Broadway, Baby

I used to perform...on the STAGE. Shocking, I know. When I was in high school and early on in college I performed in plays and musicals. It was something to do...and at the time it was a fun sort of release from the mundane.

What? You want to know what musicals? Well, ok...Me and My Girl, Anything Goes, Imaginary Invalid, Servant of Two Masters, and Washington Square. More plays than musicals, turns out I'm a much better actress than I am a DANCER (which, I am not at all).

Anyway, for a brief period of time I dreamed of seeing a show on Broadway...I knew it was expensive, but it was just something I wanted to have done once in my life. But then I grew up. I became even more practical and let that dream go. I had better ways to spend the money and the time.

So when Chris' co-worker asked him if we wanted tickets to see Jersey Boys I said that it wasn't a big deal to me, and that I thought he would enjoy just walking around a people-watching more than sitting in a dark theater. So we said no.

And that night, after the fancy dinner, we did just that. We walked around, we people watched, we considered going for a night-bus tour of the city but lo, it was RIDICULOUSLY expensive so we did not.

The next day I got a text message from Chris saying something along the lines of, "MS (another colleague of his) got us tickets to see Chicago tonight. I don't think we can say no." So I thought, "Um. Ok. I guess we're going to go see a show."

We got all dolled up again. Went to a fancy steakhouse (ate at the bar, just appetizers, natch), and headed over to the theater.


First, let me say this, the theaters are a lot smaller than I had originally thought they would be. The show was amazing, of course, the sound was a bit too loud (the singers were sometimes incoherent because of it), but all in all it was GREAT.

That said, and at the risk of sounding prudish or self-righteous (two things I try to avoid) can I just say, I don't get it? Not anymore apparently. I don't get why 10 men and women prancing about a stage in what is effectively lingerie and singing about alcohol, illicit sex, and murder is ART. And I like to think that I have good, discerning, aesthetic taste, but I don't see how that's art. They had beautiful voices, and AMAZINGLY toned bodies, but I still don't see the ART in that...to me, that's Hollywood, not really ART.

But I could be mistaken. It's happened before.

Anyway, I'm grateful to have had the experience, it was certainly something that I'll never forget.