You want to find the movie in your mind, you want to dream the impossible dream, this is the moment, damn all the odds, fine, fine, but what does any of that actually mean? Just TELL US already. Oh my god, writers, at least say "let's open up a restaurant in Santa Fe!" or "i want to be evil! i want to hurt flies!" instead of "something hypothetical has changed within me, something hypothetical is not the same, I'm through with playing by the hypothetical rules of someone else's hypothetical game," but it will take three minutes of belting above C to decide that all this means is that you're going to eschew lesbian sex with your best friend Glenda. Just. :( I'm really tired of it all, and my want song right now is: No More. (There should be more DO NOT WANT songs in the world.)
I also find it depressing and discouraging and sad that among organizations dedicated to promoting innovative new musical theatre:
- the recipients of the Fred Ebb Foundation award for excellence in songwriting have all been men
- the recipients of the Shen Foundation grants to promote important new musical theatre have all been men
- the recipients of the Signature Theatre American Musical Voices project have all been men
- the recipients of the NAMT new works program 2009 grant have all been men minus one female lyricist
- the recipients of the ATW Jonathan Larson 2009 grant have all been men
- the recipients of the NEA 2009 musical theatre grants have all been men, with the exception of Being Audrey, the short-lived and snidely received musical by Cheryl Stern and Ellyn Weiss. (Because, as we all know, "watching a middle-aged woman cavorting like a teenager or twentysomething is embarrassing.")
God forbid real women should cavort. Or picture themselves as Audrey Hepburn. Or have adventures. Or write musicals. No wonder the monologues for women are boring. And I randomly clicked just now on the 50 greatest movie monologues of all time, and no wonder only 2 monologues on this list are of women. One of which was only added because "we need more ladies."
Gee, you think?