I love that this whole post dovetails neatly into the idea that we are indeed instruments for our own happiness. It’s a simple philosophy. Thank you, Rebecca.
Oh Prue, thank you! ☺️ Evocative moments of sound, sight, music and memory which can do so much for us to be able to steer our own way and power our own path. I need reminders sometimes, which I can find by harnessing a snatched prompt from memory, and gosh, it feels very comforting to recognise that I can make a difference to my own journey. xxx
An hour before I read this I passed a poster for an upcoming production of the Sound of Music and THAT song was still going round in my head when I got home. I think I’ll replace it with One Brick at a Time!
Beautiful. Your excitement is contagious! Happy sigh. I don’t know most of these but I definitely DO know The Sound of Music. And I am SO aware of how music and live theatre affect us. A lovely post. Well done.
Wonderful memories Rebecca and your right revisiting should be seen as another different experience. My daughter went to Starlight Express with my mother when she was small and loved it 😘😘
Thanks, Jo! Oh, I love that Sarah went to see it with her grandmother. I bet they both had such special memories of the experience. You’ve really made me smile. ❤️
This piece brought back so many memories. I remember SE. It was as tho Disneyland came to Broadway. I love that it returned to the West End and you saw it again and enjoyed it. There are certain musicals well worth seeing a second time— esp if you can get discounted tickets. 😉
‘As though Disneyland came to Broadway’ - I love that! I remember when I first saw the show I didn’t quite know what had hit me - only that I loved it! The sound and the spectacle and the energy when I saw SE last week was just the right side of overwhelming - sooooo good!
Rebecca, I live in Toronto, but back in the early 80s I lived in England and was pursuing acting/singing. So when a call came out for actors who could sing to take free rolling-skating lessons, I jumped at it. Apparently the dancers balked at it, because they were getting injured--rolling into the orchestra pit, for example. Of course it never occurred to me that I would get injured. I went to the local roller skating rink to practice what I'd learned. Going backwards, I tripped over a little kid, and smashed my coccyx. So when the audition with Harold Prince was offered, I was in Toronto, healing. There were a lot of sad stories behind that fabulous show.
Oh my goodness, Myna, Starlight Express has the very opposite of happy memories for you - I’m so sorry about such a serious injury at the skating rink, and missing that opportunity. I’m ashamed to admit that as an audience member sitting safe and sound in the auditorium I was thinking more ‘wow, how do they all DO all that’, than ‘wow, I hope they’re not going to get hurt’. I was reading in the programme about 'skate school’ and thinking how intense it sounded - of course, it stands to reason that the very act of skating - whether on stage or not - is a risky business.
Several of my friends at school enjoyed rollerskating, and I went along a couple of times. I clung on to anything I could until the session was over - I didn’t fall over, but only because I barely dared to move… 🛼
I'm glad your memories are happy. Why shouldn't they be? I had back problems for a decade, I'm afraid. But I did get to skate on the famous stage where the show was performed. And I ended up returning to Toronto because of that accident, which turned out to be a good thing. So, life lessons.
Oh that takes me back. I saw both cats and starlight back when they first came out. Was lucky enough to go to London and not only see them but be invited into the green room during the interval to meet the actors and backstage crew plus drink champagne. You’ve brought back such great memories thank you. On another trip to London from up north I was lucky enough to get returns tickets to see Eartha Kitt , that was also out of this world. I’ve always loved her music and to see her live show was incredible.
Oh wow - I love that you got to meet actors and crew - and with champagne, too! How brilliant!
I remember going to the stage door as an adult after a theatre production starring one of my favourite people on TV back when I was a child. It was a show which involved puppets - it was terrific - and he was meeting people outside the theatre with one of the puppet characters. I loved that he had that kind of relationship with his audience - it meant a lot to have that very brief time with him.
