My wife loves musical theater.
I do not.
One point I take against it is that the idea that people will randomly burst into simultaneous song is completely unrealistic and stops whatever story is building in its tracks rather than helping it along.
As of last Wednesday I forfeit that point.
I was subbing at my old high school on their last day of the school year. On my way out of the building most of the students were out on the front lawn of the school celebrating their new freedom. Easily several hundred students were assembled. On a bench was this one kid with a portable keyboard on his lap. He was playing something I didn’t recognize and no one was paying any attention to him. Any kid sitting on a bench in a crowd of hundreds of people playing a portable keyboard is DYING for attention, so the fact that no one noticed him but me bothered him, I guess. That’s when he took drastic measures. He stopped playing whatever stupid Jonas Brothers song he had going.(I’m just taking a guess based on how little I know about either this student or the Jonas Brothers) After a few moments of silence the kid cranks the keyboard to 11 and starts playing Journey’s “Don’t Stop Believing” And you know what you heard? Silence… and Journey.
All heads turned to the kid on the bench. He started singing, and he didn’t get past “small town girl” before he was joined. By the time said small town girl took “a midnight train going anywhere” half the crowd joined in. It was amazing. It really was like being in a musical- with Journey– and high school kids. Not just the awful theater kids were believing in perpetuity, it was across the board. There was at least one of every Breakfast Club stereotype rocking out to this song. I almost cried it was so damn beautiful.
I know that people tend to belt along with Journey when it comes on the jukebox at a bar, is played at a party, or is thrown as a last ditch effort by a skillless DJ at a wedding. But this was something else. This was magical, and no- I won’t stop believing.
June 25, 2009 at 4:16 pm
It’s only a matter of time before I catch you singing “When You’re a Jet” with your dad.
June 26, 2009 at 6:50 pm
That song is truly magical, so I completely understand. It’s still pretty funny that it happened… I definitely wish I were there, or you had a video.
July 1, 2009 at 3:18 pm
My family randomly bursts into simultaneous song!! We’re like the musical episode of a sitcom… Awesome post, you should’ve joined in!!