Life is Musical, Operatic, Even Cinematic

According to a Southern Comfort talkback, one of the musical's creators was watching the documentary about a female to male transgender suffering from ovarian cancer and decided that the true story would make a great musical - a musical which recently played Off Off Broadway to decent reviews. Also at the talkback, Todd Cerveris (the actor playing Cas) mentioned that one of the couples featured in the documentary visited New York and saw the musical. The cast was excited to meet the couple, but the couple did not understand the cast's excitement because as far as the couple was concerned - they were just living life.

On Saturday evening, on the far west side of the city, the chamber opera - Dark Sisters (Music: Nico Murphy; Libretto: Stephen Karam) played, where five sister wives from a polygamist sect in the American Southwest lament that state officials have taken away their children under suspicion of abuse. The creators were obviously inspired by real events because the opera seemed to be plucked straight from the headlines and CNN. Who can forget those women with their lost eyes, long braids, and frumpy dresses?

As I watched Dark Sisters and reminisced about Southern Comfort. I could see how operatic the stories were; I could even see how life in general - including my own - can be musical, operatic, even cinematic (for my movie loving readers):

love, art, desire, lust, friendship, family, relationships, indifference, loneliness, infidelity, heartbreak, hate, rape, conception, procreation, childbirth, SIDS, adoption, childhood, molestation, impotence, life, disease, depression, obesity, incapacitation, religion, supernatural, fear, anxiety, racism, sexism, drug abuse, alcohol, education, career, joblessness, sports, adventure, travels, sexuality, connection, submission, prostitution, money, greed, ambition, poverty, classism, history, capitalism, communism, politics, war, revolution, conflict, violence, the military, murder, crime, imprisonment, oppression, rejection, mutilation, death, suicide, mourning, recovery, acceptance...

Too bad though, we don't get to plot, rewrite, rehearse and edit life and then simply fade to black.