I declared that I would buy season tickets for my mom and me to the musical theatre whenever I got my first full-time, normal-ish job. So, when I had my first contracted teaching job, I got season tickets. For two years, we stayed with it, and it was great. But then I moved here (Japan), and so we stopped the tickets for this current season.
However, I want to speak to two of the shows from those two seasons. The two shows to which I looked the most forward were The Little Mermaid and Evita. I quite likely know (or at least knew at some point) all the words to all of the songs in both of these two musicals, I love them so much. Until these past two years, though, I had never seen either performance (just the movies).
When we finally made it to the performance of each show, rather than being overwhelmed with delight, I was actually rather let-down. Why? Because my favorite songs were cut. Yup. Really.
In The Little Mermaid, the US theatre folk decided to make a different song for Ursula, even declaring it better for children. Except that this new song was significantly less exciting musically, and it had a terrible message being sent loud and clear, so to speak – I was hated, because I was ugly, so I killed my sisters in order to win my father’s favor. The whole reason I had ever wanted to see the stage production of The Little Mermaid was for Ursula’s song (“I Want the Good Times Back“). And it had suddenly disappeared. My excitement for the show went with it – it just became some average show at that point. Not that I don’t find the performers to be totally talented – because I do find them talented – I was just not so thrilled about the show itself at that point.
The story of Evita was similar, but not so distressing. Rather than replacing one of my favorite songs, the song just disappeared. (“The Lady’s Got Potential“) Also, I think one of my preferred verses of another song was missing, but I’m not sure. I just remember the rock song with the fabulous words, “Ka-pow, die!” was missing. 😛 Naturally, I was disappointed in the missing chunk of the show. Performers were still talented; the show itself was just lacking.
I’m not sure why I decided to share this in particular, instead of the silly afternoon and evening I spent at the gym, doing yoga classes and boxing classes, and what might have been a tai-chi class; chatting with all the ladies afterward; running into one of the ladies afterward at the supermarket; her asking if I’d bought my vegetables; my explaining how I hadn’t bought any vegetables, because I couldn’t until tomorrow, since the ATMs were already closed and I had no cash (jolly dreadful bit of living in Japan, really), so I had just bought a snack with the 100-yen coin I’d found in my bag; ending up having a fabulous Nepalese dinner with her (at her total insistence); rushing out as smoking was allowed just after 8pm in the restaurant; and then, again at her total insistence, being driven home the short distance from the restaurant by the wonderful lady. And I even remember her name still. Anyway, I guess the outline is all you get. Have a great one, world!
Post-a-day 2017
hannah ananas 