Broadway Cleanse?

[GoSmileLaughCryClap]

Posted: 7/26/14 at 9:50pm

I’ve been a long term but intermittent reader and commenter here. I’ve just had an experience that runs counter to the all minute to minute theatrical minutia following that clearly intrigues most of us. A recent turn of events resulted in my complete withdrawal from not only this forum, but from all theatergoing, XM Rudetsky/Pedi listening and newspaper/tabloid theater column judgment.

I left the east coast and spent two weeks at a family reunion in Park City Utah. I had no intent to leave without the theater comforts we all hold dear, but a late meeting left me crazily packing. The result? No IPod. No CD pack.

This shouldn’t have been enough to shut down my Broadway fire as I landed in Salt Lake City. I picked up the SUV at the airport. While I had the option to listen to Seth and Christine on XM, for some reason I instead put on Octane, KIIS and Z100.

By the time I got to Park City I was already losing my interest in what Diane Paulus was doing in Boston. When I got to the hotel and opened my laptop, I avoided all theater related online sites.

Though this is almost as much exposition as the first act of Sweeney Todd, here is my question.

Have you ever taken a hiatus either short or long from the theater news cycle? And have you abandoned the playlists that shape and repeat your days for other kinds of music?

I found this past couple of weeks to be strangely liberating. I ended up unintentionally abandoning my deepest passion. Without hourly updates of cast replacement rumors and closing notices, I suddenly was a genuine civilian.

The family reunion was wonderful, and though there were avid theater people among the attendees, we talked about our families and careers. Theater didn’t come up.

All that being said, I am now home, and once again haunting every theater related website and publication.

But it was interesting to spend a couple of weeks in a world where “Fran Stamps” had no meaning.

Have you ever taken a Broadway Cleanse? The menthol infused cotton face wipes alone are worth the process.

Just don’t do one between Labor Day and Tony Sunday. That would be intolerable.

[rjm516]

Posted: 7/26/14 at 10:21pm

doesn't say how much lemon juice to drink