But, seriously, what. I went through and found my '96 playbill to share with y'all.pic.twitter.com/uIS4RbTW92
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I'd been to two other big stage shows before — Phantom at Pantages in Toronto and Les Miz on Broadway — but those were in high school.
I found those, too. (So, June 24, 1993, was my first Broadway show!)pic.twitter.com/2koaJBjWno
I will never forget the majesty of Phantom in that huge theater, or the knowledge that I was watching a Broadway show in 1993. But, RENT.
Seeing RENT in 1996, with my first boyfriend. An out college sophomore in 1996, seeing a popular musical about ~a version of~ our lives.
It was unlike anything I'd ever experienced. It was seeing my fantasies—plays I devoured in high school—come to life, & in gay technicolor.
Yes, it was a one-off from the AIDS plays I'd read, but it had a hope that so many of them understandably lacked. It was a story about life.
I remember the entire audience, putty in Adam Pascal's hands for those opening notes of "One Song Glory"—hearing the exhale when he sang.
I remember Angel jumping on that table, Joanne and Maureen fighting/loving, Collins breaking, leaving the theater in a fog.
"Seasons of Love" became, for me and so many people my age, a sign of hope rising out of a scary, deadly fifteen years of AIDS.
Five hundred twenty-five thousand, six hundred minutes...were minutes for which people were grateful that they, we, got to experience them.
"How do you measure a year in the life? How about love? How about love? How about love? Measure in love."
Twenty years later, I've often been finding myself thinking of "Seasons of Love"—when I listen to Hamilton's "That Would Be Enough."
"Look at where you are, Look at where you started. That fact that you're alive is a miracle. Just stay alive, that would be enough."
Next month, I'll be seeing Hamilton with @ATLJono and another dear friend, @yusefnyc, and I can't wait to share the incredible show w/ them.
And, given the twists and turns my life has taken since 1996, I know, and it hits me each time, the fact that I'm alive is a miracle.
I don't have an ending for this story, other than to say I am grateful for amazing theater that has given me so much insight into my life.
That'll do for today. ... Night, all, and let us be good to one another.
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