Ace Lyrics – All Songs from the Musical

"Ace – The New Musical Adventure (Original Stage Musical Score)" – Album Guide to Tracks and Key Scenes

Review

What do you get when a coming-of-age story shares the cockpit with two world wars and a family secret? In Ace, the score answers that question with brass, strings, and a surprising amount of warmth. The musical follows Danny (originally Billy), a boy shunted into foster care after his mother’s suicide attempt, who uncovers his family history through war pilots, letters, and dreams. The songs act like memory triggers: each number opens a door into another generation, another cockpit, another heartbreak, until the family’s past finally lands in the present.

Instead of a simple “war musical,” the soundtrack plays like a time-hopping scrapbook. Early songs sit in 1950s St. Louis, all social workers and schoolyard taunts; within a few tracks we’re on muddy WWI airfields and in smoky French taverns, and then in WWII training camps and Flying Tigers missions over Asia. The score keeps circling the same emotional questions — duty, abandonment, forgiveness — but each era gets its own color and tempo, so you feel the echoes rather than just hearing them explained.

Stylistically, the music moves in deliberate phases. The 1950s domestic material leans on warm, almost pop-inflected musical theatre writing — think hummable, consonant harmonies that underline Danny’s need for safety. The WWI and WWII sections push closer to neo-classical and cinematic writing: soaring string lines and martial rhythms signal heroism and fatalism at the same time. And threaded through it all is a kind of “indie grit” in the character songs — especially for Elizabeth and Ruth — where harmonically knotty bridges and rhythmically jagged phrases mirror depression, resentment, and the messiness of parenting. The contrast is intentional: clean, almost old-fashioned surfaces covering a very modern emotional tangle.

How It Was Made

Composer Richard Oberacker and co-bookwriter/lyricist Robert Taylor started sketching Ace while touring with The Lion King in the early 2000s. The seed was deeply personal: Taylor’s father had trained as a pilot, and his mother had battled serious depression. Those two facts — flight and mental illness — became the twin engines of the show’s story and its music, which always treats aviation as exhilarating and terrifying at once.

The piece first surfaced in 2005 at the National Alliance for Musical Theatre’s Festival of New Musicals, with Cheyenne Jackson and Christiane Noll introducing some of the key numbers. A year later, the full musical premiered at The Repertory Theatre of St. Louis (2006) and then moved on to Cincinnati Playhouse in the Park and The Old Globe in San Diego (2006–07). Those early versions told the story through literal dream sequences, with the score juggling contemporary scenes, WWI dogfights, and WWII missions, plus a large orchestral palette and period-inflected vocal writing.

After mixed reactions to the storytelling but praise for the music and production values, Oberacker and Taylor went back into rewrites. At Signature Theatre in Arlington (2008), they reframed the show so Danny pieces things together through diaries and artifacts rather than just dreams, tightening how songs like “In These Skies,” “Soaring Again,” and “We’re The Only Ones” are introduced. Later revisions, including a heavily reworked 2015 Nevada Conservatory Theatre staging, fine-tuned orchestrations and transitions even more. Despite all that development, Ace never got a full commercial cast album: what exists are promotional demos (notably a 2005 demo recording) and live or studio cuts of key songs such as “In These Skies” and “Now I Know” that circulate among fans and audition binders.

Tracks & Scenes

Below are key numbers from the score, with how they function in the story and what they’re doing musically and emotionally. Timings are approximate and will vary from production to production, but the dramatic placement is consistent.

“It’s Better This Way” (Company)

Where it plays:

Early in Act I, as Danny’s mother is taken to the hospital and social worker Mrs. Crandall places him with the Milligans. The scene cuts between the hospital ward, the child-welfare office, and the Milligans’ tidy home. The number is non-diegetic: characters don’t “know” they’re singing, but their lines feel like heightened speech as paperwork is signed, suitcases are packed, and the kid realizes this isn’t a sleepover — it’s a life reroute.

Why it matters:

The song crystallizes the adult logic around Danny (“it’s better this way”) while making clear that for him it feels like a betrayal. Musically, the overlapping vocal lines and brisk underscoring mirror bureaucracy in motion, turning a compassionate decision into something that still sounds brutally efficient to a scared child.

