So I'm reading a book called "You've Got to Have a Dream: The Message of the Musical" by Ian Bradley. It makes me ache to be in musical theater again... it has been far far too long.
Anyway, I was taken aback by the thesis of this book so I thought I might present it here for discussion with whomever reads my blog. "My Thesis in this book is that the musical, and especially in the modern musical, has a significant theological content and spiritual dimension and provides for many people an experience which can genuinely described as religious as well as entertaining."
Oddly enough I have very little problem with this thesis because I know musical theater. When you place human existence into musical form it carries a double emotional impact that cannot help but transformative. The thoughs emotions and beliefes are transformed into musical form and are therefore twice as prevalent. Beyond emotion though, musicals grow out of the theological worldviews of their writeres andso even when God is absent from the plot the writers beliefs about God are present in the music and lyrics.
What do you guys think? Don't be afraid to post!!
2 comments:
Your post made me remember one of my friends telling me several years ago about seeing Le Miserables on the stage and having a total catharsis.
There is a sense in which watching a live drama draws the audience into something beyond being a mere audience. They are more than spectators aren't they? They are part of the drama in a sense.
And with musicals--- it rises to a whole new level doesn't it. Think of watching a movie without a soundtrack. Completely different experience. And yet a musical is far more than a soundtrack accompanying the drama. The musical brings together the drama and the soundtrack in an inextricable incarnation of life's deepest meaning. There is something about song that animates the human condition into its pre-exilic state. It causes something deep within us to remember Eden and freedom and dancing. It's like that poem on friendship you wrote me. And because we sit there in our seats so near to the drama. . . . . we in a sense start to dance and to sing inside. We describe this as catharsis i think. in this sense it is a holy kind of entertainment isn't it? great thoughts michaelangelo. stay with them.
dear friends.. these words are beginning to have a similar affect on me as musicals do.. creating a longing to write, dance, create..
for me, the act of a musical (could.. musicals be a verb?) speak to nearly the very core of my being.. they remind me of a time where I sat in the middle of the stage totally unknown, but totally a part of a group of people telling a story.. throughout highschool and college I played in the pits for musicals.. there was magic created there.. where I,without words or visuals, could be a part of story telling.
now, that I've moved on from playing in pits.. whenever I see a musical, live or on film.. there's this longing, almost a deep calling to deep.. to create again.. to.. get out of my seat, and as JD suggested, and be in the drama again... It's religious because it becomes a bigger story, it becomes a communal piece of art, and it becomes bigger than anyone person... It takes a whole group of people to create the story, the stage, the lighting, the music.. it connects people and stories.. :)
mmm.. michael -- this makes me think about liturgy, and church, and causes me to pause... Every sunday I live in a drama. I set the table, I light the candles, and "Christ is the Host and we are his Guest.." yet, I'm missing that same awe. But it seems totally transferrable.
hmm.. stuff to ponder :) Michael & JD - thanks for your words here. :)
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