Although I enjoyed the experience, I never really got into musical theater until mid-eighth grade. I was looking for songs on Youtube and I remembered Seasons of Love from Rent. I loved this song. I looked at the related videos and saw some names I thought were familiar. I eventually made it through every song in the movie adaptation. After a month or so, I finally got to rent Rent (haha) from Blockbuster. I fell in love. The movie was great, but I thought that was the farthest this love would go. But I was wrong.
I soon discovered the theater version. I bought the DVD, and watched, and awed. It was so brilliant, fantastic, and emotional. The cast was pure perfection, and I realized that I liked this version better than the movie. There were more scenes, more songs, and although more simplistic, a better scenery. (I still don't know why I think that. The set pieces are just a table and chairs.)
Idina Menzel originated the role of Maureen in Rent, as well as reprising the role for the movie version. Danielle had mentioned a few times about Wicked. I never really paid much attention until one magical day. I was on pandora.com on my self-created Rent Radio. No One Mourns the Wicked came up from Wicked. I recognized Idina and decided to ask Danielle a little more about it. I soon downloaded the entire soundtrack and read the book (Wicked is based off of a 300-500 page book. No lie. I read it and loved it.) I later found bootlegs of Wicked. The first full show I saw was with Stephanie J Block and Annaleigh Ashford on Google Video. It was so fantastic. I shared the link with Danielle, and to this day, Wicked is one of our most talked about topics. It's something we both get and enjoy and love.
One day at a get together, I gave Danielle a huge bag of stuff I wanted her to read and watch. A couple days after her birthday, we met up at Woodland for the wandering party. I gave her her birthday present, Rent: Filmed Live on Broadway. She really enjoyed it, and we still make references to it on Twitter occasionally. We actually might have been able to see it, but that didn't work out too well. She gave me back my bag of stuff to borrow. In the car I was looking through it to make sure everything was there, and I found a Playbill from Wicked at the Gershwin theater. I gasped loudly, and read it front to back. The cast was Marcie Dodd and Alli Mauzey on Broadway. I called her immediately after to talk about it. She said she went with her dad, and she had an extra Playbill, so she gave it to me. I was, and still am, so thankful. It's on my shrine of favorite things ever.
Ever since then, my love of theater has grown and grown, and probably won't stop. (Select favorites include 9 to 5, Next to Normal, Spring Awakening, and of course Rent and Wicked.) I'm now interested in pursuing acting and singing. I might be going to see Wicked in October on Broadway (fingers crossed, people. Fingers crossed.) I suppose credit for the start of all this goes to Mrs. Coneglio from Community School for teaching Seasons of Love to the chorus... Wow. I never really thought about it that much. Also: My mom, Angela (for the day before my discovery of Rent for reminded me of Seasons of Love at Josh's get together while bouncing the yoga ball) and Danielle for showing me Wicked and the Playbill.
So, yea, this post is one of those "I didn't need to know this" kind of posts. Sorry, but hey, it's my blog.
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