Ha, and after ‘Cats’ had finished we were waiting in a quiet area of the theatre building (I think one of our party had nipped off to use the bathroom), and we spotted a lady walking towards us from the end of a tucked-away corridor. She was dressed in street clothes - I remember a skirt, blouse, handbag and 80s-permed hair - and suddenly Mum said ‘Look, she’s a CAT!’ The lady came closer, and lo and behold she had a full face of cat stage make-up on. That was a really surreal moment - I later wondered if she removed it all somewhere else in the theatre before getting the subway home!
Hi Rebecca, I loved reading this, and now I'm humming Do: A deer, a female deer.
Re: A drop of golden sun...LOL! This was one of my favorite musicals growing up. I like to believe that my parents named me Julie after Julie Andrews. :)
I remember your namesake Julie Andrews recounting a story of a Sound of Music screening where she had been guest of honour and in which the entire audience was in fancy dress. ‘Who are you?’ she asked one attendee, who was dressed head-to-toe in shimmering gold lamé. ‘Oh, I’m Ray, a drop of golden sun!’ he told her! 🤣
I love that you like to believe you’d been named after Julie Andrews - that’s fantastic! I think she’s brilliant - and hey, she turned 90 last week!
"When it’s dressed in the costume of a distant memory, a familiar experience is always going to look different when viewed with fresh eyes." - spot on, Rebecca, spot on. What a wonderful post and your retelling of memories and new experiences tethered to those cherished memories. Climb that mountain, RH!
How lovely for you to return to that memory! I saw Starlight back in the early ‘90s on a whirlwind weekend in London with the Norwegian boyfriend I thought I’d marry but didn’t—a memory which I had not thought of until now…so thank you for that.
Aww, what fun! I’m so delighted that it was such an amazing experience. Kudos to you for having the courage to return, risking disappointment.
“Cats” was my first Broadway experience, too— my mother in law took us, and we sat on the stage, to celebrate my college graduation. Followed by dinner at Windows on the World— seems like a different universe, now.
"Because I am the starlight, and just as the song in the musical tells me, I can achieve anything." This may not be true for everyone, Rebecca, but it is most definitely true for YOU! Thanks so much for the beautiful writing -- you are so talented. And I loved all the music this time!
From where I sit on the US mainland, Rebecca Holden, you are anything but lost! I don’t keep a score card for your essays. My sense is that this is the best one I’ve read to date.
Sometimes I select a topic (Peggy Wood) and pursue pertinent details to increase my understanding. For me, Julie Andrews and The Sound of Music were synonymous! My first viewing was on my Senior Class Trip to Washington, D.C. A peek inside the Washington Cathedral. Part of a day in one building of the Smithsonian Institution. I was dazzled the most by seeing the movie The Sound of Music, with Julie Andrews, in a stately older theatre. A stage with curtains! The theatres where I grew up in rural NW Pennsylvania seated around 100, lacked stages, and often provided the flap-flap-flap of 16 mm movie film detached from the metal film reel! Yes, a groaner!
To avoid the risk of my dull repetition of what you brilliantly shared, this is a perfect stopping point. Thank you once again, Rebecca, for your overall effort to share with us, your readers, the excitement of your growing up years, and your life today.
Such kind words, Gary - very many thanks! And gosh, I love the sound of that trip to Washington DC - it sounds like your class packed soooo much in!
It is a great sadness that I no longer have the diary I kept of that weeklong trip with my family to New York City when I was 8. I wrote about every place we visited - the Alice in Wonderland statue in Central Park, the Natural History Museum and the Japanese restaurant with its raw, rubbery seaweed. We visited the United Nations building and listened to simultaneous translations on earphones, went to the Metropolitan Museum of Art, and took the elevator to the top of both the Empire State Building and one of the twin towers of the World Trade Center. There were so many stickers, badges, tickets, photos, leaflets and receipts in my diary - I was particularly proud of the orange and black sticker which declared ‘I rode a camel at the Bronx Zoo’!
Ho hum. I’ve still got my memories, just not the journal any more!
