spring doesn’t have to be wild excitement; the quiet hope of light coming again is also associated with the season and it’s perfectly embodied by this song.

2. “Shine Like the Sun” from 9 to 5

After that calmer diversion, we return to the world of happier spring whirlwinds, with this epic Act 1 finale, “Shine Like the Sun” from 9 to 5. This song sees our three heroines throw off the shackles of what’s been holding them back up until this point, embodied by their kidnapping of their boss Franklin Heart, a “sexist, egotistical, hypocritical, bigot.” This minor felon is freeing, and much like other songs on this list, represent the dawning of a new age, a brighter, freer, happier age, then the one that came before. The sun is finally coming up, and things seem that much better in its light (again, leaving aside the minor felony, which is not usually necessary for the coming of spring).

1. “Livin’ It Up on Top” from Hadestown

I’ve included a song from Hadestown on every one of these season lists so far, but I just can’t help myself. This is a show that is much more interested in the seasons than most. And just like it has a song that is perfect for autumn, and one that is perfect for winter, it also has a song that is perfect for spring, both because it has spring vibes and because it’s literally about spring. “Livin It Up on Top” is Persephone’s introduction, as she returns from Hadestown to bring spring back to the world of the living. Her arrival allows those living above to let down their guard, cut loose, and actually have some fun, as she symbolizes hope and warmth returning to the world, just like spring. This song also features Orpheus’s iconic toast, “To the way the world could be, and…the way it is now.” That line could be the thesis statement of Hadestown, but it also could be a thesis statement for spring as a whole, and it seems like the ideal place to end this list on.

And there you have it, those are my top 5 Broadway songs with spring vibes. In a couple of months, we’ll be back here one final time for the Broadway songs with summer vibes, but for right now, that’s all I’ve got for you today, you guys should let me know in the comments your favourite Broadway songs with spring vibes, stay safe, and I’ll see you on Saturday.

Until the next time.