066: Confession #2 & Currently Loving, Part 5

Yours truly (ME): Father, bless me for I have sinned.
Priest (PR): Tell me, my son, what have you done?
ME: I have lusted, Father.
PR: Ah… (Chortles) I see.
ME: No, Father, you don’t see.
PR: My son, it’s normal for a boy to look at a girl…
ME: (Interrupts) No, it’s not a girl.
PR: Surely, it can’t be a…
ME: No, it’s not a boy, either.
PR: …
ME: Sir, it’s…
PR: Yes?
ME: It’s… it’s the Great White Way.

Cue music: On Broadway

They say the neon lights are bright on Broadway
They say there’s always magic in the air

Okay, you all can stop wincing. If you can agree that there are certain traits that can clue you in to a man’s faggotry, an OGT (Obviously Gay Trait), if you will—and thank you to the Broken Hearts Club—then mine would be a love for musicals. In fact, I take pride in knowing that I’ve managed to turn so many people off from musical theatre, especially when my friend/girl and I spent many nights spontaneously combusting out tunes from Miss Saigon, Phantom, and Les Miz. No, no, it’s not that I have a horrible singing voice; it’s just that, unlike in classical musicals where a male lead didn’t necessarily need to sing absurdly high notes, where a baritone can be the love interest to the heroine, these aforementioned titles and many recent ones love for their actors to go beyond the realm of human possibility. And I just can’t belt and sustain notes higher than a high F. Okay, on a good day, I can reach a high G. But that’s neither here nor there.

What was I saying?

Oh, yes, I love musicals. Even though I can’t sing most of the songs (without changing octaves a few times) that are coming out from Broadway, I love musicals.


Currently, I’m loving Wicked. True, it’s so two years ago, but I don’t care. I haven’t even seen it, yet I’m borderline obsessed with it. I can go on and on listening to “What Is This Feeling” and “Popular” and loath all those popular people who didn’t befriend me in high school; “Defying Gravity” and together with Elphaba sing, “Something has changed inside of me, something is not the same… Too long I’ve been afraid of losing love I guess I’ve lost. Well, if that’s love, it comes at much too high a cost!” I vow as well to defy gravity; and “For Good” and weep, not out of sadness, but for the beauty of friendship, believing that “I’m who I am today because I knew you.”

***


Now, as you know, a while ago, I mentioned that Rent was coming out in the big screen with most of the original Broadway cast intact. I had listened to the cast recording over and over again before I actually got to see it. The one part I love and had looked forward to seeing was “Over the Moon,” because each time I had listened to it the singer on the recording always made me “moo” and I wanted to experience that live. Unfortunately all the original cast members were gone by the time I visited the Nederlander Theatre, but the second strings did an amazing job. The girl who played Maureen did make me “moo.”

Across the Atlantic, when I found myself trekking across Europe and landed on London, having heard that some of the original Broadway cast members were performing in the West End production, I ditched my friends to catch the show, hoping against hope to see my Maureen. But alas, it wasn’t to be. I was angry at the girl who played Maureen, because she SUCKED! When she enjoined us to "moo" along, I blurted out a big "Noooooo!" The only redeeming quality of the London production was that it had Adam Pascal, Anthony Rapp, Jesse L. Martin, and Wilson Jermaine Heredia, the original Roger, Mark, Collins, and Angel.

So far, I have been babbling about Rent, even though I started out talking about Wicked. Well, it’ll make sense, hopefully… Or by now, you should see what I’m attempting to do. Anyway, continuing on…


A few months later, back in NY, I heard that Anthony Rapp had returned to the Great White Way, in a revival production of You’re A Good Man, Charlie Brown. In that production, only two names were familiar to me, Anthony and B.D. Wong. Let me tell you, these two were absolutely awesome as Charlie Brown and Linus. But, there was this tiny gal, who practically stole the show, with her powerful voice and her impeccable comic timing, and her name, Kristin Chenoweth, who later won a Tony for her role as Sally Brown. Then from 2000 to 2004, I had entered a Broadway blackhole. But on the small screen, last year, I saw on my favoritest show, the West Wing, a blond gal, who I swear looked familiar, but I couldn’t figure out where I had seen her. Until just recently. Yes, it was the Sally Brown; I had seen Kristin at You’re A Good Man, Charlie Brown and rediscovered her in the Wicked soundtrack. She played Glinda, the Good Witch of the North.

Indeed, Wicked had reintroduced me to my two favorite Broadway divas. Kristin Chenoweth and Idina Menzel, who made me “moo” and who became my hero as Elphaba, the Wicked Witch of the West. Maybe one day, I’ll actually get to see Idina perform. But again, I can’t wait to see her on the large screen.

Finally, in the Wicked soundtrack, the love interest for both these witches is a character named Fiyero. He is played by Norbert Leo Butz, who won this year’s Tony for his role as Freddy in Dirty Rotten Scoundrel; and I’m proud to say, whom I saw perform in Rent as Roger. In one scene, he banged his hand hard into a table, leaving him with a bloody gash. But like a consummate actor, he carried on as if nothing happened and continued to entertain us. He was awesome. He made me want to act… But that’s a whole different story.

There you have it, my version of six degrees of separation.