All the World's a Stage
All the World's a Stage There's something about the theater that's been a big part of my life since I was in high school, and I can't quite put my finger on what it is that draws me in. I remember listening to my first cast recordings when we lived in Spain, so when I was about 12 or so, because my brother had gotten interested in theater. I don't remember what the first show I heard was, but I know Phantom of the Opera and Les Mis were among the first - being a girl child of the '80s and '90s meant Phantom and Les Mis were required obsessions. I know the first shows I ever saw were put on by the base's community theater, followed by the school theater, and that my brother had gotten involved in the tech side of things. Naturally, if it was something my big brother was doing, then I needed to do it, too, and so I started out on stage and doing stage makeup. I ended up studying theater in college, even knowing that I would never make a living at it, because as much as I enjoyed it, I wasn't particularly good at it. This is all coming up because I've been incredibly fortunate to have extremely generous in-laws with season tickets to the touring theater productions that come to Seattle. Last month they had extra tickets to Les Mis and asked if my husband and I would be interested in going. My husband is also a fan of musicals, particularly the more established, traditional musicals like Rodgers and Hammerstein's works and Andrew Lloyd Webber, so we were happy to take them up on their offer. It's been a little bit since I've seen live theater, and it's been even longer since I've seen one of the two core musicals of my teenage years. That went well, so when they had extra tickets to Phantom this month, they invited us and we happily went with them. I'm happy to say that both Les Mis and Phantom have held up remarkably well over the years. I find myself watching the side characters more than the leads these days, and watching the ways in which an actor can take a part with few lines and turn it into a whole, three-dimensional person on stage. It's not easy (she says from her days in the background) - frequently, Spear Carrier #3 is meant to be human furniture and that's it. But when someone is given the room to make a character their own, that's when you can see magic on a stage. Les Mis had some fantastic actors in some of the "smaller" roles that really helped the show be more than just a series of solos with a bit of plot in between. As for Phantom? One of the things I've come to realize as I've gotten older is that the Phantom himself is a little over the top. The man is a bit extra, you could say. This production leaned into this beautifully. The fact that the Phantom had an entire writing robe and hat that he wore when he was working on Don Juan Triumphant? Beautiful. He played the character like the undersocialized, immature man-child that he can be, and it makes him that much more sympathetic. The best stories make you feel something for all of the characters and keep them from being two-dimensional caricatures, which this production did wonderfully. If I could go back and tell 16-year-old me that I would be able to see these shows I obsessed over, live in a theater, multiple times and with a partner who loved them, too, I don't think she'd believe me. I'm very happy that I can surprise young me like this - it's nice to have some good news for her now and then. Go see live theater if you can! It's an experience well worth having at least once. via Blogger https://ift.tt/kdc7E9b 2026-05-25T11:14:19-07:00
