What a delightful account of your family’s trip to New York City when you were 8! I also prefer to have tangible memorabilia to anchor memories of important events from my past. I joke with some people I follow on Substack about having a “Sentimental Jukebox.”
Its composition? Intertwined neurons and dendrites that store not just memories of music from my past, but the settings pertinent to particular songs! I’m almost certain Mary B. has had her fill of my jukebox. She’ll refer to a place or activity in her posts and instantly I’ll recall a song. Sometimes I’ll slightly edit lyrics of stored songs to enhance the connection for her benefit. Tiresome comes to mind.
Rebecca, please don’t think I’ve lost my mind…just some micro-vascular ischemic changes on either side of my corpus callosum. I was told such a finding was common for folks my age. The doctor who ordered the MRI suggested the results would be a useful baseline for neurological events later in life. I could joke and say, “I can’t wait.” But I’d rather wait a bit longer.
Thank you, Rebecca, for bearing with me on this quite circuitous reply.
Such lovely words, Gary - sending you all the best! Apologies for the delay - I’ve been away, and gosh, life feels tiring right now!
Memorabilia: yes, so important. I collect all sorts of things - I’m not quite a hoarder, but at the same time I regret not keeping things more than I regret keeping them, so I guess I’m on my way to a house that’s full to the brim of bits and pieces.
Things - and sounds, and smells, and music - are so important, and so evocative. All crucial parts in life’s archival tapestry.
My impulse, when hearing from a friend, is to say, “So good to hear from you!” I’m a bit too literal, so reading someone’s words makes that sound a bit “off.”
I hope your being away offered opportunities for enjoyment…enough to tire you somewhat! I confess to some hoarder tendencies and now it’s time to pay the piper! One homeowner on our 18-home cul-de-sac has organized a garage sale for November 8th. Beth and I have used that to motivate a bit of culling. As for my hoarder credentials? I have report cards (grades) from early elementary school. Almost 70 years ago! Model T auto wrenches. Baseball mitts, snorkeling masks and fins. I believe any more details and you’d quietly slip away to saner company. 😳
Could I interest you in a B-flat clarinet? (Moths have damaged the felt pads) Not used since high school. As a member of my high school marching band, we performed in all manner of events. One Veteran’s Day, with biting cold conditions, I remember having to prevent my reed from freezing solid! The show must go on!
Thank you ever so much, Rebecca, for dropping by with wonderful effect!
I have to share one more time stamped morsel. Beth’s mother and a friend operated a year’round Christmas shop in a town on the Gulf of Mexico. Their merchandise was high end so they’d travel to product showings in Atlanta, even NYC, to place orders. One day, her mom walked to the counter and was startled to see two men, each with long hair, large sunglasses, and beards, who’d just ridden up on their Harley-Davidson motorcycles. None other than ZZ Top. She thought they were about to be robbed…or worse! A teen aged girl worked in the shop part time and exclaimed, “Glenda! This is ZZ Top!” She asked the guys for autographs while Glenda remained circumspect. You might want to stream a song or two of theirs. “Buy me a pair of cheap sunglasses” demonstrates their musical acumen. 😁 All the best!!
And nice one, both of you, for using the prospect of the garage sale on Saturday as motivation to declutter - goodness me, I need to get in on the act!
I’m somewhat like my father-in-law, who says if you keep a book you already read long enough, picking it up later in life is like reading it for the first time!
Some of my “finds” for the garage sale fall into that same category! A mountain bike (off road) I bought so long ago has prompted memories of use of same and modifications I performed after purchase. They seem like “only” yesterday!
Selling my collection of old vinyl LPs feels not unlike amputation! I may keep a few favorites. 🤷🏽 Footage of the event could go viral!
Be well, Rebecca, and keep your bird feeders full! 😁
Oh wow, Rebecca — you brought back so many memories with this one! I was right there with you in the Cats auditorium (was I?? did we ever rule it out completely? 😄), belting out Memory with inappropriate abandon. And Barnum! Sound of Music! All touchstones for me too, and reminders of that old-school theatrical magic that still holds so much power.
