my written [tos]timonial

As I thought about all the musicals I've seen and enjoyed (and even those I didn't care for) I began thinking about why. What is it about musical theater that I relate to and appreciate more than any other genre or art form? The word that keeps coming back to me over the course of the last several years (and in this blog) is inspiration. Musicals are the reason that I once aspired to be an actress, its truly what motivates and inspires me on some level everyday, it keeps me sane in a sometimes insane world, it says things more beautifully and eloquently than I can ever with more emotion than I can ever convey and...I love it more than any other genre in the world.

I have certainly been inspired by [title of show]. Initially, one might not think of it as being a show that screams inspiration. It is mostly funny and appropriately campy about everything from friendship to life and dreams coming true. [title of show] reminds me to think about and acknolwedge my own dreams...and somehow, in its 90 minutes of laughter and tears, finds a way to take me back to the root of who I was as a little girl: "hearing Andrea McArdle sing/From the hi-fi in the den/I've been waiting my whole life/To find a way back to then"...and I think it takes a pretty darned talented writer and cast to do that. Really, what show can make you feel the way you did when you were five? What show can make you laugh and cry and inspire you all at the same time? Very few. I know, it sounds dramatic and corny, but really anyone who has ever dreamed can understand (and particularly so if you thought the starry lights of the Great White Way were ever in your future).

So tonight, after only 13 previews and 102 performances, [title of show] will dims its lights at the Lyceum Theatre for the last time during its current run. I will think of Susan Blackwell, Heidi Blickenstaff, Jeff Bowen and Hunter Bell and the quirky, smart, funny, catchy, heart-warming show they so lovingly brought to me and the lucky others who have been affected by [title of show].

"This is the last line of the show" might be particularly poignant as the final line of [title of show] tonight, but all is not lost or gone for good...stay tuned...I still see a future for this show and this cast...and if nothing else:

Season 2 of the [title of show] show...coming soon!