Today marks my return to the world of musical theater. I spent my first afternoon of many working with the students of Charlottesville High School on
H2$, which goes up in less than three weeks. It's crazy; the last show I played was
The Light in the Piazza, which was almost four years ago. I still remember it like it was yesterday, but I was a different person then. I had just graduated college, and at the time, eight hours of rehearsal a day seemed like nothing to me. Sadly, I'm no longer the pianist I once was, and even just playing for three hours today was both physically and mentally exhausting.
To complement my experience, I also watched the first five episodes of Smash in the past 24 hours. Don't look at me like that! Matty made me do it, I swear.
It's a show about creating a Broadway musical based on the life of Marilyn Monroe, and the original music in it is very captivating. I'm not a big a fan of the random covers that they do of pop songs; it reminds me too much of Glee (I hate Glee), and I think it's better as a show about a musical than it is as a musical itself. Does that make sense?
I think part of why I like the show is that the characters are, for the most part, believable. For better or for worse, I've actually worked with a lot of people who have personalities exactly like the stars of Smash. My favorite character, though? Larry, the rehearsal pianist. That guy is a darn good one... so good, in fact, that somehow while he's playing you'll also hear a drumset, bass, trumpet, and violin, amongst other instruments. I wish it sounded like that when I played piano!
