That Perfect Musical

I've seen plenty of musicals live in the many years I've had season tickets to the Dallas Theater Center.  My all time favorite live one was Cabaret.  Lord, it was darkly incredible.  Oh, and I also saw Hedwig and the Angry Inch.  Though I must admit I liked the film better, the live show was also such fun.

Hm... this is maybe harder than I thought... there are more musicals I have really loved than I realized when I set out to type this.  No matter.  The inspiration will become clear as I write.

I recently saw the film The Greatest Showman, which is based on the life of P.T. Barnum and the birth of the circus.  Anyone who knows anything about me at all knows I have a penchant for cirque.  Always have.  Though playful in my youth going to the circus with my grandmother, and ever impressed with the elephants who always stole the show, it took a dark turn for me in my own artwork in college and after.

I found myself surprisingly moved during The Greatest Showman.  Certain scenes took my breath away, though I have to say the bearded lady seemed a little overdone (imho... it's my blog, I can say what I want).  And the lyrics to the songs are incredible and lift up something inside of me.  It also reminded me of what life might have been like if I'd stayed the course being an artist full-time.  If I'd created that traveling puppet show I'd dreamed of long ago.  Or some other dark, slightly twisted version of something along those lines.  That girl-artist still thrives inside this broken body with a mane for hair and the lawyer brain.  And I will always root for the oddities, the dreamers, the dancers, the ones with brutiful stories under their drive to shine for a moment with the flashing lights and colors.  Because I am one at heart, too.

What I did not expect was how my little girl who absorbed my very spirit in the womb would take to The Greatest Showman.  I have already cried multiple times watching her expressive improvisational dancing to the music from the film, which makes me love it all the more.  Her dancing embodies how the film and its music made me feel - my inner world presented to me in a dramatic and precious miniature me (and yet not me) before my very eyes.  She is destined for greatness based solely on the musical lifeblood flowing through her.  And this film brings it all out in her in shining glory.  So even though I have loved some other musicals, this one got personal, in an utterly magical way.

(Please let this video work... iMovie is giving me fits....)