Monday, March 30, 2009

Ghost Light Monday--assessment at 200 entries

Since I've reached 200 entries and almost 10 months in my Year, I thought I would try to get some sense of my journey thus far.

It's been easier than I thought to not repeat shows; I've only repeated two in 10 months--Guys and Dolls and Once Upon a Mattress. Both good shows and since one production of Mattress was taking advantage of a chance to see a show live, I don't feel too bad about that. I do feel bad that only five of my entires of been related to seeing live shows; I need to get out there.

I also feel bad that I've experienced shows twice as often on DVD than on audio recordings (113 vs. 55). In some cases the DVDs have been tapings of live shows, but more often they've been watered-down Hollywood versions; not the same thing as the original show.

Originally I had planned on having an entry every day, six musicals a week and a Ghost Light Monday entry on something else. I have not lived up to that schedule. I doubt I'll reach 240 entries by the end of May, which will be the 12-month mark.

My real epiphany (perhaps too strong a word) has been related to the number of composers/lyricists who have written musicals. I knew the range of performers would be very large, and the styles of shows very mixed; but I think I've listened to music by 74 different composers. No surprise that Richard Rodgers appears more often as a label in my entries than anyone else. Stephen Sondheim is right behind him, along with Oscar Hammerstein and Adolph Green as lyricists.  And there are still many more song-writers I haven't investigated yet.

Where's my library card?

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