“Fill In The Blank” (Elizabeth, Danny, Louise)

Where it plays:

Still near the top of Act I, after Danny’s removal, we bounce between Elizabeth at home and Danny in his new room. Elizabeth writes letters and puzzle-like “clues” to her son, while Danny and foster mother Louise react in parallel. The staging often uses split levels or lighting boxes to show the mother writing as the boy reads. The number is non-diegetic but rooted in the physical act of letter-writing and reading.

Why it matters:

The song sets up the show’s central device: Elizabeth’s letters as a trail through the past. The playful word-game structure softens the fact that these are really apologies and confessions, and the syncopated, almost game-show feel of the accompaniment underlines how Elizabeth is trying to turn her shame into something her son can actually engage with.

“In These Skies” (John Robert)

Where it plays:

Early in Danny’s quest, once he’s been sent to talk with elderly Harold Bixby and is “pulled” back into WWI through Bixby’s memories. Onstage, the world shifts from the Milligans’ living room to a 1910s airfield as John Robert Anderson appears in flying gear and launches into the song. It usually starts as a solo with the company building in under him as the plane “takes off.” Entirely non-diegetic within the WWI world, but for Danny it’s almost like a soundtrack in his head.

Why it matters:

This is the show’s breakout anthem and its clearest statement of what flying means: freedom, danger, and escape from the ground-level mess. The melody climbs relentlessly, mirroring John Robert’s ascent and ambition, and the lyric’s simple, repeated images make it easy to lift out of context — which is why the number lives such a big afterlife in auditions and cabarets.

“Life Can Be Cruel” (School Kids, Ensemble)

Where it plays:

Shortly after Danny starts at his new school. Onstage, the class is in motion — recess, dodgeball, classroom gossip, a playground hierarchy being asserted in real time. The bullies’ taunts turn into rhythmic chants as desks scrape, balls thud, and the song grows into a stylized portrait of how children can zero in on vulnerability. It’s non-diegetic but staged so the insults land as real words Danny hears.

Why it matters:

The number externalizes Danny’s sense that the universe has it in for him. Musically, it’s punchy and percussive, with short, sharp phrases that feel like verbal jabs. The contrast between the jaunty groove and the actual content underlines one of the show’s themes: people often dress cruelty in upbeat, socially acceptable clothing.

“It Took This Moment” (John Robert & Ruth)

Where it plays:

Mid-Act I, during John Robert and Ruth Whitlow’s courtship. We’ve already seen their spark at the Texas base; now the action shifts to quiet nighttime conversations on the porch and a sunrise flight in John Robert’s plane. The song weaves dialogue into sung lines, with Ruth stepping into the cockpit both literally and metaphorically. Non-diegetic, but often staged with slow-motion flying or projections of clouds.

Why it matters:

It’s the score’s romantic center and shows what the later generations are grieving. The music leans into sweeping, classic musical-theatre writing — key changes, counter-melodies, the works — mirroring how Ruth and John Robert briefly believe they can outrun war and gravity. Every later loss in the show echoes this duet.

“Make It From Scratch” (Louise)

Where it plays:

Back in the Milligan kitchen, as Louise attempts to bake Toll House cookies and talks herself through her anxieties about becoming a mother. We see mixing bowls, recipe cards, and flour everywhere while Danny hovers at the edge of the scene. The song is diegetic — she’s technically singing to herself while she works — but it slides into full musical-theatre mode as the ensemble comments in little interjections.

Why it matters:

Louise’s comic jitters form a counterpoint to the war-hero mythology elsewhere in the show. The gentle swing of the music and the escalating kitchen disasters keep things funny, but the metaphor is clear: “making it from scratch” is what every caregiver in the show is trying to do with their family, without a recipe for trauma.

“Be My Bride” (John Robert, Ruth & Company)

Where it plays:

Still in the WWI thread, as John Robert prepares to ship out and he and Ruth rush into marriage. The scene often shifts from a modest courthouse ceremony to a larger, imagined celebration filled with uniforms and borrowed finery. The number starts intimate and gradually brings in family and soldiers, blurring the line between real and idealized memories.

