La Vie Bohème*

Today is the third installment of the 30 Day Non-Facebook Prose-Instead-of-Pictures Challenge. If you haven't been keeping track, here is the list so far.

1.A picture of yourself with 10 facts -- Check
2.A picture of you and the person you have been closest with the longest -- Check
3.A picture of the cast from your favorite show -- You're reading it

For someone who doesn't watch TV, today's is quite a difficult challenge.  Not because of a lack of subject matter, but because of too many favorites from which to choose.  The first thing that crossed my mind regarding "favorite show" was stage production.  The second thing was whether "cast" meant of which I was a part. 

Really good Broadway shows aren't big-name vehicles.  Will "The Addams Family" continue its run after Nathan Lane or Bebe Neuwirth leaves?  What happened to "Spamalot" after Tim Curry, Hank Azaria, and David Hyde Pierce left?  Who were the big names in "A Chorus Line"?  But stage productions are so much more than Broadway.  "The Fantasticks" holds the record for the world's longest running stage show at 42 years -- Off-Broadway, no less.  There are also ballets, operas, plays (as opposed to musicals), etc. 

Do movies count as shows?  Weren't they once referred to as moving picture shows?  Whoa!  Too many choices.  It's making my head spin.

As for the cast, well, should it include me?  My parents introduced me to the theatre at the age of five.  They were on the Board of Directors of my hometown Civic Theatre.  My roles included everything from Ngana in "South Pacific" as a five-year-old (my red hair wasn't anachronistic, was it?) to a chorus line nurse in a different production of "South Pacific" as a high school senior.

Narrowing the list is harder than anticipated.  But there is one that affected me like no other. 

On a couple's weekend to New York City several years ago, we ended up seeing a total of five shows -- "Wicked", "Hairspray", "Fiddler on the Roof", "Chicago", and "La Bohème".  Of those five, one was the sexiest show I've ever seen and one was the most romantic.  "Chicago", hands down, is the sexiest.  "La Bohème", the most romantic.

Oh.  My.  God.  Nothing has ever touched me as fully as seeing it live on stage did.  Even though I've seen it live on stage before, there was something about that production.  Even though I know the story backwards and forwards, Mr. Gaelic had to give me his handkerchief during the last scene.  I was sobbing.  After the last round of applause and the house lights came up, older ladies puzzled at me, sitting there crying, dabbing my eyes. 

"Baz Luhrmann's La Bohème" only ran for a few short months on Broadway.  But, for me, nothing can ever hold a candle to that one show.  Vive la vie bohème!

*Title taken from this.