The Making of Steve Martin’s ‘Pickwick Triplets’ song from ‘Only Murders’

This season of Hulu’s “Only Murders in the Building” had some dramatic highlights, but one of the most memorable wasn’t the reveal of the killer — it was a cleverly conceived song that playfully accuses three children of murder. With lyrics such as ‘a diaper full of criminal intent’, delivered with flair by Steve Martin, the banter song ‘Which of the Pickwick Triplets Did It?’ is both a humorous nod to the campy charm of musical theater and a poignant subplot for Martin’s character, fading star Charles Haden Savage.

The question loomed: Would Savage reclaim the spotlight with lines like “Which little brat got momma splashed?” or disappear further into the eccentric world of life in the Arconia?

This tension, coupled with the show’s final performance, likely contributed to the show’s impressive run of 21 Emmy nominations, including nods for outstanding comedy series, outstanding original music and writing, and an acting nomination for Martin himself. But how did series co-creator John Hoffman come up with this darkly humorous song about babies who commit murder? The creators behind this epic musical moment joined in Variety “Making A Scene,” presented by HBO, to explain.

“It came to me in the shower. I literally thought, ‘Oh, which one of the Pickwick triplets did it?’” Hoffman recalls. “The officer character, played by Steve in the play, was on a mission to discover which of these little baby triplets could have killed their mother – which is ridiculous, but to me, wonderfully ridiculous.”

Emboldened by this idea, Hoffman rushed into the writer’s room and declared, “This is the song.” It’s going to be called: ‘Which of the Pickwick triplets did it?’ We gotta get it [composers] Benj [Pasek] and Justin [Paul] immediately on the phone. ”

The call (thanks to a mutual friend, also in the writers’ room) resulted in a collaboration with the legendary songwriting team of Marc Shaiman and Scott Wittman, paving the way for an unforgettable moment. Hoffman, along with Pasek, Paul and Shaiman, reveal how this epic moment in “Only Murders” was brought to life.

The hallmark of a great patter song is a fast tempo combined with a rapid succession of rhythmic patterns, with each syllable of the lyrics aligned with a single note. Lyrical nightmares that will live on in the halls of infamy include Stephen Sondheim’s “Your Fault,” “Chicago’s” “We Both Reached for the Gun” and just about every third song from “The Music Man.”

“Many years ago, at one of Marty’s Short’s now legendary Christmas parties, which used to be so much fun in LA, he had me push the piano outside to make me look desperate,” says Shaiman. “And then he jumped on top and held on like a spoon for a microphone and became the master of ceremonies. And year after year, people started preparing. A year later, Steve Martin said, “I’d like to sing the opening song to ‘The Music Man’ right now.”

“It’s very difficult,” Paul interjects, underscoring the difficulty.

“Yes, for seven people to do! And he got up and did it perfectly, the whole thing,” Shaiman continues.

Confident in Martin’s ability to master the fast-paced banter, Pasek and Paul were whisked into the writers’ room of ‘Only Murders in the Building’ and flown to Los Angeles to merge the creative energies of television and theater – all in service of creating a brilliant plot.

“We loved being in the writers’ room because they were really trying to create this fictional musical, and we got to be a part of that. We got to discuss our Broadway experiences and talk about how songs could function,” says Pasek.

“There was real reciprocity,” he continues, “because usually in a musical theater world you are alone or with a dedicated collaborator; you don’t get the experience of getting an entire collective of people all dedicated to bringing the story together. That model of seeing how TV works and seeing all these people dedicated to telling one story but using all their brain power to come up with the best possible ideas became inspiring for how we approach this from a standpoint as well wanted to create musical theater.

After a season of false starts in attempts to launch the tricky tune, it’s during the eighth episode, titled “Sitzprobe” (the first official rehearsal that brings the cast and orchestra together), that Savage finally lands the tongue twister onstage for the entire cast and crew.

“Our job was to try to write something that was as difficult to sing as possible, and that should really trip the tongue and that should be something very, very difficult to do in one take,” says Pasek. “That works to our advantage in terms of the plot, because the question really is: Can this character pull it off? And for several episodes, he can’t. It gives us something to really root for as the season goes on.”

He continues: ‘The prospect of TV people saying, ‘Okay, the big payoff of literally eight episodes is going to be whether or not a character can perform a musical theater banter song.’ That is a dream come true.”

Martin’s initial reaction to the idea of ​​achieving a character breakthrough while plowing through verse after verse of tongue twisters was succinct. Martin, who is known for his one-sentence emails, simply replied, “Well, my god, this is quite a song,” followed by another email asking, “Should I do this whole thing live? I’m not sure I can do that.”

“Lots of other one-sentence, anxiety-ridden emails [followed]and they were delicious,” Hoffman says, laughing. ‘Then he got to work like he does. All I can say about that is his wife, his lovely wife, Anne. I saw her after he’d had that song for a few months, 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 every lyric.’

As for the recording itself, all three songwriters (despite their Oscar and Tony accolades) admit they were still impressed by working with the cast of “Only Murders,” including Martin Short, Paul Rudd and Meryl Stripe, for season 3.

“[It was a] It’s humbling for us to be around a legend like Steve, who is so willing to put in so much work and humble himself by going into the recording studio and making take after take of the song and taking notes from to make us,” says Paul. . “The really cool thing is the way this is set up, that show feels very much like theater camp, the way they film it in Queens. They built a small recording studio where the dressing rooms are. Everyone wandered in and out while Steve was recording. Marty came in, sat down on the couch and said, ‘Again!’ ‘No! Terrible! What are you doing?“It was just this great environment where everyone was having fun and destroying each other.”

After the recording, Martin would later have to recreate his “Triplette” monologue for the entire cast on stage, in a final moment of triumph for both viewers and actor.

“The audience has sympathized, and you’re a little bit out of breath in that rehearsal environment, and you see him slam this thing like only Steve Martin could do in front of a theater that was basically filled with Meryl Streep and Martin Short and everyone else who had their work, who were just 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 slam that sucker over and over again.

Additional reporting by Mark Hayes of Variety.