Songfacts®:

• When Charles Dickens died in 1870, he left behind an unfinished novel The Mystery Of Edwin Drood, in which the character Edwin Drood disappears and is presumed murdered.
  
  In view of the author's stature, the book has not naturally been "finished" at various times, and also turned into a musical known as The Mystery Of Edwin Drood or simply Drood. The American producer and director Joseph Papp asked songwriter Rupert Holmes if he would write a full length musical based on the original book, which he did: book, music, lyrics and orchestration, the whole shebang, giving it his own unique interpretation. There was also a novel ending, because at the break, the audience would vote on who killed Edwin Drood.
• "There You Are" is the opening number from the show which has a rather unusual beginning; it starts with a single voice, that of the Master of Ceremonies, introducing it but quickly deteriorates into a cacophony of voices. When the music starts, the cast welcome the audience, and in fact several of them actually go up into the stalls and perform to individual members as the rest of the company dance. This happy scenario is probably not quite what Dickens envisaged, but if Ashman and Menken could write a musical based on a bloodthirsty talking plant from outer space... >>

  Suggestion credit:
  Alexander Baron - London, England, for above 2