Since I last posted my life has turned upside down. In the best way- my daughter arrived 8 weeks ago. Now that I'm starting to understand this new normal I can finally write again. One of my previous articles discussed the songs and musical soundtracks I made baby girl listen to in utero. This first article back highlights my Broadway baby's lullabies! 

My mother was strong, smart, independent and funny. She could also be infuriating. Widowed at a young age, she was solely responsible for bringing up my brother and me. I liked that she was strong, but sometimes she was a little too strong. It could make our relationship difficult at times, but there was one place we always got along - the theater.

My mother took me to my very first show. It was the out of town tryout for Annie at the Kennedy Center in Washington, DC. I was just a little girl, but I was dazzled. I begged my mother for the cast recording, and when she got it for me, I practically wore it out. I was hooked. At nine years old, I even organized the neighborhood kids, and we attempted to put together a production of the show. The production never really came together, but I didn’t care because I had fallen in love. Just the effort alone gave me joy, and I knew from that time on that the theater was my happy place.

Classical theatre, whether a musical or straight play, comedy or drama, is one of the most vital parts to today’s more contemporary theatre. Right now, many people gravitate more towards new things that are playing on and off Broadway because it’s new and exciting and something people probably haven’t seen yet, and I think that’s great. In fact, I think many of the productions on Broadway right now are completely brilliant and fun. Personally, I even have a list of the ones I want to see. I think it’s important to appreciate newer theatre and try to find something you can relate to within it because this is the direction theatre is now going in and there is nothing wrong with it.

However, it’s important not to let the new stuff overpower everything that came before it because without it, we wouldn’t have what we have now.

Recently I involved myself in an online controversy by making derogatory comments on the boards usually fastened to theatres.  Some board members responded in a fury.  One said that boards do the best they can with what they’re given.  Theatre, he reasoned, “(I)s a dying art form.”

Now regardless of whether board members work hard, a problem exists when someone attached to a theatre thinks that the art is dying.  And this indicates a widespread problems with U.S. theatres.

For a medium built on community, collaboration, and connection, I fear I am experiencing and witnessing a lot of scarcity minded behavior in the theatre. As I travel and direct around the country I am seeing more and more artists, myself included, being asked to work for less and less compensation. Worse so than that what often people report to me or I hear from potential employers is that as much as they would like to hire someone, they just don’t have the resources. “We accept volunteers!” 

As with most shows that close early on, months before the award season starts, they are typically forgotten by award voters. I certainly hope that isn’t the case for Head Over Heels.

While I don’t expect it to break into the Top 4 for a Best Musical nod, I do think it will get some love in the design categories. But most of all, I’m hoping Tony voters don’t forget about Bonnie Milligan’s incredible performance as Princess Pamela. Because it was one of the best performances I’ve seen in recent years.

The title of the song, ​Monster​, is the word that Elsa uses to describe herself over and over again. In the first chorus, she sings, “​Is the thing they see, the thing I have to be? A monster, were they right? Has the dark in me finally come to light? Am I a monster, full of rage? Nowhere to go but on a rampage. Or am I just a monster in a cage?​” It is a song that resonates with a lot of people. Everyone, at some point in their life, can relate to Elsa’s questions of “am I a burden to people?” or “How badly am I hurting this person?” Everyone has moments where they don’t know who they are. But is this song a good song for a musical whose main demographic is young children?  

I saw a sticker on Facebook today. “Feelings are healthy. You need to feel them all. Don’t suppress them. Sadness, anger, fear, happiness, love. Let them come, let them go.” I love this quote, and I even agree with it; however, we can all agree that there are simply times where we can’t just feel. We may find out something that makes us want to cry, or scream in anger, but we can’t just leave the office. I work at a law firm. My bosses wouldn’t really appreciate me blasting the clients with emotions that translate to “I will cut you!” or if they walk in and I’ve obviously been crying, or even if I’m enjoying some moment and laughing. 

Propriety is king when you’re a paralegal. 

For many people, the beginning of a new year also marks the time of year in which people try to come up with resolutions, in the hopes that these specific goals in their lives will have been achieved by this time next year. Those of us who are highly active in theatre most likely have already come up with such resolutions related to theatre. However, there might be a few additional ideas for resolutions that some of us might not have thought about and should be willing to consider to make their year in theatre even better than last year. 

So without further ado, here are just a few New Year’s resolutions – in no particular order – for all of us in the theatre community to consider…

So frequently in my rehearsal rooms, or in my classrooms, I hear theatre artists decry politics.  There seems to be an idea that one must learn their craft in a hermetically sealed bubble, lest the influences of the banal and mundane workings of the outside world impose themselves upon the art.  In the theatre, though, nothing could be farther from the truth. 

The fact is that ALL theatre is political.  The Public Theatre’s Oskar Eustis has said that it can be no coincidence that theatre and democracy were invented in at the same time.  He says “I think that theater is the democratic art—it's no mistake that they were invented in the same city in the same decade. It's the proper place to exercise democratic virtue, for the contesting of different points of view, identifying with other people, what citizens need”.

I think 2018 will go down as a “mixed bag” type of year for Broadway. We saw some extreme lows and not very many highs. We saw panic in the streets of the old guard who were worried that 42nd St was becoming to commercial. At the same time, we saw shows that attracted new audiences to their theatres and others that told stories that deserved much needed attention.

So rather than try to rank what I feel were the “best” shows of 2018, I want to tell you what were my favorites. These were shows that might not have been critic/award darlings, yet made me laugh, cry, ponder and inspired. These are in no particular order and I’m breaking into plays and musicals. Furthermore, these are shows that opened in 2018.