A blahggy friend of mine ‘fessed up that she was not crazy about musical theatre. I am not crazy about it either. But in my case it’s a bit complicated.

Lemme see, how do I count the ways… 1) I do not like to *sit* in a theatre through *anything*. 2) Musical comedies are weird! People are talking and all of a sudden they are singing and dancing. 3) I *usually* do not like the music although sometimes rock operas are okay. I have only seen two live performances of those (Jesus Christ Superstar and Forbidden Planet).

Planet Ann Arbor BIG high schools (we have three of them) do at least one musical a year. I attended *one* a long time ago because our own Goose was the stage manager. My experience with that show is legendary. At half-time, the teenage girl next to me asked her friend, “Do you have any deodorant?”. The friend did and the next thing I heard was, “Lalala, I’m putting deodorant on in a crowded theater.” At the end of the show, the GG (who had not heard this convo) piped up with “Smells like a locker room in here.”

I get why high school theatre groups do musicals but I won’t go there tonight except to document my own kinda weird but wonderful experience when my own high school produced a musical back in the Jurassic Age. It was Hello Dolly. Did I audition for a role? NO WAY!!! But I did play in the pit orchestra. And boy oh boy, did I play. I was a flute/piccolo player. I played first flute and piccolo AND… I also played first violin. I did not play an actual violin. I played the violin part on my flute, switching back to my regular flute/picc part when I needed to, like if there was a solo or something. Once a multi-tasker, always a multi-tasker.

We did not have an orchestra when I was in high school. We had a new freshman student who played the violin and thought she was the greatest thing since sliced bread and even plucked all of her eyelashes out to prove that point… Our band director dissented and enlisted meeee to play the violin part (on my flute) in addition to flute/picc parts. I think he assuaged her ego by putting her on the bass fiddle, which couldn’t really be heard under the cacophony of our amateur pit band.

I played in pit orchestras a number of times years ago. In college and a few times here on The Planet Ann Arbor with the Cosmic Opera Guild and a few other groups. Musicals and operas have always been more fun to me when I am involved. Playing in pit orchestras is FUN. There is usually NO SPACE and if you play the flute (like I do), that means you have to compromise your posture so as not to hit someone else in the face with your instrument.

But I am not all that crazy about most musicals.

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