Why it matters:

The song links Ruth’s domestic hopes to the war machinery that’s likely to shatter them. Harmonically, it pushes against the “happily ever after” feel — unresolved cadences and key shifts hint that this promise won’t be kept, setting up the emotional stakes for Ruth’s later songs and Ace’s own choices.

“Soaring Again” (Ruth & Young Charlie “Ace”)

Where it plays:

Early in Act II, when Danny reads Ruth’s later diaries and we meet her son, Charlie Anderson, nicknamed Ace. The scene moves through a series of vignettes: model airplanes on the floor, a boy’s bedroom full of posters, a young Charlie watching planes overhead. Ruth sings directly to her son while he chimes in with dreams of becoming an engineer and pilot.

Why it matters:

This is the generational hand-off number. Ruth’s soaring vocal lines sit over more modern, rhythmic writing for Charlie, showing how her grief over John Robert has quietly shaped her son’s ambitions. The title says it all: the family keeps “soaring again,” but that upward motion is tied to a pattern of men leaving and women surviving.

“It’s Just a Matter of Time / I Know It Can Be Done” (Elizabeth & Ace)

Where it plays:

Mid-Act II, once Danny has Elizabeth’s college yearbook and photograph. The stage jumps to 1930s St. Louis as Elizabeth Lucas and Charlie “Ace” Anderson meet and begin their relationship. It’s usually staged as a musical montage: coffee dates, airfield visits, and awkward first conversations that gradually smooth out. The two linked songs function as a mini-suite, with Elizabeth’s cautious optimism and Ace’s self-assured confidence trading the lead.

Why it matters:

Together, these numbers let us finally hear Danny’s parents in their own voices. Musically, the duet structure is all about negotiation: their melodic lines begin apart, overlap, and then briefly lock into close harmony. The effect is romantic but bittersweet, because we already know this love story ends in wartime separation.

“Missing Pieces” (Elizabeth & Ace)

Where it plays:

Soon after Elizabeth and Ace have formed a real partnership but before the war pulls him away. The staging often uses a literal jigsaw puzzle or photo album as they sort through each other’s histories, finishing sentences and surprising each other with what they don’t yet know. Non-diegetic, but grounded in very domestic actions — clearing a table, packing a suitcase, holding a sonogram or wedding invitation.

Why it matters:

This ballad doubles as a thesis statement for Danny’s whole journey. The idea that every person is made of “missing pieces” — stories untold, secrets unshared — is exactly what the score is slowly filling in for him. The calmly unfolding melody, with its repeated motifs, suggests that even broken narratives can sound whole once you can see the pattern.

“We’re The Only Ones” (Ace & Flying Tigers)

Where it plays:

In Act II, after Pearl Harbor, when Ace has joined the Flying Tigers in China. The scene is all wartime camaraderie: briefing rooms, flight jackets slung over chairs, maps with pinned routes. The number is non-diegetic but builds out of shouted pilot banter and engine noises, becoming a full company piece as the squadron celebrates their elite status before a dangerous mission.

Why it matters:

The macho, swaggering tone is intoxicating by design — you can feel why Ace signs up. At the same time, the music’s driving pulse and abrupt phrase endings hint at the short runway these men have. Danny watching from the outside hears both the thrill and the cost, which helps him see his father as more than just an abandonment story.

“That’s What It Should Say” (Elizabeth)

Where it plays:

Still in Act II, after news arrives that Ace has been killed in action. Elizabeth is alone — often in a starkly lit kitchen or bedroom — reading the official telegram and imagining the words it should contain. The song begins almost as spoken text over spare chords and then swells into a full-throated lament as she rewrites the letter in her head.

Why it matters:

This is Elizabeth’s emotional peak and the hinge between past and present. The music strips away the show’s earlier lushness and leans into raw, sustained notes that sit uncomfortably in the voice, mirroring her grief and anger. For the “soundtrack,” it’s one of the most demanding dramatic solos — and a key reason the character is a magnet for powerhouse actresses.

