Post-Show Musings

I should preface this blog post with a warning that I'm about to go full on theater geek on you lovely people.

A strange thing happened tonight when I was at The Pavilion seeing Idina Menzel in concert.  I was sitting there listening to this amazingly talented human sing her face off, and I realized something.

The last time I saw her was when I was still living in LA.  My grandmother had passed away about 5 months before and I was going through a rough time dealing with that and some other things in my life. On a whim (or a moment of complete insanity considering I was not gainfully employed at the time), I'd hopped online and purchased a single ticket to her concert because I just needed to go.  I don't know if you're a music person, or a theater person for that matter, but if you are, you understand what I mean by "I just needed to go."  There was a part of my soul I'd been neglecting for a long time by then and I didn't even realize how much.  After that show, I returned to my apartment realizing I'd forgotten how much I loved going to a theater and watching someone perform like that — there's just something different about theater people.  I can't explain how, but going to that concert filled up the same part of my soul that going to see musicals always had — a part of my soul that I'd let run completely dry years before.  I realized I could not let that happen again.

Tonight I realized that I actually reopened a door to possibility that night, one that I'd slammed shut years before and I can't help but wonder if I hadn't done that, if I hadn't gone to that show and had that experience, would I have ended up in the place I am now.  A place where I get to run around and (as my cousin puts it) go "YAY THEATER!" and call it "work"?

I know it sounds strange, and it probably makes absolutely no sense to anyone who's not me, but tonight felt a bit like coming full circle.

It's now been 5 years since my grandmother passed.  Life is much better in some very unexpected ways.  I'm not in LA anymore, which is not my favorite thing, but one must attempt to thrive where one is, yes?

And perhaps the best thing was I got to take one of my best friends to see tonight's show for her birthday (and she'd never seen Idina in concert before).  We had a blast singing along, geeking out over showtunes and feeling really, really old when Idina said it's been almost 20 years since Rent opened (my friend and I were adorable little high school drama geeks then and Rent was the coolest thing on the planet).

I cried when she sang Brave (it's from an album that I listened to repeatedly on my flight home when my grandmother was sick and I just needed to distract myself) and when she sang For Good.  I snuck a quick video of part of Let it Go for my niece.  I clapped and yelled/made-really-high-pitched-loud-noise far too much and my voice shows it now.  Mostly, I had an amazing night filled with some good old memories and making some beautiful new ones.

I am so thankful that I got to see her perform tonight & I already can't wait 'til the next time.

Had to share.

-Lisa

Late Night Thoughts

Spoiler alert: Not the typical thing I post on here. :o)

I was reminded of something tonight as I sat in a packed theater watching Newsies — for work no less — I know.  Feel free to be jealous.  ;o)

If you know me at all, you know theater is my first love.  I blame the free reign of PBS in my house when I was young.  No, no I kid...kind of...  I grew up in an environment that naturally fostered a deep love of the arts as a whole.  My mom always encouraged my curiosity about many kinds of music, books, a nightmarishly large collection of crayons, markers, pencils, paints and paper, and my bent toward wanting to take dance over participating in sports any time it was an option.  But theater... Theater was different.

In theater I found a world where all of the normal rules that parents impose by parents on the entertainment we consume didn't seem to apply.  Especially with musicals.  Many of my favorites from high school handle dark subject matter, contain colorful language and all manner of what my niece would call "inappropriate" behavior in live performances. And I loved it.

Actually, my love of theater began when I was four or five and we went to see my cousin in various plays at her high school.  We saw The Sound of Music there and I was so enthralled by the performance that my mom rented the film for me to see.  I was 5.  My world was flipped upside down.  I didn't understand what happened in my five year old brain, but I knew I wanted to grow up and do "that".  My mom had no idea that The Sound of Music would be my gateway drug into a lifelong adoration of musical theater.

As an adult (which doesn't sound like the right way to refer to myself) "that" has taken on quite a different form from what I expected, but for me theater stands above all other art forms.  Every time I see a show, I feel like hold my breath for two to three hours and just absorb everything that's happening in front of me.  It's not just something I think is fun to do on a Saturday night, but something that I'm fiercely protective of and I don't know, as silly as it may sound, to me it's more like a noble calling than a chosen profession.

Tonight, I was reminded of that and I was thinking about how glad I am that this very strange path I've been traveling for the past 12 years has led me here.  There are many things I don't understand about the way life works, but tonight I am feeling grateful and I just wanted to share.

-Lisa

One last thought:  If you find yourself in a place where Newsies is touring, go see it!  It's amazing.