Musicals: Out of Nowhere, He Just Starts... Singing?

With Legally Blonde being performed this very weekend by our very own, very talented Penn State Thespians, I thought there would be nothing more appropriate than to cover musicals in this weeks blog post!

I had never been a big musical fan at all, until I became part of the action myself. Being in the top orchestra group for three years of high school, each year I had the opportunity to be in the pit orchestra for our school's musical productions. We played Oklahoma!, Thoroughly Modern Millie, and Into the Woods. To be honest, the first musical I played in was a requirement, and I was absolutely not looking forward to it. The work was rigorous, we had just about 4-5 hours of after school rehearsals every weekday and nearly a full 12 hour rehearsal every Saturday. As a sophomore in high school, I considered this much work to be sacrilegious. Yet, I loved it so much, I've been a huge fan of musicals ever since.

While musicals are definitely an experience, with music, visuals, acting, story, and many other things, the music alone can certainly be enjoyed. I have seen quite a few musicals on Broadway, all great, yet oddly I will share a song from one that I have not even seen. I had come really close to seeing Something Rotten with one of my best friends, and even had a ticket to my name, but the timing just did not work out.

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Something Rotten is just about the newest musical to appear on Broadway, premiering just this summer. If you had been in NYC at all this summer, you would have seen its advertisement on just about every taxi cab, billboard, and bus stop. The song I chose is literally titled "A Musical", which pokes fun at all of the stereotypical elements present in a popular musical. Unfortunately, as it is so new, I could not find the full song isolated into one YouTube video, so below you can here a sample of it from 3:49 to 5:00. The full song is available on every major music streaming service if you wish to pursue the whole 7 minute number. All of the lyrics are also available.

Even in just the minute available in the video, quite a few great characteristics of musicals are portrayed in hilarious ways. "With song and dance/And sweet romance/And happy endings happening by happenstance" captures the style of the musical putting emphasis on singing and dancing numbers, themes of romance, and happy endings. Musicals for the most part are meant to entertain, not be emotionally taxing. This, of course, has a few exceptions like Into The Woods where just about every single cast member dies by the end, but holds true in many musicals. As they later sing, musicals are all about having fun with friends, without having to think too much. And there are so many musicals that are so much fun.

Musicals can become highly addicting once you get into them. I would encourage everyone to try to see Legally Blonde as I hear that our thespians are incredible from many upper-classmen. Even if you can't make it out to a musical anytime soon, they are certainly a lot of fun just to listen to.