I’ve never seen Starlight Express, but now I’m wondering if it’s time. Your description of this reimagined version, honoring the original spirit while growing with the times, is compelling. And this line: “When it’s dressed in the costume of a distant memory…” — just lovely. I needed that reminder that revisiting isn’t always a risk to the past; it can be a deeper encounter with it.
Thanks for lighting up my day — again. 🚂✨ Don't mind me while I wander off singing.
Oh Elizabeth, I’m so grateful for these lovely words! To my astonishment when Jim was channel-flicking yesterday he stumbled upon a stage performance of Cats on one of the arts channels!
I watched it for a bit and giggled at perhaps the biggest coincidence of the weekend!
Oh Rebecca, I share your love for favorite musicals and old movies. I'm collecting my favorites as DVDs like a squirrel gathering nuts for winter. It's going to be cozy and nostalgic.
The video of Memories blew me so far away, I watched a 30-minute video of the transferring of the stage production to the movie. I love watching thse "making of" documentaries and this one was a work of art in itself. Exciting and brilliant. Here's the link if you want to watch it: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=CwIDbOqvoCA
I love that this whole post dovetails neatly into the idea that we are indeed instruments for our own happiness. It’s a simple philosophy. Thank you, Rebecca.
Oh Prue, thank you! ☺️ Evocative moments of sound, sight, music and memory which can do so much for us to be able to steer our own way and power our own path. I need reminders sometimes, which I can find by harnessing a snatched prompt from memory, and gosh, it feels very comforting to recognise that I can make a difference to my own journey. xxx
An hour before I read this I passed a poster for an upcoming production of the Sound of Music and THAT song was still going round in my head when I got home. I think I’ll replace it with One Brick at a Time!
Ha! I love this! x
Beautiful. Your excitement is contagious! Happy sigh. I don’t know most of these but I definitely DO know The Sound of Music. And I am SO aware of how music and live theatre affect us. A lovely post. Well done.
Oh Beth, thank you! Hugs from my side of the world to yours. 🤗
Wonderful memories Rebecca and your right revisiting should be seen as another different experience. My daughter went to Starlight Express with my mother when she was small and loved it 😘😘
Thanks, Jo! Oh, I love that Sarah went to see it with her grandmother. I bet they both had such special memories of the experience. You’ve really made me smile. ❤️
This piece brought back so many memories. I remember SE. It was as tho Disneyland came to Broadway. I love that it returned to the West End and you saw it again and enjoyed it. There are certain musicals well worth seeing a second time— esp if you can get discounted tickets. 😉
‘As though Disneyland came to Broadway’ - I love that! I remember when I first saw the show I didn’t quite know what had hit me - only that I loved it! The sound and the spectacle and the energy when I saw SE last week was just the right side of overwhelming - sooooo good!
Rebecca, I live in Toronto, but back in the early 80s I lived in England and was pursuing acting/singing. So when a call came out for actors who could sing to take free rolling-skating lessons, I jumped at it. Apparently the dancers balked at it, because they were getting injured--rolling into the orchestra pit, for example. Of course it never occurred to me that I would get injured. I went to the local roller skating rink to practice what I'd learned. Going backwards, I tripped over a little kid, and smashed my coccyx. So when the audition with Harold Prince was offered, I was in Toronto, healing. There were a lot of sad stories behind that fabulous show.
Oh my goodness, Myna, Starlight Express has the very opposite of happy memories for you - I’m so sorry about such a serious injury at the skating rink, and missing that opportunity. I’m ashamed to admit that as an audience member sitting safe and sound in the auditorium I was thinking more ‘wow, how do they all DO all that’, than ‘wow, I hope they’re not going to get hurt’. I was reading in the programme about 'skate school’ and thinking how intense it sounded - of course, it stands to reason that the very act of skating - whether on stage or not - is a risky business.
