Breaking Out In Song Publicly and Other Things that Just Don’t Look Right
I was in third grade, and my family had just settled down to watch the long-awaited television broadcast of a movie I’d only heard the soundtrack for. We would get to stay up until 10:30 to watch the whole thing, on a school night!
Thirty minutes into it, I became aware that things were happening on screen that seemed odd.
[bctt tweet=”I became aware that things were happening on screen that seemed odd.” username=”JHanscomeWriter”]
Julie Andrews was skipping down the street swinging a guitar case, singing about having confidence in sunshine and rain and all sorts of other wonderful things. I knew the song by heart. But what would passersby think if they saw her skipping like that? Then she continued her song on a bus while leaning out the window. Other passengers just sat there as if they didn’t even notice. I was still getting over the nuns singing about all the reasons they considered Maria a problem, wondering if she overheard them and how bad she must feel if she did. Poor Maria.
I turned to my mom. “Don’t those people think it’s weird that she’s singing on the bus?” They weren’t staring or anything.
I don’t know why it didn’t make sense to me. I’d seen Mary Poppins and old Shirley Temple movies. Public Television had been part of my early education, and people sang there all the time. Maybe because in those stories, if someone broke into song, everyone else in the scene did too.
“It’s a musical.” Mom explained the concept and why some of the actors sang while others went about their business as if seeing a woman singing on the bus happened every day. I’m sure she phrased her explanation differently, but you get the idea.
“Oh.” I turned my attention back to Julia Andrews, who was now outside the gate of the Von Trapp mansion, still singing about confidence but sounding a little less convinced. By the time Maria and the Von Trapp children were marching around Salzburg to the Do Re Mi song, I’d accepted it as part of the musical experience and wished I could be in the movie too. The only part I couldn’t deal with, at least not until my 20s, was when Maria and Captain Von Trapp went on for what felt like forever about their miserable childhoods that somehow led to them standing there loving each other. Then I just got bored. (Is that not the longest scene in movie history when you’re eight years old?)
Now, I can watch movies like La La Land without questioning for a second why, when stuck in rush hour traffic, the entire cast decides to kill time by dancing and singing on top of their cars. When the movie was at its peak of popularity, I hoped rush-hour flash mobs wouldn’t become a trend. That would be dangerous. But in a musical, why not? That’s what makes them fun!
At the same time, based on my first experience with The Sound of Music, I understand why some people don’t like musicals, or even say they find them uncomfortable to watch. What fascinated me recently though, was when a talk show host said, “I don’t like musicals” in the same tone that one might use when admitting they voted for a political candidate that everyone else in the room protested against, knowing they might lose some friends.
Last I checked (and I could be wrong), it was okay to not like something as long as you didn’t imply that big fans of that thing had bad taste.
[bctt tweet=”I understand why some people don’t like musicals, or even say they find them uncomfortable to watch. ” username=”JHanscomeWriter”]
Yesterday, I found out that one of my nephews would’ve enjoyed The Greatest Showman a lot better if Hugh Jackman hadn’t kept singing. That’s one of my favorite movies of last year. He had the same reaction to Into the Woods: great story (although rather dark), too many songs. I still love my nephew and promise not to make him sit through the sequel to Mama Mia!
The truth is, as much as I enjoy musicals, if I went to Target later today and the cashier started singing I would wonder, What’s she doing? She has a great voice and everything, but people are staring. I might wonder if she expected me to pay using choreography or just stick my card in the machine. When she bags my stuff, should I worry about the fragile items? But mostly I’d feel bad for her, because no matter why she decided to sing at the check stand, and no matter how talented she was, she would get mixed responses, from “Aw! I needed that today” to unkind impressions of her later to “That is so inappropriate!”
Musicals are a great reminder that God wired all of us uniquely, and because of that we all like different things, and we all respond differently when something doesn’t look right to us, according to us. What offends one person is no big deal to another. What one person finds entertaining drives another up a wall.
So why is it so hard for us to just let people enjoy what they enjoy?
Unless, of course, if what they enjoy is singing at the check stand when they should be bagging the shampoo and asking if we have a Target Red Card.
I’d love to hear your thoughts on this very random topic that I came up with today.
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If everyone sang as well as you do, the world would be a better place.
100% agree with Janet!
I feel the same about you, Stephanie!
You are such a sweet encourager, Jan! Thank you. 🙂