I Should Tell You

For years, I’ve had to hide a deep, dark secret from my friends. I’ve struggled with feelings of embarrassment, shame, and guilt. I’ve been confronted with laughter, confusion, and the occasional empathetic soul. My terrible secret is this: I am 100%, head-over-heels, obsessed with musical theater.

An actress or director might have no problem admitting this. But in high school, as a sensible science student uninvolved with theater, I learned that I am not expected to fall prey to the kitschy Broadway musical. Yet since the tender age of twelve, when my friends and I memorized Rent, this obsession has only grown. From Rent, I moved on to Bye Bye Birdie. Then I discovered Sondheim. “On the Steps of the Palace” became my shower song. (Anyone who enjoys that song as much as I do, COMMENT! We’ll chat.)

When I came to Yale, I was discreet at first. Sure, my alarm clock blared South Pacific, but that was it. Then came Jonathan Edwards Culture Draw. JE, my residential college, holds a lottery each semester that allows about 60 students to see a musical, play, opera, ballet, or concert in New York City, fully funded by the college. The only cost is the $28 round-trip Metro North train ticket. Well, that was the end of my secrecy.

I’ve been extremely lucky and through JE, I have now seen (in NYC):
-Sunday in the Park with George
-All My Sons
-and Aida (the opera).

Here in New Haven, I've gone to:
-Into the Woods at the Dramat (with a student cast)
-Death of a Salesman (with Charles Dutton) at the Yale Repertory Theater (where Meryl Streep and Edward Norton once played)
-and original plays by my classmates.

In past two weeks alone, I've seen (in New Haven/at Yale):
-The 25th Annual Putnam County Spelling Bee
-Carousel
-A Chorus Line
-and Pop! (an original new musical at the Yale Rep.)

Finally, this semester, I decided to take – along with biochemistry, physics, physics lab, and physical chemistry – History of the American Musical Theater with Prof. Dan Egan. I had to fight against my instincts to take a “serious” fifth class. But taking this class was one of my best choices at Yale. It’s one of those courses people refer to when they say you should use college to explore, to take random classes to broaden your passions.

I’ve gained a deeper appreciation for the intricacies of the theater I’ve always loved. I can now defend myself when someone refers to musicals as “kitsch” and explain that, well, if you would just look at Joseph Swain’s theory regarding the inverted tritones in West Side Story, you’ll see that musicals are as thoroughly constructed as any thesis-based essay. (Obviously.) All pretentious joking aside, I look forward to doing my homework and I’m constantly glad I decided to take this course.

Speaking of which, it’s getting late and it’s time for me to crawl into bed and listen to Sweeney Todd, one of my assigned soundtracks for the week. I will simply leave you with this – no longer a confession, but a declaration – I, Hallie Rozansky, Yale Class of 2011, am a proud lover of musical theater.