Of Pens and Paper: On Broadway

As most people know, I absolutely love musicals…the songs, the voices, the choreography, the lights, the costumes, the acting *dramatic sigh*. For as long as I can remember, I have longed to be up on stage with the actors and actresses performing. Whenever I had the chance to recite a monologue or act in a church skit, I took it and enjoyed it to the fullest. Speech/Drama class was my absolute favorite elective in school. There is something unexplainable about throwing yourself into your character and becoming that person, speaking like he would speak, acting like he would act, living like he would live.

One of the highest items on my bucket list would be to -just once- have the chance to perform in a professional musical… not a little church skit or a monologue that I wrote, an actual musical that had rehearsals, special costumes, live orchestra, beautiful scripts, and such other lovely additions. Yes, I know that it would never happen, not in a thousand years. I haven’t pursued further education in the field; and only dedicated, talented, persisting individuals ever achieve to that honor after their years of hard effort. But still I started doing that “imagining thing”, the “what-if” scenario. My recent visit to Fulton Theatre for “Les Miserables” began this introspection. I had to step back and think about what I would sacrifice to make my dream come true.

Pretend a moment with me. I have been given the opportunity to be Maria Von Trapp in “The Sound of Music” or Eliza in “My Fair Lady” or Mary in “Mary Poppins”. What will I sacrifice so that I can accept? What morals will I lower? What standards will I allow to fall? What scenes will I overlook? Will I say the things (no matter how inappropriate) upon which the director insists? No, not every musical will have something that disagrees with Scripture, but what if I was given the chance to participate in one that did? Just as I overlooked and made excuses for the questionable and sexual innuendo in the show I just watched, for the sake of the amazing voices and tremendous acting….would I do that for the sake of having an opportunity of which I have always dreamed?

It scares me, it really does! How much value do I place on certain things, and what am I willing to do for them? I can sit and listen to “Les Miserables” for three hours, but I fidget and am aggravated at sermons lasting longer than forty-five minutes. I know broadway songs by heart, yet I can only quote a few Bible verses. I’m afraid that I have based so much importance upon the arts that I would be like Peter and deny my very own, Savior, whom I always claimed to love. This can fall into any area of our lives. What will we sacrifice for that boyfriend, that job, that leadership position, that new house, that dream that we have clutched to tightly for so many years?

It is time for me to sit back and redetermine where I place my deepest admiration. That does not mean that I have to give up every acting opportunity, every ticket to the theater, and every note of “Bring Him Home”; but it does mean that I will start valuing Christ above the arts, raise my standard of “thinking on that which is lovely, pure, and of good report” above improper content- no matter how beautifully and artistically presented, and give as much dedication to glorifying God as is given to broadway numbers.