Solution to Music of the Heart

Answer: JOANNA GLEASON
by Matt Zinno

The answers to the clues are in alphabetical order, and their enumeration matches the number of words in the clue (with commas corresponding to word breaks).

Each answer is a distinctive word or term found in just one song from a Broadway musical (Some are also found in some non-Broadway musical theatre, but only one Broadway song).

Broadway is also hinted at in the flavortext: "wide path = broad way", "where the lights are bright" = Broadway, and the general feeling of the second line.

Clue	Answer	Song	Corresponding Show
Last Boy Howdy album, not a Gaga song, though similarly named	BORN THAT WAY	IF YOU WERE GAY	AVENUE Q
Pattern of alternating light and black squares used for various tabletop games	CHECKERBOARD	YOU CAN'T STOP THE BEAT	HAIRSPRAY
Long toothy predators which can often be confused with alligators	CROCODILES	THE MORNING REPORT	THE LION KING
Teddy bears on forest moon	EWOKS	JOSEPH SMITH AMERICAN MOSES	THE BOOK OF MORMON
Flagship toy store, site of a famous cinematic piano scene	FAO SCHWARZ	A SECRETARY IS NOT A TOY	HOW TO SUCCEED IN BUSINESS WITHOUT REALLY TRYING
Bossypants author Tina	FEY	THERE! RIGHT THERE!	LEGALLY BLONDE
Extremely unattractive per derogatory teenagers	FUGLY	WORLD BURN	MEAN GIRLS
Fried eggs and pico de gallo, plus tortillas and cheese and refried beans and salsa	HUEVOS RANCHEROS	LA VIE BOHEME	RENT
High flying boy of Greek mythology	ICARUS	BURN	HAMILTON
Cocktails with melon liqueur, coconut rum and banana	JUNE BUGS	OKLAHOMA	OKLAHOMA!
Ready to eat crepes, say, or boeuf bourgignon or foie gras	PRÊT À MANGER	DON'T LOSE UR HEAD	SIX
New Jersey town where Morton Downey Jr filmed	SECAUCUS	CARNAVAL DEL BARRIO	IN THE HEIGHTS
Add on a sweet layer to make something palatable	SUGARCOAT	DOUBLE TALK	CITY OF ANGELS
Fictional conveyance intended for six pilots	TARDIS	BRUCE	MATILDA
Square wheat crackers marketed as being baked by electricity	TRISCUITS	THE WHOLE "BEING DEAD" THING	BEETLEJUICE
Patina of a distinctive color consisting of copper carbonate	VERDIGRIS	THE WIZARD AND I	WICKED
What you would board for Maelstrom, a ride at EPCOT	VIKING SHIP	WHO I'D BE	SHREK
Slice open while alive to see what's inside	VIVISECT	THEN YOU MAY TAKE ME TO THE FAIR	CAMELOT

Take these song titles, minus punctuation; they are all different lengths, and match the upper numbers of the time signatures.

For each time signature, take the title which is that length, and use the lower number as an extraction index, to get ORIGINAL BAKERS WIFE.

Song	Length (as ordered on page)	Index	Letter
DONT LOSE UR HEAD	14	2	O
THE WIZARD AND I	13	8	R
CARNAVAL DEL BARRIO	17	16	I
THERE RIGHT THERE	15	8	G
THE MORNING REPORT	16	8	I
BURN	4	4	N
LA VIE BOHEME	11	2	A
WORLD BURN	9	4	L
DOUBLE TALK	10	4	B
A SECRETARY IS NOT A TOY	19	16	A
OKLAHOMA	8	2	K
JOSEPH SMITH AMERICAN MOSES	24	4	E
BRUCE	5	2	R
YOU CANT STOP THE BEAT	18	8	S
THE WHOLE BEING DEAD THING	22	4	W
WHO ID BE	7	4	I
IF YOU WERE GAY	12	2	F
THEN YOU MAY TAKE ME TO THE FAIR	25	16	E

In the well-known Broadway musical "Into the Woods", the character of the Baker's Wife was originated by JOANNA GLEASON.

Author's Notes

The genesis of this puzzle came from listening to Broadway soundtracks, and appreciating some of the unusual words that lyricists managed to use … words like VERDIGRIS (which made it into the puzzle), and BLOVIATE and IN LOCO PARENTIS (which didn't). I first envisioned it as a possible meta puzzle, where the feeder puzzle answers would be the lyric words, and letters extracted from the song or show titles would give another lyric word, and the final answer would be another song or show title … but that didn't end up fitting with the final story and the kind of meta answers it needed.

Once this puzzle had settled on the form you see here, construction was an intricate juggling act so that not only were all the lyric words unique, but no two songs were the same length or taken from the same show. A few times during testing, a word had to be taken out for one reason or another, and replacing it sometimes meant a cascade of changing several others to keep meeting all those constraints.