Why Talk about Iambic Pentameter?
You might be familiar with iambic pentameter if you have ever taken a Shakespeare class, but did you know that Head over Heels is written almost completely in iambic pentameter? This poetic style, which is sometimes also called blank verse, consists of ten syllables per line broken into 5 metrical feet or iambs. This makes it sound a lot more complicated than it is but the video helps to explain it a little more succinctly.
Why Head over Heels in Iambic Pentameter?
It actually was one the original creators first ideas for the show! Jeff Whitty wanted to elevate the Jukebox musical and he thought that using this poetic style would help the musical be taken more seriously. He also thought that having the contrast between the contemporary music and the older open verse would be funny. The style of the verse also harkens back to the text that Whitty was pulling from for the story which was the Old Arcadia. The source text was a pastoral romance written in the 16th century and you can read more about it here.