Several of my friends at school enjoyed rollerskating, and I went along a couple of times. I clung on to anything I could until the session was over - I didn’t fall over, but only because I barely dared to move… 🛼
I'm glad your memories are happy. Why shouldn't they be? I had back problems for a decade, I'm afraid. But I did get to skate on the famous stage where the show was performed. And I ended up returning to Toronto because of that accident, which turned out to be a good thing. So, life lessons.
Oh that takes me back. I saw both cats and starlight back when they first came out. Was lucky enough to go to London and not only see them but be invited into the green room during the interval to meet the actors and backstage crew plus drink champagne. You’ve brought back such great memories thank you. On another trip to London from up north I was lucky enough to get returns tickets to see Eartha Kitt , that was also out of this world. I’ve always loved her music and to see her live show was incredible.
Oh wow - I love that you got to meet actors and crew - and with champagne, too! How brilliant!
I remember going to the stage door as an adult after a theatre production starring one of my favourite people on TV back when I was a child. It was a show which involved puppets - it was terrific - and he was meeting people outside the theatre with one of the puppet characters. I loved that he had that kind of relationship with his audience - it meant a lot to have that very brief time with him.
Ha, and after ‘Cats’ had finished we were waiting in a quiet area of the theatre building (I think one of our party had nipped off to use the bathroom), and we spotted a lady walking towards us from the end of a tucked-away corridor. She was dressed in street clothes - I remember a skirt, blouse, handbag and 80s-permed hair - and suddenly Mum said ‘Look, she’s a CAT!’ The lady came closer, and lo and behold she had a full face of cat stage make-up on. That was a really surreal moment - I later wondered if she removed it all somewhere else in the theatre before getting the subway home!
Hi Rebecca, I loved reading this, and now I'm humming Do: A deer, a female deer.
Re: A drop of golden sun...LOL! This was one of my favorite musicals growing up. I like to believe that my parents named me Julie after Julie Andrews. :)
Thank you, Rebecca, and have a beautiful weekend.
Aww, thanks, Julie!
I remember your namesake Julie Andrews recounting a story of a Sound of Music screening where she had been guest of honour and in which the entire audience was in fancy dress. ‘Who are you?’ she asked one attendee, who was dressed head-to-toe in shimmering gold lamé. ‘Oh, I’m Ray, a drop of golden sun!’ he told her! 🤣
I love that you like to believe you’d been named after Julie Andrews - that’s fantastic! I think she’s brilliant - and hey, she turned 90 last week!
"who was dressed head-to-toe in shimmering gold lamé. ‘Oh, I’m Ray, a drop of golden sun!’ he told her! 🤣 "(This is the BEST)
I did see that she turned 90. WOW! She's amazing. Thank you, Rebecca. It was so great to see you today. :) Thank you for creating with me.
It still makes me laugh whenever I think of that encounter with the chap in gold lamé! 🤣
Thank you for this afternoon - I got sooooo much writing done. I love Mondays - you’re so kind to hold space. Wonderful!
I'm using my imagination and laughing too! :) I'm so happy to hear the space is helpful for you and you got some good writing in. Woohoo!
"When it’s dressed in the costume of a distant memory, a familiar experience is always going to look different when viewed with fresh eyes." - spot on, Rebecca, spot on. What a wonderful post and your retelling of memories and new experiences tethered to those cherished memories. Climb that mountain, RH!
Oh Mary, thank you! That metaphorical mountain is always in my sights - and one of these days I’ll be walking up some real ones! Hurrah!!!! x
Hurrah x infinity!! xx
How lovely for you to return to that memory! I saw Starlight back in the early ‘90s on a whirlwind weekend in London with the Norwegian boyfriend I thought I’d marry but didn’t—a memory which I had not thought of until now…so thank you for that.
Oh gosh, Amie, sounds like another story right there! Those 24 words, actually, stand alone as exactly that - absolutely brilliant. 🤩
Aww, what fun! I’m so delighted that it was such an amazing experience. Kudos to you for having the courage to return, risking disappointment.
