How I Discovered: Musicals (part three)

Seeing the Les Mis film was a turning point in how I watched musicals. The following shows have largely defined my life since 2015.

Miss Saigon
Enloe's production of this show in spring 2015 was a grab bag. On one hand, they had some fantastic actors and musicians, and the story itself is fairly engaging. On the other, their technical theatre department seemed to be having an off day. This, combined with an evident lack of acting experience among some of the leads, somewhat dampened my experience of the show. I will always love "Why God Why?" and "Kim's Nightmare" even still.

Aladdin
Seeing a show with your family or friends is one thing. Seeing a live show with close friends who love theatre just like you do is something else entirely. I saw Aladdin on the spring dance and drama trip last year and was impressed by a lot of the choices they made. The actor playing Genie was a genuine star, and I remember being amazed during "Never Had a Friend Like Me," which had been made into a spectacular show-stopping number. As an aside, I sat next to Millbrook's own theatre director throughout the show. He was harder to please than I was but definitely seemed to enjoy himself.

Les Misérables
I've already detailed my experience at this show but would be silly not to at least include it on this list.



Once
Once was a show recommended to me by one of my good friends in chorus. I was about to just buy a ticket and go myself, but when I mentioned it to my aunt, she said that she'd wanted to see it herself for months. As had been the case with Les Mis, I enjoyed seeing it with her thoroughly.
I've never seen a musical like Once. The entire "pit orchestra" is onstage, so any music you hear throughout the story is played by the actors themselves. The music is a mix of acoustic singer-songwriter and Irish folk performed by a colorful cast of characters who are both heartbreakingly real and completely ridiculous. I ended up liking the music so much that I bought a mandolin of my own a few weeks later.

I've mentioned some moments that I'll never forget throughout these last few posts, so I'll say that I will never forget the dimming of the lights and the raw emotion throughout the show's first real number, "Leave."

High School Musical
What a mess. I saw Heritage's production of High School Musical with two of my friends from my own school's theatre department this spring. I must say, I was thoroughly entertained. The show felt like a complete farce, which may have been what they were going for. In any case, I would not have necessarily been proud to have been in it.

Annie Get Your Gun
I never technically saw Annie Get Your Gun. I was in it, which I suppose counts.