Happy #MusicalTheaterMonday! This week I sang Mother’s act 2 solo from Ragtime. I saw Ragtime for the first time a couple of weeks ago and I think everyone needs to see it. I have NOT been able to forget about it since I saw it. It is one of my best friends’ favorite musical and so we used the opportunity as an excuse for her to come and visit. We saw the show together on opening night, and this was a piedmont opera production so there were three chances to see it and I had to go back closing night and see it one more time. The story itself is compelling and devastating and mind opening, but I think for me also knowing a lot of the people on stage just made it even more impactful.
For me, the biggest thing I walked away with is a more tangible understanding that we are all the same, and our differences come from our surrounding environment and experiences. It was incredible. Everytime I get the chance to go and see a show (versus being in one) I am reminded of the power we as artists have. We have the power to open minds and hearts and change people. I fully believe that-probably because I have been changed by art.

I have recently started what I hope will be a series on Instagram: #musicaltheatermonday and because instagram is not the place to write out a lovely deep dive into my personal connection with a song; I brought my keyboard over here-this blog was literally made for that. (Thank you Eric, for pointing that out)

I started Musical Theater Mondays off with “Only Love” From Frank Wildhorn and Nan Knighton’s The Scarlet Pimpernel I found this show a couple of years ago a when I was looking for a musical theater song written after 1968 that my classical singing throat could do justice. I ended up going through a list on Wikipedia by year of when shows were written and I remembered loving Jekyll and Hyde, as well as Bonnie and Clyde which were both written by Frank Wildhorn…So I saw The scarlet pimpernel which was written in 1997 by Frank Wildhorn and listened to some of the songs and I knew as soon as I heard “When I Look at You” I had found my piece. I considered “Only Love” too but it didn’t fit quite as well for the competition I was applying to. As I was preparing for the competition I was doing my research and it didn’t take long for my inner dork to get distracted and jump down the rabbit hole-I could not get enough of this musical, of this story in general! That is a topic for a different post, but I now consider The Scarlet Pimpernel as part of my top 3 favorite stories, right up there with Tristan and Isolde, and John Newton.

I would love to play this role one day. I think the story has SO much to make us think about and to teach us and so until then I will just sing you all bits and pieces of this wonderful score and these beautiful words.

​The buttons below will take you to videos of me singing these 2 songs! :)