Theatre and Glee and stuff

The latest Glee episode is Rachel’s opening night of Funny Girl on Broadway. This is the culmination of everything we have seen this character do, and be over the course of the show. And it was beautiful.

My New Year’s resolution this year was to take in a live performance at least once a month. I’m on fire, having seen 9 shows so far, with a litany of performances ahead. I chose this as my resolution because there is something so inspiring about seeing a live show: the sheer amount of work that goes into it, the balls it takes to go on before a live audience night after night, the fortitude to do it night after night after night. It fills me with a desire to create and to fill the world with my own ideas.

It was good to see Rachel’s breakdown before her opening night. I know it’s a TV show, but she’s obviously so very talented and so young and having a role like Fanny Brice at 19! On the Great White Way?!? It’s no wonder I panic about people seeing my work. But she panics, too. It’s not really that easy for anyone. Every somebody was nobody once.

It was great to get to experience Rachel’s stage debut. They shot it so that we got all sides. We sat in the audience and watched her. We were on stage with her. We were in her head. The show gives a glimpse of Broadway that many people don’t have the luxury to see. It could end now and we’d be complete. It was always about Rachel, after all.

But for me in my venture, it’s the beginning. (The middle?) I am really enjoying my year of theatre. I have a sitcom based on all of this that I am working on. Maybe someday it will be my Funny Girl. My Glee.

On Sunday I will embark on my 10^th play and have the delight of having drinks with the producer of that show. Hopefully he won’t mind my picking his brain for a better understanding of what it takes to put on a Broadway play.