“Cats” was my first Broadway experience, too— my mother in law took us, and we sat on the stage, to celebrate my college graduation. Followed by dinner at Windows on the World— seems like a different universe, now.
Oh wow, Kerry - what an amazing experience to see the show from such close quarters to celebrate such a fantastic occasion! x
"Because I am the starlight, and just as the song in the musical tells me, I can achieve anything." This may not be true for everyone, Rebecca, but it is most definitely true for YOU! Thanks so much for the beautiful writing -- you are so talented. And I loved all the music this time!
Awwww Sharron, that means so much - thank you, thank you! ☺️
From where I sit on the US mainland, Rebecca Holden, you are anything but lost! I don’t keep a score card for your essays. My sense is that this is the best one I’ve read to date.
Sometimes I select a topic (Peggy Wood) and pursue pertinent details to increase my understanding. For me, Julie Andrews and The Sound of Music were synonymous! My first viewing was on my Senior Class Trip to Washington, D.C. A peek inside the Washington Cathedral. Part of a day in one building of the Smithsonian Institution. I was dazzled the most by seeing the movie The Sound of Music, with Julie Andrews, in a stately older theatre. A stage with curtains! The theatres where I grew up in rural NW Pennsylvania seated around 100, lacked stages, and often provided the flap-flap-flap of 16 mm movie film detached from the metal film reel! Yes, a groaner!
To avoid the risk of my dull repetition of what you brilliantly shared, this is a perfect stopping point. Thank you once again, Rebecca, for your overall effort to share with us, your readers, the excitement of your growing up years, and your life today.
Such kind words, Gary - very many thanks! And gosh, I love the sound of that trip to Washington DC - it sounds like your class packed soooo much in!
It is a great sadness that I no longer have the diary I kept of that weeklong trip with my family to New York City when I was 8. I wrote about every place we visited - the Alice in Wonderland statue in Central Park, the Natural History Museum and the Japanese restaurant with its raw, rubbery seaweed. We visited the United Nations building and listened to simultaneous translations on earphones, went to the Metropolitan Museum of Art, and took the elevator to the top of both the Empire State Building and one of the twin towers of the World Trade Center. There were so many stickers, badges, tickets, photos, leaflets and receipts in my diary - I was particularly proud of the orange and black sticker which declared ‘I rode a camel at the Bronx Zoo’!
Ho hum. I’ve still got my memories, just not the journal any more!
What a delightful account of your family’s trip to New York City when you were 8! I also prefer to have tangible memorabilia to anchor memories of important events from my past. I joke with some people I follow on Substack about having a “Sentimental Jukebox.”
Its composition? Intertwined neurons and dendrites that store not just memories of music from my past, but the settings pertinent to particular songs! I’m almost certain Mary B. has had her fill of my jukebox. She’ll refer to a place or activity in her posts and instantly I’ll recall a song. Sometimes I’ll slightly edit lyrics of stored songs to enhance the connection for her benefit. Tiresome comes to mind.
Rebecca, please don’t think I’ve lost my mind…just some micro-vascular ischemic changes on either side of my corpus callosum. I was told such a finding was common for folks my age. The doctor who ordered the MRI suggested the results would be a useful baseline for neurological events later in life. I could joke and say, “I can’t wait.” But I’d rather wait a bit longer.
Thank you, Rebecca, for bearing with me on this quite circuitous reply.
Such lovely words, Gary - sending you all the best! Apologies for the delay - I’ve been away, and gosh, life feels tiring right now!
Memorabilia: yes, so important. I collect all sorts of things - I’m not quite a hoarder, but at the same time I regret not keeping things more than I regret keeping them, so I guess I’m on my way to a house that’s full to the brim of bits and pieces.
Things - and sounds, and smells, and music - are so important, and so evocative. All crucial parts in life’s archival tapestry.
