Superfluous Duets

It's amazing how you can (or I can) actually feel what the structural problems of a show are by just singing thru the score. I felt really good last night singing The Road to Qatar, but I just knew that one reprise of the title song was just one too many. Original the song was in the spot where the reprise was last night, but in the total rewrite the song wound up being the second song in the show instead of the 11 o'clock number. It works much better there, but the delightful and delicious counter melody did not work at the top of the show, as it was specifically a lyric for the later part of the show. I thought I could have my cake and eat it by keeping the countermelody as a surprise for the reprise, but it turns out that I just didn't want to hear that number in that spot...it stopped the action for something great musically, but not great dramatically...So I decided today to just lift it out and see how it read...of course it read better without the reprise. So a wonderful countermelody bites the dust (for now...you never know) but a better show grows from the ashes.