Even though I’ve never seen it, I can’t stop listening to the soundtrack for The Last Five Years. (Yeah, I know. You expected that sentence to end with the word Hamilton. We’ll get to that.) The songs are just so heartbroken and cynical, and so beautifully sung by Anna Kendrick in the version I’m listening to, that I can’t quit it. It’s not even the type of musical I’d be drawn to, usually—angsty millennials being angsty with each other—but these songs just cling to my brain. I think I’ve been in the place where those songs come from: that place where your wit is still sharp, but everything hurts so much you are numb.
Other musicals I can’t stop listening to are Hamilton (I told you it would show up again!) because I <3 Leslie Odom Jr., and Chitty-Chitty Bang-Bang, because you can’t beat a musical with dancing British eccentrics in it.
So, what musicals do you like? Or loathe, for that matter. Let’s just talk about musicals.