PINAFORE, PIRATES…MIKADO…TOPSY-TURVY and the origins of American musical theatre in the cultural practices of the British Empire.

Tonight, I was combing through some Sondheim for tomorrow–hoping to vary it up from what I did last year–and I’ve been renting so many DVDS at Video Americain that they gave me a free one. So I ended up with both FORUM and GYPSY. I don’t know how I’ve made it thus far without watching GYPSY. It’s incredible, absolutely incredible.

“Remember, you mustn’t be discouraged by the past. You’re artists of the theater.”

The lying, the stealing, the living on a shoestring, the subverting the hopes and expectations of everyone else so that your own desires can be fulfilled. And then getting what you’ve always wanted, and finding out that “what you’ve always wanted” has no use for you at all. Your own daughter not wanting you backstage. And then having her come back to you, and invite you to the party, anyway. Take back yourTake my mink, Mama.

What good is sitting alone in your room…?!