tuneful

The band’s relationships to music and their own voices have changed with age: ragged choirboys as they are now, but still tuneful and beautiful.

It began with the score’s hit, “A Simple Song,” Bernstein at his most tuneful, even saccharine.

The sound is raw yet tuneful, with scratchy electric guitars and whomping live drums in place of the synth-ier, more intricately layered productions of “Love Hate Music Box.”

Also: “Mayhem” is better than “Chromatica” — more tuneful, more coherent, certainly more fun.

Wicked and Emilia Pérez are the first tuneful twosome to be up for the top prize since Funny Girl and Oliver! in 1969.