Solution to Compose Yourself

Authors: Seth Bisen-Hersh and Robert L. Rucinski

First, you need to identify the composers of each clip in each file. They are:

HELLO:

1. "Hello, Hello There" – Bells are Ringing – Jule Styne
2. "I'll Go Home With Bonnie Jean" – Brigadoon – Frederick Lowe
3. "Hello, Dolly" – Hello, Dolly – Jerry Herman
4. "Hello, Little Girl" – Into the Woods – Stephen Sondheim
5. "Hello, Young Lovers" – The King and I – Richard Rodgers
6. "I Speak Six Languages" – 25th Annual Putnam County Spelling Bee – William Finn

TOMORROW:

1. "Tomorrow" – Annie – Charles Strouse
2. "Tomorrow Belongs to Me" – Cabaret – John Kander
3. "You're Gonna Love Tomorrow" – Follies – Stephen Sondheim
4. "Goodbye Until Tomorrow" – Last Five Years – Jason Robert Brown
5. "Finale" – Les Miserables – Claude Michel Schonberg
6. "Therapy" – Tick Tick Boom – Jonathan Larson

GOODBYE:

1. "What I Did For Love" – A Chorus Line – Marvin Hamlisch
2. "Some People" – Gypsy – Jule Styne
3. "Wishing You Were Somehow Here Again" – Phantom of the Opera – Andrew Lloyd Webber
4. "Goodbye, My Love" – Ragtime – Stephen Flaherty
5. "Goodbye, Love" – Rent – Jonathan Larson
6. "Defying Gravity" – Wicked – Stephen Schwartz

TODAY:

1. "Kids" – Bye, Bye, Birdie – Charles Strouse
2. "Stranger to the Rain" – Children of Eden – Stephen Schwartz
3. "Marry the Man Today" – Guys and Dolls – Frank Loesser
4. "It's Today" – Mame – Jerry Herman
5. "Feelings You've Got to Hide" – Side Show – Henry Krieger
6. "Tonight" – West Side Story – Leonard Bernstein

ME:

1. "Me" – Beauty and the Beast – Alan Menken
2. "So In Love" – Kiss Me Kate – Cole Porter
3. "I Could Have Danced All Night" – My Fair Lady – Frederick Lowe
4. "Lucky to be Me" – On the Town – Leonard Bernstein
5. "Amayzing Mayzie" – Seussical – Stephen Flaherty
6. "Christmas Lullaby" – Songs for a New World – Jason Robert Brown

YOU:

1. "I Get a Kick Out of You" – Anything Goes – Cole Porter
2. "When You're Good to Mama" – Chicago – John Kander
3. "And I'm Telling You" – Dreamgirls – Henry Krieger
4. "Only With You" – Nine – Maury Yeston
5. "Climb Every Mountain" – Sound of Music – Richard Rodgers
6. "I Still Believe in Love" – They're Playing Our Song – Marvin Hamlisch

Then, notice that, with the exception of six of the composers (Finn, Schonberg, Webber, Loesser, Menkin, and Yeston), each composer is used in exactly 2 clips. For example, John Kander has a TOMORROW clip and a YOU clip.

Place these composers into the grid at the intersections of their words. For example, John Kander goes into the TOMORROW/YOU squares in the grid (row 6, column 2 and row 2, column 6).

Place the composers with only one song into the grid at the intersection along the diagonal (e.g., William Finn in the HELLO/HELLO space).

That gives you:

	HELLO	TOMORROW	GOODBYE	TODAY	ME	YOU
HELLO	William Finn	Stephen Sondheim	Jule Styne	Jerry Herman	Frederick Loewe	Richard Rodgers
TOMORROW	Stephen Sondheim	Claude Michel Schonberg	Jonathan Larson	Charles Strouse	Jason Robert Brown	John Kander
GOODBYE	Jule Styne	Jonathan Larson	Andrew Lloyd Webber	Stephen Schwartz	Stephen Flaherty	Marvin Hamlisch
TODAY	Jerry Herman	Charles Strouse	Stephen Schwartz	Frank Loesser	Leonard Bernstein	Henry Krieger
ME	Frederick Loewe	Jason Robert Brown	Stephen Flaherty	Leonard Bernstein	Alan Menken	Cole Porter
YOU	Richard Rodgers	John Kander	Marvin Hamlisch	Henry Krieger	Cole Porter	Maury Yeston

Take the Nth letter of the composer's name (as given in the original grid), and read the across each row.

That gives: FIEND IN BLANK SHAPE A MONSTER OF DEPRAVITY

This is a lyric from "Macavity: The Mystery Cat" in the musical Cats by Andrew Lloyd Webber, where the blank is FELINE, which is the answer to the puzzle.