How in the world do Broadway actors do it??
I'm not talking about the grueling eight-show-a-week schedule, or the intensely athletic choreography, or the memorization of hours of complex lines in every show. I'm talking about the music: how do they sing through the same score & lyrics so many times in a row and be able to get it out of their heads when they're done?!
I need help, as I'm plagued by an album-long earworm: the 2009 Revival Cast Recording of one of the greatest musicals of all time: HAIR.
As I know many of you did, I rushed to the St. James Theatre as soon as I could manage, once the touring cast of Hair took up their return residency on Broadway. I fell hard for the show when the revival opened in 2009, seeing the original "Aquarius" cast 6 times and making sure to see the replacement "Starshine" cast (starring Diana DeGarmo and Ace Young) as well. I've missed the show terribly, despite having other Broadway loves -- including American Idiot, the previous show to occupy the St. James! It was a dream come true to hear that Hair was making an unprecedented move and bringing its National Tour (back) to Broadway. There's no show that could make me happier in announcing this news.
I bought a ticket for a Thursday night, knowing that the afterglow would power me through the end of the week. I got out my Hair billboard bag and threw on one of the three t-shirts I'd bought during the original run at the Hirschfeld. I even dolled myself up in "hippie braids" to reinforce the mood. When I took my seat a few minutes before curtain, I was giddy. I COULD NOT WAIT to see and hear the tribal love party again!
And it began. The psychedelic, inebriating environment, the smooth and magnetic vibrations. The lights and the colors. Of course, that gorgeous cast!! And the music that I've heard a thousand times, from stage to iPod and back again: it was a giddy dose of a familiar drug. I soaked it in.
Through the show I sat enthralled, welcoming these hippies back to New York City, and singing along (in my head) to every lyric. From Aquarius to Frank Mills to Black Boys/ White Boys to Good Morning Starshine, I was immersed in every measure. When the audience was invited up onstage during the curtain call, I rushed down the aisle, tears in my eyes, raising my voice in song.
The music of Hair filled me that evening. It was joyous. In fact, I had such an incredible time that I came BACK and saw the show again four days later on Sunday, repeating the love-fest from my seat and dancing with the cast for that gorgeous curtain call.
So what's the problem now?
I CAN'T GET IT OUT OF MY HEAD.
Walking around New York. On the subway. In the shower. Even in my sleep, I find myself singing Air, I Got Life, Sheila Franklin/ I Believe in Love, and all the rest.
At first it was fun; every time I caught myself humming refrains from the show, I grinned as I remembered again that this favorite musical had returned to Broadway. But I saw HAIR over two weeks ago. And at this point, the songs in my head have taken up residence! They haunt me!! They have overtaken original thought!!!
I've tried to dislodge it. I must have listened to a hundred albums since then. I revisited the #BroadwayEarworm column I wrote last July, and even created an iTunes playlist of particularly catchy songs. I was sure that, even when all else failed, the cast recording of Legally Blonde would replace it in my head! But no. It's all Hair, all the time. The DJ in my head won't give any other LP any spins.
HOW IS IT that I can see a show twice in a weekend, and two weeks later the music is still lodged there like a Princess Fiona in her tower?!
If it's this extreme for me, I can only imagine how the cast of a show must be overtaken with their songs. I saw the show twice in five days; these actors actually SING the show EIGHT TIMES A WEEK! That's 20+ hours a week. What about their off-stage hours? Do they ever get a break from the soundtrack to their lives?
