KH COMMENTARY: Life As A Musical

A friend of mine recently celebrated her 21st birthday and the theme she chose for her party was 'Life As A Musical.'

(NB. What a great theme, right? I am constantly impressed by people who have the brain cells to think outside the box. None of this 70s/Something beginning with 'P'/Favourite movie star nonsense. I do love a good party and I do love a good party-theme to go along with it.)

While I didn't actually attend the party (partly because I wasn't invited and partly because I live in a different state, but mostly because I wasn't invited), my Bestie and I got to talking about what musical character we would have dressed up as if we had indeed attended the party. This resulted in us singing our favourite musical numbers at the top of our lungs, which was slighly attention-seeking given that we were swimming at Sydney's Camp Cove at the time.

When it comes to musicals, you either love 'em or you hate 'em and if you hate 'em then you're a sad sad little person because who doesn't love musicals? The singing, the dancing, the facial expressions, the set design, the orchestra, the programs and the nerve-clinching moment when the lights go down and the curtain goes up and it all begins. It's enough to make you want to wet your pants.

Admitedly, musicals do have a tendency of being a bit sugary so it's really no wonder that when you combine that with a romantic story-line and Zac Efron's fringe, you'd get a house pleaser like High School Musical.

But it's not the sugar (or Zac Efron's hair cut) that I love about musicals. In a musical, everything the characters feel - whether it be anger or angst or affection - is all felt out loud, on stage. Nothing is secreted away and hidden because that would ruin the story or wouldn't make a story at all. The characters are bound by their emotions and in doing so, feel each one of them at their greatest capacity. No wonder they burst out in song and dance every few minutes. They are unable to suffocate it inside them. When what you feel is such an extreme and honest version of the reality, why would you even want to try and tame it?

So, what if life really was a musical? What if you could just bust out in song whenever you please - like my Bestie and I at Camp Cove - without anyone looking at you like you're an escapee from the Insane Asylum? What if everything you feel could be felt out loud and at the absolute brink of honesty? What if, instead of feeling our joy on simply a surface level, we could physically celebrate it in a crowd-raising, choreographed song and dance number?

Nothing can be small on stage. Everything is big and bright and loud and fuelled by a nerve-racking motivation to do justice to every emotion, activity and action being represented. There is no embarrasment. There is no shyness. Everything is magnified. Everything is felt.

Oh, if life were a musical.