Dear Evan Hensen
Today is going to be a good day, and here’s why….
Video Cassette
I will let you in on a little secret of mine. I am a huge fan of musicals. It all started when my older cousins became “too cool” for Disney movies. I received all their vcr (for my younger Gen Z & Gen Alpha’s that is this 📼) Disney movies from the 90’s. Pocahontas, The Lion King, Aladdin (which I just rewatched yesterday for the 115th time!).
I just couldn’t get enough, I played those cassettes out until the tape came out tangled. As I grew older I seemed to crawl further into music. So High School Musical and The Sound of Music were just my jam, while other kids looked at me like; "Who is this weirdo?”
New York, New York BABY
|However, I have only seen a few live performances in my entire life (Tina, The Bodyguard, On Your Feet. Ironically all with strong women of color at the front). It was always a dream of mine to visit New York and to visit a Broadway show, maybe even star in one. The (2 season &-canceled) TV show Smash was another one of my guilty pleasures back then. After I convinced my parents to leave aside the yearly summer trip to Miami and head on further to northern pastures of the US, A.K.A. NEW YORK BABY! It was a ‘Hurry-up-and-wait’-moment for 15 year old me, when we got there and the tickets were 200$ per person, and my parents looked at me with a: “Will this include a meal too?”-face.
Worry not, recently, I gave myself the birthday gift of attending Hamilton at the Victoria Palace Theatre, in London. West End is already one step closer to Broadway, but nothing like the greatest city in the world. So strap in, because the many musical references ahead are going to be dizzying. Maybe you won’t even notice. Broadway Here I Come!
Life’s soundtrack
That’s the thing about musicals, there’s a song for any feeling out there, for any outcast, for anyone who feels like they live in ‘a little town it’s a quiet village, every day, like the one before.’
- GURL! Tell me about it, try living on an island!
Oh wait, there’s a musical about that too: ‘I’ve been staring at the edge of the water, long as I can remember never even knowing why…’.
Even on the days where it just sucks, I can think of Evan Hensen:
Today is going to be a good day, and here’s why….
Today at least you’re you, and that’s enough
And even if today wasn’t a good day there is…
One day more, another day another destiny.
Victoria Palace Theatre in Londen
Oktober 2024.