How Musicals Brought Out My Inner Kinkster

I made it to M in the A-Z Blogging Challenge! Today I am talking about musicals!

The Tony's were on last weekend and I thought it was an excellent show. What I always hope the most when I am watching the Tony's is that some kid in the middle of America, with not a lot of opportunity to get to the theater, or get a lot of exposure to musicals tunes in and watches the Tony's. I really hope one of them saw this:

Neil Patrick Harris as Hedwig. Picture from Variety.com

And thought. "Huh, I'd probably look killer in those heels too."

It would really be great for some kids to have an epiphany. I am not just talking about dreams of musical theater-- almost every actor who wins a Tony says they remember watching the Tony's when they were young and they used to practice their acceptance speech in the mirror, and they always knew this day would come!

That is great for those talented people who can sing, and dance, and act-- and do it all at the same time. This is not most of the population. 

I am going to share with you what musicals gave to me.

They helped me to find my inner kink.

I am not talking about the Rodgers and Hammerstein selection, The Sound of Music, The King and I, anything with Judy Garland, and My Fair Lady. I grew up on a steady diet of these musicals. Throw in a little Seven Brides for Seven Brothers and Shirley Temple films and you are pretty much reliving my childhood. I watched them with my mom, she knew all the words and we both sang off-key together.

Then the musical Rent hit Broadway and became wildly popular. I bought the original cast recording and listened to it over and over in my bedroom.

It was loud and fast paced and Rock and Roll. It talked about sex, it had sex in it, it had all kinds of things I didn't understand but wanted to. I had no idea musicals could be like this. I was hooked!

Specifically the song La Vie Boheme. The characters all file into a restaurant after one of their friends has performed at a protest and they are singing this upbeat song that just makes you want to live life. Go listen to it here.

But here are some of the lyrics that made a nerdy kid who did not know much about life, or anything for that matter, sit up and take notice:

Bisexuals, trisexuals, homo sapiens,

Carcinogens, hallucinogens, men,

Pee Wee Herman

German wine, turpetine, Gertrude Stein

Antoniotti, Bertolucci, Kurosawa

Carmina Burana

To apathy, to entropy, to empathy, ecstacy

Vaclav Havel - The Sex Pistols, 8BC

To no shame - never playing the Fame Game

To marijuana

To sodomy, it's between God and me

To S & M

Yeah, that last part-- I actually remember asking my mom what S&M was, you know, just normal dinner table conversation. She wanted to know why I wanted to know, and then I knew it was something good!

I lied and told her I heard it at the school bus stop. 

She never did tell me. I did look it up in the encyclopedia though. As well as sodomy-- that was an education.

This same year my best friend introduced me to her mom's old VHS copy of Hair!

This just added to my education. And so my inner kinkster was kickstarted.

In truth, it was probably always lurking beneath the surface. I just had no idea up until then that so many people were having all of these thoughts. And putting them to music no less!

Some people might not relate to this post. And I get it, we can't all be people who like musicals. But take this as my public service announcement to not overlook the nerdy girl in love with musicals.

Theater nerds do it with a soundtrack.