My waking earwig usually knows.
It's a subtle reminder that I'm due. Due to scratch my musical itch.
In case such obvious clues as the sidebar on the homepage of this blog featuring a list of all the noteworthy stage plays and musicals I've attended, and posted about, over the years, isn't enough, be notified: I'm a theater queen.
Now, what's an earwig have to do with anything? What's an earwig anyway? Is it related to the tinnitus that I constantly struggle with and only now has gotten some attention from my HCP in the form of some dubious antihistamine regimen of treatment (we'll see how this goes; that'll be news for another post indeed)? No, an earwig is a tune that's so catchy it gets in your head and you find yourself humming it, sometimes almost subconsciously, throughout the day, but, for me, especially when I wake up.
My latest earwig is a small solo nestled in with the big, showy chorus pieces of none other than A Chorus Line, "Nothing."
I happened to notice the film version of this musical, starring Michael Douglas, Alyson Reed and a young Terrance Mann (yas darlings, none other than Brother Dusk/Darkness of Foundation) available on one of my streamers, maybe YouTube Premium. (No sponsorship opinion here, of course, but this platform has surprised me countless times with tons of really choice movies, especially older ones -- well worth the monthly fee.) I'd seen this movie before but it must have been back in the VCR days since I barely remembered it. (Of course, with Shameless, it could well have been that I'd seen it only last year, right?)
Wow, simply, wow! I've never seen the stage production but I'd jump on it if I ever saw it touring through -- heck, I guess I'd even give Highlands Lakeside a try with it -- but this movie version was filmed very much like a theater production anyway with almost everything taking place on the stage setting -- I mean, how else could you do it, other than, for instance, as in the "Nothing" montage, it be filmed as a flashback to her high school class?
This is one of those songs that, at least for me, I'd heard a long time ago, it sounded catchy, I retained it somewhere in the recesses of my mind, and then forgot about. Watching this actress, Yamil Borges, perform, and I do mean perform, not just sing, this number, really hits.
The lyrics speak about the struggles of a teenaged high school for the arts student struggling to "get" the strict, haughty acting method lessons her teacher is attempting to convey to their class, but the instructor's style and rigidity do nothing to evoke and inspire our vocalist, Diana Morales, and so she feels "nothing." It's only later after much derision and ridicule from both her stern teacher and fellow classmates that she, herself, finds her own path to "dig right down to the bottom of her soul" in finding her emotional acting voice and finally "feels!" As the song moves from its crescendo to its more somber finale, Diana recalls that her teacher later passes away and she cries because she felt nothing.
Why did Diana cry if she felt nothing? How did Diana finally find her "inner feeling?" How does this song relate to life outside of the literal lyrical subject matter? These are subjects left to the listener to discover for themselves -- and isn't that the crux of the meaning of the song?! Bam! I mean c'mon! What genius!
My itch may be scratched soon. There are two productions coming up "nearby." Les Mis is playing at The Stratz in Tampa in December and Harry Potter and the Cursed Child at Dr. Philips Center in Orlando in January. Oh shit, I just clicked over to the Dr. Philips site to check on this and -- I didn't see this before -- there's a showing of La Cage aux Folles today and tomorrow! Only orchestra seats still available in a theater I'd never been to, the Pugh theater -- looks like a smaller venue. $82.50 with fees and taxes but then there's parking. And driving all the way to Orlando. Do I want to scratch my itch this much?
While I make that decision (and the Les Mis one 'cause you know those tickets will sell out soon), here's my earwig in all its glory: