Today I watched part 5 of the documentary miniseries I've been watching over the past couple days. This part was 1957-1979 and it covered a lot of the musicals that I've at least heard about, which was cool. Fiddler on the Roof, Cabaret, Chicago, Company, West Side Story, Sweeney Todd, Hair, Chorus Line, just to name a few. It was neat hearing all the different stories about how these shows were so radical at the time they were produced. I was surprised to find out that Chicago in its initial run didn't do very well and now it is one of the most well-known musicals of all time! As was West Side Story, which I was more surprised about. It opened the same season as The Music Man, which did much better, probably because it's subject matter was a little more "optimistic".
My favorite little bit that I learned about tonight was about Hair (of course). Hair has been my favorite musical ever since one of my high school friends made me watch it. I remember very clearly the night I first saw it. My friend and her mom were appalled that I had never seen Hair, Tommy, A Chorus Line or Jesus Christ Superstar. So we rented all of them and watched them in the same night. Hair was the last one we watched and I was mesmerized, especially because it was during a time in my life where I was feeling particularly political (with the Iraq war and everything, my dad being shipped off all the time, I was very emotional about it). The next year I had to do a project on the 60's for my history class and I made everyone in my group watch it and I talked a lot about it in my project. Even though there isn't really a good part for me (which is generally what a lot of us base our favorites around! You know it's true!) it is still my favorite musical, and I never get tired of singing a long. I wish I could have seen it in it's initial run, the footage in the documentary was breathtaking and I bet it was just a beautiful experience.
Now that I've said all that, I love musical theatre. I love it down to my core. A friend of mine's girlfriend is an Opera lover and in the early stages of their relationship I spent a lot of time trying to defend musical theatre even though I didn't know very much about it and this girl is literally an Opera encyclopedia! I've discovered, if nothing else, through this process that my love of musical theatre is something I can't describe or defend, it's just in me. When I hear the music, or see a show my heart lifts and in that moment I can't be sad, even if I can't sing a long.
It's getting late so I will have to post my two good deeds from the weekend in tomorrow's blog (The Health Fair and the Reptilian Lounge). Goodnight!
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