MUSICAL THEATRE SAVED MY CHILDHOOD

I was an only child for nine years before my baby brother came along. From the time I was six years old I was a latchkey kid and spent hours in an empty house before my mom came home from work. Being an extrovert, I often felt lonely during those seemingly endless hours every weekday afternoon. Thank God for musicals! They saved me.

One of my most prized possessions was a pink plastic record player that would fold up like a little suitcase. My parents owned several soundtracks of musical films like Butch Cassidy and the Sundance Kid and Lost Horizon, introducing me to the music of Burt Bacharach. The Sound of Music, Fiddler on the Roof, and My Fair Lady. Those soundtracks, together with the old movies that came on TV every afternoon, I Love Lucy, and Bugs Bunny cartoons were my “arts education.” Through them I discovered Jimmy Stewart, Katherine Hepburn, Bette Davis, Jimmy Durante, James Cagney, Gloria Swanson, Laurel and Hardy, Frank Sinatra, and on and on. Not to mention, the world of Mickey and Judy, Fred Astaire and Ginger Rogers, and of course, Gene Kelly.

Today I decided to watch the film of My Fair Lady. It’s been decades since I last watched it, and having heard that soundtrack so many times, I felt like I had fallen into a time warp back to being a kid.

It left me feeling wistful, but so grateful for that pink record player.