Thursday, February 5, 2009

He's a what? He's a What? He's a Music Man!

If you read that title in rythm then you will totally get me....
Last night for some reason (my own ditsyness) I happened to arrive at rehearsal for Music Man an hour early. While waitning for the rest of the Pickalittle ladies to arrive, I sat in where the men were rehearsing the opening scene...the famous train sequence "CASH for the merchandise, CASH for the hard goods..."
The men were short a few people so they asked me to read one of the parts. That was so much fun! According to Julia Cameron and her Artist's Way program I've been telling you about, getting in touch with your childhood dreams and play is very significant to artistic recovery. And I just love that scene. So I moved over to the rows of chairs serving as the train, and had some fun.
Flashback to 1977...I'm going over to my friend Stacy's house, clutching the large "Music Man" record album in my hands. Excitedly I explain to her the plot, just as my mother had probably told us. Remember this was back in the days when a show like that was on once a year if you were lucky, and probably during the holidays. We start up the well worn record with a quarter on the needle so it wont skip. Then the magic begins. We climbed up on her big girly canopy bed and start the train scene. Song after song we work our way through the album until it's time for dinner and home. Stacy was an only child. At home we were wall to wall kids, no fancy canopies, and I'd always get stuck with the boys part.
But at home we were experts at acting out soundtracks. Especially Music Man, Man of LaMancha, Saturday's Warrior, and Fiddler on the Roof. We'd dance and sing around the room. If Dad was home and he heard a note of Fiddler, he'd be stomping around singing "If I Were a Rich Man" for an hour.
That's where I'm coming from. But I tried not to squeel with delight and yell 'Pick me, pick me', instead I calmy smiled and said, "sure. Well, I'll give it a try".
Hehehe.

4 comments:

  1. The Music Man is one of my very favorite musicals!

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  2. I had no idea we had the same last name! I'm sure our husbands are related somehow. I had never even heard of it until I met him, and I get asked on a weekly basis if I know "so and so P."

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  3. I recently bought the new movie with Matthew Broderick in it, and I love it! Especially the cash for the merchandise scene!

    I loved our family performances, I would love to do it again someday!

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  4. That is so how I grew up too! We also had the music man record and we had a copy of the movie on VHS recorded off TV. My sisters and I would always dance to the record player or to tapes in our front room. I still know all the words to most of those old songs. Good times. . . . Yay for growing up on musicals!

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