This season of Hulu’s “Only Murders in the Building” had its share of dramatic climaxes, but one of the most memorable moments wasn’t the killer reveal — it was a cleverly crafted song accusing three infants of murder. With lyrics like “a diaper full of criminal intent” delivered with such finesse by Steve Martin, the song “Which of the Pickwick Triplets Did It?” is a humorous nod to the magic of musical theater and a poignant subplot for Martin’s character, fading star Charles Haden Savage.
The question was: would Savage regain the spotlight with phrases like “Which little boy made his mother scream?” or would he fade further into the strange world of life in Arconia?
That tension, coupled with the show’s final performance, likely contributed to its 21 Emmy nominations, including for Outstanding Comedy Series, Outstanding Original Music and Lyrics, and an acting nomination for Martin himself. But how did series co-creator John Hoffman conjure up this darkly satirical song about kids who commit murder? The creators behind this epic musical moment joined forces with Martin. Varieties HBO's “Making A Scene” explains.
“I came up with this story in the shower. I literally thought, ‘Oh, which of the Pickwick triplets did this?’” Hoffman recalls. “The cop character, which Steve played in the play, was on a mission to find out which of these little triplets could have killed their mother—which is ridiculous, but delightfully ridiculous in my mind.”
Hoffman was energized by this idea, and rushed into the writers' room, announcing, “Here's the song. It's going to be called 'Which of the Pickwick Triplets Did It?' We need to make it a great song.” [composers] Bing [Pasek] And Justin [Paul] “On the phone right away.”
The call (thanks to a mutual friend also in the writing room) led to a collaboration with legendary songwriting team Marc Shaiman and Scott Wittman, setting the stage for unforgettable moments. Hoffman, along with Pasek, Paul, and Shaiman, reveals how this epic moment came to be embodied in “Only Murders.”
The hallmark of any great song is a fast tempo coupled with a rapid sequence of rhythmic patterns, where each syllable of the text corresponds to a single note. Lyrical nightmares that will linger in the halls of unpronounceable songs include Stephen Sondheim’s “Your Fault,” Chicago’s “We Both Reached for the Gun,” and nearly every third verse of “The Music Man.”
“Years ago, at one of Marty Short’s legendary Christmas parties in Los Angeles, which was a great deal of fun, he would have me push the piano out to make me look desperate,” Shaiman says. “Then he would jump on it, hold it like a spoon for a microphone, and be the master of ceremonies. Year after year, people would come forward. One year, Steve Martin said, ‘I’d like to sing the opening aria to The Music Man now.’”
“It's very difficult,” Paul interrupts, emphasizing how difficult it is.
“Yes, for seven people, he did it and he did it perfectly, the whole thing,” Shaiman continues.
Confident in Martin's ability to master his fast-talking style, Pasek and Paul were brought into the Only Murders in the Building writers' room and traveled to Los Angeles to combine the creative energies of television and theater—all in the service of crafting a brilliant plot.
“We loved being in the writers’ room because they were really trying to create this fantasy musical, and we got to be a part of that. We got to express our experiences on Broadway and talk about how the songs worked,” says Pasek.
“There was a real exchange here,” he continues, “because in the musical theater world, you usually sit alone or with a dedicated collaborator; you don’t get the experience of having a whole group of people who are all dedicated to breaking the story together. This model of how television works and seeing all these people dedicated to telling one story but using all their brainpower to come up with the best ideas possible became an inspiration for how we wanted to create this from a musical theater standpoint as well.”
After a season of false starts trying to get the difficult song off the ground, during episode eight, titled “Sitzprobe” (the first formal rehearsal that brought the cast and orchestra together), Savage finally got to deliver the difficult song on stage in front of the entire cast and crew.
“Our job was to try to write something that was as hard to sing as possible, and it had to be something that was really hard to do in one take,” Pasek says. “That works to our advantage plot-wise, because the real question is, can this character pull it off? And in multiple episodes, he can’t. That gives us something to really root for throughout the season.”
“The possibility that TV people will say, ‘Well, the big payoff for literally eight episodes is whether or not the character can sing a musical.’ That’s a dream come true,” he continues.
Martin’s first reaction to the idea of delivering a new character while also tackling difficult lyrics was brief. Known for his one-sentence emails, Martin simply replied, “Oh my god, that’s a great song,” followed by another email asking, “Am I going to have to perform this song live? I’m not sure I can do that.”
“Many other one-sentence emails, which raise concerns [followed]“His songs were so much fun,” Hoffman says with a laugh. “Then he started doing what he does. All I can say about that is that his wife, his lovely wife, Anne, I saw her a couple of months after he heard that song, and I said, ‘How’s Steve?’ And I didn’t have to say the word ‘song,’ and Anne said, ‘Let’s just say, I know all the words to it.’”
As for the recording itself, the three songwriters (despite their Oscar and Tony awards) admit they're still happy to be collaborating with the “Only Murders” cast, which included Martin Short, Paul Rudd and Meryl Streep, on season three.
“[It was a] “It’s embarrassing for us to be around a legend like Steve, who was willing to put in so much work and humility by going into the recording studio and recording the song over and over and taking notes from us,” Paul says. “The really cool thing is the way this is set up, where this show is like a theater camp, and the way they shoot in Queens. They built a little recording studio where the dressing rooms are. Everyone was milling in and out while Steve was recording. Marty would come in and sit on the couch and say, “Again!” “No! Terrible! What are you doing?”“It was such an amazing environment where everyone was having fun and talking to each other.”
After taping, Martin later had to re-enact the “Triplette” monologue in front of the entire cast on stage in a final moment of triumph for both the audience and the actor.
“The audience was with us on this journey, and I was in a state of excitement in that rehearsal, and seeing him hit this thing in a way that only Steve Martin could do in front of a theater already full of Meryl Streep and Martin Short and everyone who had finished their work, who were sitting in the theater that night watching him do this over and over again,” Hoffman says.
“It was one of the greatest nights I've ever had doing anything creative – watching Steve Martin hit it hard over and over again.
Additional reporting by Mark Hayes of Variety.