“Choose To Fly / Finale” (Danny & Company)

Where it plays:

In the closing sequence of the show. After Danny has pieced together his family history and confronted his mother, the spectral presence of “Ace” talks him through what flying really means: not just planes, but choices, perspective, and courage. The music reprises motifs from “In These Skies,” “Soaring Again,” and earlier songs as Danny decides to reconnect with Elizabeth rather than repeat the pattern of running away.

Why it matters:

The finale ties the whole album together musically and thematically. Motifs from three generations stack up into a final choral statement about what heroism looks like in ordinary life. It’s less about dogfights now and more about choosing not to let inherited trauma define you — a surprisingly gentle landing after all the aerial fireworks.

Notes & Trivia

• The show’s title doesn’t just refer to the WWII fighter pilots; “ace” is also the childhood nickname of Charlie Anderson and the aspirational label Danny learns to redefine for himself.
• In earlier drafts, much more of the story played as literal dreams; later versions leaned on diaries and documents instead, which subtly shifted how songs are introduced and re-prised.
• “In These Skies” has arguably outlived the show’s commercial life: it’s a staple of musical-theatre audition rep, often learned long before performers ever see the full script.
• Christianne Noll, who recorded early demo material for the show, has spoken about Ruth’s music being written specifically to show off her range — full legit soprano up top, then a belting section driven by grief.
• The child lead (Billy/Danny) originally carried a huge vocal and emotional load; later reworks aged him up to his twenties in some versions to make the part more sustainable and deepen the “looking back” frame.
• Although the score travels through trenches and cockpits, a surprising amount of it is set in kitchens, living rooms, and schoolyards — the places where the fallout of heroism actually lands.

Reception & Quotes

Ace has had a genuinely odd critical flight path. The 2006–07 regional run impressed audiences with its production values and emotional ambition but drew criticism for a sometimes convoluted dream structure. By the time it reached Signature Theatre in 2008, the show had been significantly reworked; a number of Washington-area critics felt the new version finally let the material “land” even if it still wasn’t a perfect machine.

Over time, one consensus has emerged: even reviewers who had issues with the book tended to single out the score for praise. The musical’s mix of period pastiche and contemporary theatre writing, plus the complexity of the women’s roles, made it a favorite among performers and orchestral musicians, even as the show never quite made its planned Broadway jump.

“The second sortie for ‘Ace’ has hit the target.” Variety on the revised Signature Theatre production

“Signature has opened a bright, big and bold production … enough high spots to make it a real lift on a hot summer night.” Alexandria Gazette Packet

“In the end, the cohesion of the whole story prevented the musical from soaring, even when individual scenes were interesting.” Tapeworthy blog

“Three generations of men are fanatical about flight. The men play out their destinies as fighter pilots, but their wives make all the sacrifices.” Pat Launer, San Diego review

Industry-wise, the show was far from a flop: the St. Louis premiere production racked up multiple Kevin Kline Awards, including Outstanding New Play or Musical, and the piece picked up the Mickey Kaplan New American Play Prize and several Helen Hayes Award nominations. Despite that, no full commercial soundtrack has been released — one reason the score has turned into a bit of a cult object among musical-theatre enthusiasts.

Availability today is patchwork: licensing goes through major theatrical licensors, while the music itself survives via the demo recording, audition cuts, and promotional videos released by the writers and original producers.

Interesting Facts

• Parts of Ace were introduced to the industry in NAMT’s Festival of New Musicals, one of the same pipelines that helped launch shows like Thoroughly Modern Millie and Children of Eden.
• Cheyenne Jackson once played Ace in an early festival presentation, long before the role passed to actors like Darren Ritchie and Devin Archer in full productions.
• The Old Globe’s 2007 staging stepped into a slot originally slated for another new play, giving Ace a surprise high-profile West Coast berth.
• The St. Louis study guide spends as much time on the history of the U.S. Air Force as it does on the plot, underlining how central aviation history is to the show’s identity.
• Because there’s no widely distributed cast album, fans often discover the show backwards: they fall for “In These Skies” or “Now I Know” on YouTube, then go hunting for the story that surrounds them.
• The most recent “definitive” revision premiered not in New York but at a university conservatory in Las Vegas, reminding everyone that the developmental center of gravity for new musicals isn’t always Manhattan.

