Four or Five

September Writing Challenge - Prompt #2:

Theatre 

Scotty and I are sometimes deemed “theatre people,” but I don’t know if we really are. We dabble. We go to some musicals and plays, but on a scale of 1-10, ten being ultimate “theatre people,” we are probably fours or fives. 

Growing up I wasn’t really involved in theatre, save for my one gig as Mama Bear in my preschool’s production of Goldilocks and the Three Bears. It seems like I might have also had a stint as Little Red Riding Hood, but my memory betrays me sometimes. 

I went to Pioneer Theatre Company regularly with my junior high gifted and talented program for three years, so I saw several plays that way, but the only one I remember was A Streetcar Named Desire (“Stellllaaaaaa”) for which we had to have parental permission. 

(Update: Now that I’ve had more time to think about it, I remember seeing The Crucible, The Miracle Worker, and The Diary of Anne Frank).

I saw a few plays and musicals at Hale Theatre as a teen, one being Jane Eyre, which I found torturesome and creepy (maybe I would like it now. I dunno. There’s a big difference from Britt at 16 to Britt at 40, and I do enjoy the BBC miniseries in my old age).

One thing about me in regard to musicals and plays is that I like to learn a lot about them before I see them. Normally I’m a NO SPOILERS person, but for theatre, I have to do some prep work. I have a hard time following the story if I go in uneducated, so I find that I enjoy them a lot more if I know the story and the music. I can only understand about 25% of the dialogue between the spoken parts and the song lyrics when I see something on stage because A) I can’t hear anything and B) I have delayed processing. 

(If captions are ever an option for theatre, sign me up!)

Here are the musicals/play that I have seen on stage in a (somewhat if not entirely) professional production:

A Christmas Carol

Meh. 

Bright Star

Love this one! Hope to see it again someday. I listen to the music all the time.

Come From Away

First row at Eccles Theatre. It was fantastic! Watch it on Apple+ if you can. Watch it during September. 

The Foreigner

This is just a good, old classic comedy! We say it at the Playmill in West Yellowstone in 2005 and just found out Nicky’s theatre teacher was in it! Then we saw it again at one of our local theatres a few years ago.

Freaky Friday

Not my favorite. But it’s okay.

Hamilton

I’ve now seen Hamilton four times on stage (in addition to numerous times on Disney+). I still love it, but I need a break.

In the Heights

Three times plus the movie several times (which is different from the stage).

Joseph and the Amazing Technicolor Dreamcoat

I need to see it again. 

Legally Blonde

Just saw this one for the first time, and I loved it! I had never even been interested in it, but it was so funny!

Les Miserables

Always a classic. Always a fan. Very picky about my Javerts.

The Little Mermaid

Saw this one at Tuachan. 

Little Shop of Horrors

Not the biggest fan. But I love the dentist song.

Mary Poppins

Another one I saw at Tuachan.

Moulin Rouge

Saw this last year at Eccles. It was a non-stop party. So much fun, but kind of risqué.

Newsies

Always love Newsies. The choreography is always a lot of fun.

Seussical 

Sigh… I just don’t like Seussical that much, sadly.

School of Rock

Such a riot! And always cool to see kids playing live music!

Six

Another straight up party. We saw this at Eccles this year, and then a new, local theatre group did the teen edition, and it was fantastic!

Wicked

I love the story, but the music has never grown on me. We saw it at Eccles, and Scotty slept through most of it. Our seats were horrible. Excited to see the movie later this year. I’ve tried reading the book multiple times, and I just haven’t had much interest.

That’s really not a long or impressive list, but there are a lot of musicals I know really well but just haven’t ever seen on stage OR I’ve seen them in a children’s or school theatre. I’m grateful for movies that have allowed me access to musicals I wouldn’t have had the chance to see otherwise. 

So four or five on the theatre scale seems just about right.