Showtune Sunday

Tonight was bittersweet.  Tonight was fantastic and a bit sad all at once. Fantastic because I love musical theater.  Sad because it is the last time before my big move that I will get to share this night with my best friend.  Typically, Sunday night is defined by attending a Showtune medley at Union Cabaret and Grill in the Short North.

Now, when I first heard of Showtune Sunday the image that came to mind was my experience at Marie Crisis in the West Vilalge in NYC.  Imagine a bar only tiny enough to fit 70 people maximum, with rainbow lights adorning the ceiling and a piano in the center of it all.  This little whole in the wall piano bar is probably one of my favorite places in the whole city.  Why?  They only play showtunes.  Now, for those of you who have not fully embraced the music of Broadway, I ask you to take another shot.  This music is timeless and as a bonus just so much fun to sing.  

So, when I moved to Columbus and found out about showtunes, I assumed Union would have placed a piano on their stage and we would sing along.  Although it's not the live experience, its one I've grown to love and appreciate.  Throughout the entire venue, large screens display musical numbers from Tony award performances, movies, and talk shows.  People sing along to the music, and sometimes even step up on a stage to perform a number - a cabaret LipDub if you will.  

Other parts of the night highlight the great TV anthems of the 70s and 80s.  At one point, we're handed napkins and encouraged to throw them at the same moment Mary Tyler Moore throws her hat on the streets of Minneapolis.  White napkins are tossed and flutter to the floor as if it were confetti.

Just tonight, I went with some friends for a few hours to enjoy the ambiance.  At one point, a song from the musical Hair was broadcast on the screen (Black Boys/White Boys from the Public Theater Revival).

Two years ago, I spent a summer in NYC and saw the production of the Broadway revival a few weeks before they won the Tony for best musical revival.  I know I'm going off on a tangent, but there's a point here.  One reason I love musicals is that the music reminds you of a moment in life or an experience.  Hearing Hair made me think of that time in my life and how this revival album carried me through.  I haven't listened to the soundtrack for sometime, and now sitting here writing, the music of Hair is carrying me through this post.  The show itself is applicable to today - although set in the 60s in a time of free love and the draft, it serves as a coming of age tale of a guy named Claude as he decides whether or not to go to Vietnam or burn his draft card.  

So thanks to Showtune Sunday, not only did I have an amazing night with some of my closet friends in Columbus, it also led me back to a show that I have been missing, and I didn't realize until tonight that I really needed to have it back in my life.