Welcome to the Renaissance

## Plot

The opening song, Welcome to the Renaissance, introduces the audience to the setting of the musical.

## Lyrics (Soundtrack).

War of the Roses, Chaucer's tales

The brutal feudal system

Holy Crusades, Bubonic Plague

Can't say that we've really missed 'em

So dark and barbaric, so dull and mundane

That was so Middle Ages, that was so Charlemagne

[Pre-Chorus 1: MINSTREL (ENSEMBLE)]

Welcome to the Renaissance

With poets, painters, and bon vivants

And merry minstrels who strolled the streets of London

Strummin' their lutes (in puffy pants and pointy leather boots)

[Chorus 1: MINSTREL (ENSEMBLE)]

Welcome to the Renaissance

Where we ooh and ahh you with ambiance

We're so progressive (the latest and the greatest)

(We bring it to you) with much ado

(Welcome to the Renaissance)

Where everything is new

[Verse 1: ENSEMBLE (MINSTREL)]

Here we've made advances in the sciences

We have the latest gadgets and appliances

Our mugs are made of pewter, our houses all are Tudor

(Decorated with a modern flair)

See us in our petticoats and farthingales

Our trendy beards we trim to look like swallowtails

We're called Elizabethans,

[BROTHER JERIMIAH (PURITANS)]

they're all a bunch of heathens

(Heathens headed straight for you-know-where).

Bridge 1: MINSTREL (ENSEMBLE)]

While witches are burning and wars tend to start

We bring you moments of culture and art

(Culture and art)

[Chorus 2: ENSEMBLE]

Welcome to the Renaissance

Where our printing press has the fancy fonts

That's right, we're fancy and very literary

Theatrical too, it's what we do

Welcome to the Renaissance

Where everything is new

[Bridge 2: ENSEMBLE (MINSTREL)]

Hey, look, it's Francis Bacon with a chicken, what's he making?

Well, I think he's found a way of freezing meat, that's new

Hey, look, it's Walter Raleigh, found a new world, by golly

And he's brought us all tobacco, what a treat, also new

(And we have a list of writers who are always writing something new)

It's true! We do! Like who? (Like who?)

(Like Dekker!) Whoo! (John Webster!) Whoo!

(Ben Jonson!) Uh-huh! And Christopher Marlowe!

Thomas Kyd, Thomas Middleton

Thomas More (and our brightest star) Whoo!

He's the bomb, the soul of the age

The wiz of the Elizabethan stage

He's incredible

Unforgettable

He's just so freakin' awesome!

Shakespeare!

Shakespeare!

[Bridge 3: ENSEMBLE]

We love him, we love him, we love him, we love him

We love him, we love him, we love him, we love him

His brains are so brilliant, his writing's first-rate

His acting's incredible, isn't he great?

We love him, we love him, (isn't he great?) we love him, we love him

We love him, we love him, we love him

[Pre-Chorus 2: ENSEMBLE (MINSTREL)]

Welcome to the Renaissance

Not the one in Italy or in France

No, the one in England, the one where William Shakespeare

Is cream of the crop (the one where William Shakespeare is the top)

[Chorus 3: ENSEMBLE (MINSTREL)]

Welcome to the Renaissance (Renaissance)

The 16th-century experience (Experience, yeah)

In the age that's golden, the olden days are over

We bid them adieu, well, Hallelu'

Welcome to the Renaissance

Where everything is new

[Outro: ENSEMBLE (Spoken: MINSTREL)]

Everything is new

Welcome to the Renaissance

Everything is new

(Cause "Renaissance" means rebirth)

## Characters

* The Minstrel
* Brother Jeremiah

## Trivia

* Francis Bacon and Thomas Middleton later appear at Shakespeare's after party, after Will Power.