Broadway Baby

The relative anonymity of blogging makes me feel like I can share a deep, dark secret with you (the collective you who read my blog when I actually get around to updating it - which I swear I will do more frequently in the future). Here it is: I wish I was a Broadway star.

So I guess this isn't earth-shattering news. Most of my friends know my obsession with the Great White Way. I have multiple playlists on my iPod devoted to Broadway shows and I even have a YouTube playlist of my favorite moments from the Tony Awards.

If only I had been blessed with a voice! I could ditch the high school teacher act and belt out the standards on one of the many stages that lies somewhere around 42nd and 7th.

But since I was not born to attract teenage girls, gay men, and tourists with my impressive vocal range and high-kicking flair, I will just have to settle for attending every musical I can. This includes the dreaded local high school musicals.

I was lucky enough to grow up in a community with amazing talent. I have high school classmates who have found success on television and in movies, and even on Broadway. I always looked forward to the school musical because I was guaranteed a great performance. Even my Junior Spectacular act looked like something that should have played in the Rialto.

However, I have learned that my little bubble (the Far Northside) is not a realistic representation of the high school talent that exists in other parts of the country.

I have now suffered through enough high school productions to know that true musical talent is a special gift. Acting is too. And apparently, the first rule of high school musical productions is that Fiddler on the Roof must be performed at least once every four years to ensure that every student is subjected to Tevye and his chauvinistic, but endearing ways during their high school experience.

In order to recover from the traumatic experience of yet another high school production of Fiddler, I think it is about time for me to make the short bus trip up to NYC for a Broadway extravaganza. Shows on the list of must-see before they close: Spring Awakening, Spamalot, In the Heights, All My Sons (which I'm teaching next semester!), and Speed the Plow.

And just to prove how big of a musical nerd I am, here is the list of all of the shows that I have seen on Broadway (or on national tour): Ragtime, Footloose, Little Shop of Horrors, Hairspray, The 25th Annual Putnam County Spelling Bee, RENT, Legally Blonde, Wicked, Movin' Out, and A Chorus Line.