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Evan Smith

Professor Scaife

Writing Composition 1

26 September 2022

Coming Around To Musicals

When I was younger my mom would play keyboard for musicals as a side gig,

and since I was too young to stay home by myself I would have to come with her. I

ended up growing a hatred for musicals and distanced myself from them whenever I

could after I was old enough to stay home alone.

While I've had an interest in music for a while now I never would listen to

musicals mostly because I assumed I would hate them. Fast forward to 2020 and after

the pandemic shut everything down a musical called Hamilton was released on Disney

+. By this point it had been a long time since the days of having to go to music

rehearsals, so I decided to give Hamilton a shot, and immediately after that I had a new

obsession. After it came out I watched Hamilton 4 or 5 Times. Hamilton is about the

story of the founding fathers winning the revolutionary war, and more specifically about

it from Alexander Hamilton’s perspective. It also talks about the legacy he should have

left behind, but he is mostly just remembered for the duel he had with Aaron Burr that

ended his life. Most of Hamilton’s 46 songs were stuck in my head soon afterward, and

this was my first real experience with musicals. Later when I got a car since I couldn't

connect my phone to it I bought Hamiton on iTunes and burned it onto a CD.

After Hamilton started to get old that's when I discovered a new musical called

Assassins. I have a strange fascination with presidents, and this musical was perfect for

me as it was about the assassinations, and attempted assassinations of various

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presidents. The story all culminates with the assassins convincing Lee Harvy Oswald to

kill John F Kennedy. Of course after a while I got burned out on the same few songs

and I listened to other things. One thing that COVID had shut down was performances

of musicals, and once COVID had subsided a little bit I decided to go to one. I went to

see a musical called Pippin completely blind, and I loved it. Pippin is about a king’s son

trying to find a purpose in life, and after he sees how cruel he treats his citizens he kills

his father and attempts to run the country, and after he fails he runs away from home

and starts a new life with a villager and her son. After he realizes that this life doesn't

make him happy either he may or may not kill himself, the ending is confusing. It ended

up in my car and the cycle repeated itself of learning every song from it, getting tired of

it and never listening to it again. By this point I was about to go into 12th grade, and a

few weeks before school started I joined the Choir program at my school since I finally

had room in my schedule for it.

Joining Choir is quite possibly the best decision I have ever made. I met so many

great people, and got closer to some people that I already knew. Joining choir gave me

the ability to see music from a different perspective. Choir became important enough in

my life that it became my major.

This year I have been exposed to even more musicals that I love. Earlier this

year the Trombone player for a musical called Memphis got COVID and I ended up

being the replacement for him at the last minute. Memphis takes place in the 1950’s and

is about a romance between a white man and a black woman, even though no one

approves of it, and it goes through an elaborate story on their romance, and their

inevitable breakup. It also follows a radio career of Huey that ends up becoming the
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catalyst for Rock & Roll becoming mainstream. This musical gave me some really fond

memories of the experience of getting to play in a pit for a musical. This experience

really surprised me as after going to so many musical rehearsals in the past I never

thought that I would be able to go to one and enjoy it.

This year I got a speaker and started listening to stuff played from my phone in

my car. I have basically been exclusively listening to musicals in my car. And instead of

just listening to one over and over and over again I have started listening to many

different ones, most recently I have been listening to one called Avenue Q. Avenue Q is

about a group of puppets living on a street together like Sesame Street, however unlike

Sesame Street where they talk about morals you should learn, they sing about how

much their lives suck. In the end the two main characters end up together, while other

people on the street are left to their crappy lives.

Recently the choir put on an event called a broadway showcase, and I decided to

try out on a song called The Ballad Of Guiteau from the musical Assassins by Steven

Sondheim. The song tells the story of a man named Charles J Guituea after he killed

the then president James Garfield after stalking him for several months, and it goes

through the Trial and Hanging of Guiteau. I made it and the showcase was a lot of fun,

mostly because I got to play a crazy person on stage. Being in vocal lessons has

recently given me the benefit of finding new songs from musicals, so I can sing them in

my lessons.

In the past few years my view on musicals has completely changed for the better.

I used to go out of my way to not listen to them at all, and now it’s pretty much all I ever

listen to, and the effect it’s had on me has been very positive. Joining Choir was a huge
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deal for me and I owe it all to musicals as they were the catalyst to me joining it. Now

Choir is as important to me, if not more important than Band.