BWW Blog: Dive Into The Fantastical

I have been able to say that showtunes have been an influence in my life for the last five years. So, I have been able to listen to a plethora of different musicals. With this pandemic, I have missed seeing shows, so I found comfort in the music of these shows. However, for me, there are only certain musicals that really allow me to get truly lost in the music. A set of lyrics that allow me to fall into my own world, allow myself to live in that theatrical world, lose the reality of this world and get lost in another. Some of these might just be entire musicals, some of them might just be specific songs.

#1: "Down The Hole" and "Sick to Death of Alice-ness" from Alice By Heart

Alice By Heart is a musical that means a lot to me. I adore this musical in so many ways. To say that in 2020, my Spotify Wrapped showed that 8/10 of my top 10 songs for 2020 were from Alice By Heart, and my top 5 was entirely from this musical. "Down The Hole" warps me into the world and brings me to the characters that are there. This song introduces me to each character as they come to life and I feel the world almost coming to life around me as the characters sing, and as more characters enter, there are more harmonies to listen to. "Sick to Death of Alice-ness" brings me in because I feel like I can sense the anger going on. Each character that sings this song is mad at the main character, Alice, for a different reason. I think it is shown well of the anger and mockery going on that I can not help but find myself in the world, with the same feeling as these characters have towards her.

#2: "Who's Crazy/ My Psychopharmacologist and I" from Next To Normal

This song comes earlier on in Next To Normal. This song genuinely allows the listener to feel the almost stoic reaction to the doctor, the confusion from the wife, and the nervousness, second-guessing dilemma from the husband. I think this was so fantastically done. I feel like I was sitting in the room as a fly on the wall watching all this happen. I was watching the wife receive her medication at her check-up and I was witnessing the husband in the car second-guess everything about his life and his marriage. The song shows each person's emotion towards the subject so well that you cannot help but feel like you are there witnessing it.

#3: Fun Home

Fun Home in its entirety makes me feel like I am right there watching Allison grow up. I feel like I watch everything that happens as it happens. The songs flow so seamlessly together that I cannot tell when I am listening to one song or the next. This tactic allows me to fall into the world and see what Allison goes through with her father and her mother. It shows me Allison's perspective both from her reflecting back on her life, and young Allison as she grows up and experiences different aspects of life that change her and allow her to find out who she is. Some songs are five minutes long and some songs are less than a minute, but the entire musical flows together so there is no way to even tell sometimes when the song changes. This allows you to just get lost, and get sucked into the world.

#4: "The Room Where It Happens" from Hamilton

There is something about this song in Hamilton that makes me feel like I am right there, dancing on stage, and watching as the entire situation goes down. I am following Aaron Burr in his footsteps as he finds out each different thing. I am watching his frustration as he gets left out of the decision and I am watching his face as Alexander Hamilton tells him "You get nothing if you...wait for it, wait for it." I think this song does a fantastic job of pumping up the listener and letting the listener feel like they are listening in on some drama that has just happened.

#5: What's This I Find from Miss Saigon

When I first found this specific song from Miss Saigon, it was through Instagram. I was immediately captivated. This song does a great job of making your heart race, make you feel for Kim and what she is going through in this confrontation. You feel like you're standing there, protecting your own love, being confronted. You are afraid for what Thuy will do next. Especially on the line "go on and shoot I will not change my mind," I get chills and I feel as if I am either singing or screaming this line at someone to protect someone else. I feel like I am stuck in the same conflict, or I feel like I am a bystander watching the entire situation happen in front of me, afraid for what might happen.