My impulse, when hearing from a friend, is to say, “So good to hear from you!” I’m a bit too literal, so reading someone’s words makes that sound a bit “off.”
I hope your being away offered opportunities for enjoyment…enough to tire you somewhat! I confess to some hoarder tendencies and now it’s time to pay the piper! One homeowner on our 18-home cul-de-sac has organized a garage sale for November 8th. Beth and I have used that to motivate a bit of culling. As for my hoarder credentials? I have report cards (grades) from early elementary school. Almost 70 years ago! Model T auto wrenches. Baseball mitts, snorkeling masks and fins. I believe any more details and you’d quietly slip away to saner company. 😳
Could I interest you in a B-flat clarinet? (Moths have damaged the felt pads) Not used since high school. As a member of my high school marching band, we performed in all manner of events. One Veteran’s Day, with biting cold conditions, I remember having to prevent my reed from freezing solid! The show must go on!
Thank you ever so much, Rebecca, for dropping by with wonderful effect!
I have to share one more time stamped morsel. Beth’s mother and a friend operated a year’round Christmas shop in a town on the Gulf of Mexico. Their merchandise was high end so they’d travel to product showings in Atlanta, even NYC, to place orders. One day, her mom walked to the counter and was startled to see two men, each with long hair, large sunglasses, and beards, who’d just ridden up on their Harley-Davidson motorcycles. None other than ZZ Top. She thought they were about to be robbed…or worse! A teen aged girl worked in the shop part time and exclaimed, “Glenda! This is ZZ Top!” She asked the guys for autographs while Glenda remained circumspect. You might want to stream a song or two of theirs. “Buy me a pair of cheap sunglasses” demonstrates their musical acumen. 😁 All the best!!
Oh wow, Gary, what a great story!
And nice one, both of you, for using the prospect of the garage sale on Saturday as motivation to declutter - goodness me, I need to get in on the act!
I’m somewhat like my father-in-law, who says if you keep a book you already read long enough, picking it up later in life is like reading it for the first time!
Some of my “finds” for the garage sale fall into that same category! A mountain bike (off road) I bought so long ago has prompted memories of use of same and modifications I performed after purchase. They seem like “only” yesterday!
Selling my collection of old vinyl LPs feels not unlike amputation! I may keep a few favorites. 🤷🏽 Footage of the event could go viral!
Be well, Rebecca, and keep your bird feeders full! 😁
Oh wow, Rebecca — you brought back so many memories with this one! I was right there with you in the Cats auditorium (was I?? did we ever rule it out completely? 😄), belting out Memory with inappropriate abandon. And Barnum! Sound of Music! All touchstones for me too, and reminders of that old-school theatrical magic that still holds so much power.
I’ve never seen Starlight Express, but now I’m wondering if it’s time. Your description of this reimagined version, honoring the original spirit while growing with the times, is compelling. And this line: “When it’s dressed in the costume of a distant memory…” — just lovely. I needed that reminder that revisiting isn’t always a risk to the past; it can be a deeper encounter with it.
Thanks for lighting up my day — again. 🚂✨ Don't mind me while I wander off singing.
Oh Elizabeth, I’m so grateful for these lovely words! To my astonishment when Jim was channel-flicking yesterday he stumbled upon a stage performance of Cats on one of the arts channels!
I watched it for a bit and giggled at perhaps the biggest coincidence of the weekend!
What a wonderful experience, Kerry. The full impact of 9-11 (the loss of the twin towers and so much more) has placed us in a very different universe.
Oh Rebecca, I share your love for favorite musicals and old movies. I'm collecting my favorites as DVDs like a squirrel gathering nuts for winter. It's going to be cozy and nostalgic.
The video of Memories blew me so far away, I watched a 30-minute video of the transferring of the stage production to the movie. I love watching thse "making of" documentaries and this one was a work of art in itself. Exciting and brilliant. Here's the link if you want to watch it: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=CwIDbOqvoCA