Beautiful Frivolity

Photo by Kyle Head

I like musical theater.

I may love musical theater.

It’s something I’ve felt embarrassed by, at times. Probably because of my own moments of judgment. In 10th grade, I watched an earnest young man sing Stars from Les Misérables during a school assembly. I wasn’t sure if it was a joke (it wasn’t) because it was so dramatic. “And if he falls as Lucifer fell, the flame, the faaaaaaallllll!”

I didn’t understand the context, the story, the medium. I only saw a teenager emoting in a big way in front of 1200 peers. I was a sixteen-year-old boy who had learned plenty of rules against public emoting.

And yet, at the end of the year, I joined the production company. Two pretty girls in my math class told me to try out, and, after surprisingly little resistance (the power of pretty girls!), I was squeaking my pubescent heart out in an audition. White Christmas, Once on this Island, Joseph and the Amazing Technicolor Dream Coat, Camelot; I loved being a part of it all. The camar…