Technical Info

• Title: Ace (often billed as ACE – The New Musical Adventure)
• Year (first full production): 2006 (Repertory Theatre of St. Louis regional premiere)
• Type: Original stage musical; dramatic family saga with historical war elements
• Composers: Music by Richard Oberacker
• Lyricists & Book: Robert Taylor and Richard Oberacker
• Music direction / orchestration notes: Early regional productions featured music direction by David Kreppel; orchestrations and arrangements have been credited to collaborators including Greg Anthony Rassen in later versions.
• Core musical palette: Lyrical contemporary musical-theatre writing with WWI/WWII military colors (brass, snare-heavy percussion), plus more intimate chamber textures for domestic scenes.
• Selected notable placements (story moments): “It’s Better This Way” during Danny’s placement into foster care; “In These Skies” introducing WWI pilot John Robert; “Soaring Again” for Ruth and young Ace; “We’re The Only Ones” in Flying Tigers combat; “That’s What It Should Say” for Elizabeth’s grief; “Choose To Fly / Finale” reconciling Danny and his mother.
• Release / production history: Festival excerpts at NAMT (2005); regional premiere St. Louis and Cincinnati (2006); Old Globe, San Diego (2007); heavily revised production at Signature Theatre, Arlington, VA (2008); later reworked version at Nevada Conservatory Theatre (2015).
• Label / album status: No commercial original cast recording. A 2005 demo recording (approx. 20 tracks) exists and has circulated privately; individual songs such as “In These Skies” and “Now I Know” have been shared in promotional and performance videos.
• Licensing: Performance rights administered via major theatrical licensing houses (including Concord-affiliated catalogs) for professional, educational, and amateur productions.
• Awards & honors: Winner of the Mickey Kaplan New American Play Prize; six Kevin Kline Awards (including Outstanding New Play or Musical); multiple Helen Hayes Award nominations for the D.C. run.
• Chart / streaming notes: Because there is no official commercial album, the score does not have traditional chart history; visibility comes mainly through live clips, demos, and audition cuts shared online.

Questions & Answers

Is there an official cast recording of Ace?

No full commercial cast album has been released. A demo recording and various live or studio tracks (like “In These Skies” and “Now I Know”) exist, but they’ve mostly circulated in industry circles and online clips rather than as a unified soundtrack.

What is the basic story the soundtrack is telling?

The score traces three generations of one family — WWI pilot John Robert, his son Charlie “Ace,” and grandson Danny — as Danny uncovers their intertwined histories of heroism, absence, and forgiveness through letters, diaries, and aviation-themed memories.

How does the music balance war scenes with the family drama?

War-zone numbers use big, propulsive orchestration and ensemble writing, while domestic songs lean into more intimate, character-driven melodies. You feel the thrill of flight, but the score keeps cutting back to kitchens, hospitals, and schoolyards where those choices actually land.

Can schools or community theatres stage Ace easily?

The show is licensed and has been produced by regional and educational companies, but it’s not a tiny black-box musical. It asks for a sizable cast, at least a small orchestra, and some inventive solutions for planes, dogfights, and time-jumps — though many productions solve that with clever lighting and minimal set pieces rather than literal aircraft.

What are the go-to audition songs from the score?

For tenors and baritenors, “In These Skies” is the obvious calling card. Adult female performers often gravitate toward “That’s What It Should Say” (for Elizabeth) or Ruth’s material from “Soaring Again.” Younger performers and students frequently use trimmed versions of “Now I Know” or sections of “Life Can Be Cruel.”

Key Contributors

Sources: Wikipedia (Ace – musical), Concord Theatricals / Origint Theatrical title pages, Repertory Theatre of St. Louis study guide, Old Globe and Signature Theatre production materials, Variety and Washington Post coverage, MetroWeekly and DC Theatre Scene reviews, Tapeworthy blog review, NAMT festival notes, castalbums.org and independent discography listings, public demo and performance notes from Richard Oberacker and colleagues.