How has a musical changed your life in an unexpected way?

I saw a horrible production of Assassins my sophomore year of high school. I couldn't hear a word the actors were saying, but the music was catchy. I remembering going home that night and listening to the soundtrack on Spotify while doing my homework. I didn't expect it, but Assassins led me to a real interest in presidential assassinations which led to an interest in history in general, and now, four years later, I'm studying to be a history teacher all because of this one musical.

I'd love to hear about how random plays and musicals have shaped your life in ways you'd never expect!

Updated On: 10/29/19 at 02:00 PM

I also think that DEH had an impact on me, in that I have found myself in at least three separate, lengthy conversations with people who thought that Evan was a sociopath, presenting my view that he was a lonely kid -- not an ounce of sociopathy in his body -- who got sucked in deeper and deeper, etc. I think it made me more 'forgiving' than I had probably been for a long time.

Finally, every time I have seen Miss Saigon (6 - 7 times), I have felt the Qui Doi (sic) was an incredibly manipulative number. Yet I really think that was one of the turning points in my becoming the liberal I am today, as opposed to the conservative I was until then. I would be amiss not to mention that our first son arrived about six months after I saw Miss Saigon for the first time.

Lastly, and a little facetiously: I have always HATED Oklahoma, to the point where I would argue with anyone who ever mentioned it (mostly when revivals were playing or it was in Summer Stock near where I live). I have gotten laughs telling of the time i saw it in the 1970s at the Palace Theatre. I hated Act 1 so much that I spent most of Act 2 in the lobby, returning to see the reprise of People Will Say as well as the total song. Were I not with my wife and a friend, I would have left.

I can't do that anymore, as I absolutely loved the current production...it has essentially told me that I needed to be more open-minded about things that (and people whom) I have previously dismissed.

Updated On: 10/29/19 at 02:21 PM

Why?

jagman1062 said: "Not a musical, but a play: I was in high school in the early-mid 70s. I was certain that I would become an architect and was on track taking the academic courses necessary to get me into a good architectural school. My parents and I were planning visiting architectural schools during the summer of 1975 before I started my senior year. Late in junior year in May 1975, some of us who took theater and drama classes went on a field trip to see Equus on Broadway. I was fascinated by Anthony Hopkins' performance and the psychological/psychiatric focus of the play. I went home that night and told my dad that I wanted to become a psychiatrist instead. I didn't go to med school, but I did go into psychology eventually getting my PsyD. I didn't become a clinical psychologist because I laterbecame interested in industrial/organizational psychology, but if it wasn't for that field trip to see Equus, I might have been designing buildings today."

I read "Equus" when I was a preteen (my parents didn't censor my reading material, and I thought it was a heartwarming story about a kid and his horse when I asked to read it). It was definitely a driving force behind my decision to become a therapist. I've been in the field for about fifteen years now.

PRISCILLA, QUEEN OF THE DESERT has taught me be more unashamedly camp when I was to be and to stick the finger up at anyone who has an issue with it. It’s also taught me to put my trust into people who don’t come across as major allies because people can sometimes surprise you.

Truly changing my life was The Color Purple revival. Growing up brown and gay in a deeply homophobic and racist society, I found out I was beautiful at the exact same time Celie realized that about herself.

Other shows which have been monumental in cementing my love for theater, art of musical theater, and/or making me love my fellow human (ugh that sounded gross) -> Hello Dolly, Fun Home, and Wicked!

Well I never expected a high school production of Fiddler On The Roof to spark my interested in theater. But after seeing how close the cast was I was like, I want that!

I think maybe 10 years ago Hair was at the Delacorte Theater in Central Park. my grandparents forced me to wake up before the crack of dawn to go wait in line for tickets for the show. I definitely put up a fight, but in the end I fell in love with the show. I went back several times to see it, and then on Broadway (as a surprise for my high school graduation). Fast forward to 2014--I've graduated from college and am looking for jobs in theater. I'm on the Playbill job board and see that The Public Theater is hiring. Wouldn't you know it--the Public is what staged that production of Hair that I fell in love with years before. I had been working in customer service for about a year at that point, and had been dealing with all sorts of people (entitlement is the WORST). I worked at The Public for several years (Front of House), and it was such a full circle moment for me. Just amazing. I'm always thankful to my grandparents (R.I.P) for introducing me to that show which set these events in motion.



Also--I had never really seen myself as being on stage, more behind the scenes. But in high school and college I found myself on stage in several productions (Jan in Grease and Ouiser in Steel Magnolias being two favorite roles), working behind the scenes, and then my internship with a Broadway theater company made me realize that maybe a far off dream could one day be to portray Cady in Mean Girls. I would have never expected a production of Fiddler On The Roof or Hair to set these events and aspirations in motion.

Updated On: 10/30/19 at 08:09 AM