What Musicals Mean to Me

Dear Bloggie,
         I went to see Hair today. You know, the musical. It was so wonderful that I almost cried. Especially when I saw (insert character name that I can't really write or it would ruin the story) dead at the end. You see, I love musicals. I wish I could sing and dance so I could be in them, but I can't. So instead I just love seeing them. Most of the musicals I have seen are the movie versions, though for the first time last February I saw one live at the big theater in my town, the Bushnell. It's called Spring Awakening and it was just fantastic. I bought the CD shortly after (the CD is of the original Broadway cast, of which includes Lea Michell for those Glee fans reading) and it's one of my most listened to CDs.

      While I love musicals, I'm not exactly the type that loves happy ones. My mom wants to see Wicked in the fall, and yeah, I've been wanting to for a couple of years now, but I'm not sure if I really want to anymore. Not because I don't think it's good -- I've heard quite the opposite -- but because it seems too happy. I know it sounds weird, but I guess the sadder musicals like Spring Awakening and Hair and Rent (which I've seen parts of the movie version so I know what happens) move me more. And that's why I love musicals, because they're an experience. Sitting in a room with hundreds of other people as actors stand on stage not so much acting, but becoming the characters they play. It's an emotional experience that moves me in a way that just listening to a CD or just watching a movie can't. When you combine music with a story and acting you create something so amazing.

   There is a list of musicals I want to see one day:

• Rent
• Next to Normal
• Avenue Q
• Chicago
• American Idiot
• West Side Story

     Even though I prefer the sadder musicals, both Avenue Q and Chicago are happier ones. In the case of Avenue Q, I make the exception because it's funny. My friend Jake and I are always singing songs from it. In the case of Chicago, I watched the movie version with Renee Zellweger and Catherine Zeta Jones and loved it so much that I want to see it.

     I'm trying to convince my mom to see West Side Story next month when it comes to the Bushnell. Hopefully there are still tickets left and we can go. We'll see.
  
                      ~ XOXO,
                                  Ariana