Once on This Island! and IWSG

I love Broadway musicals! Luckily, so does my husband and our three kids.  In fact you could say we're fanatics for Broadway. We love the big classics like Les Miserables, Phantom of the Opera, and Miss Saigon; the newer ones like Hamilton, Dear Evan Hansen, and Waitress, but one show stands out for us above all the rest.

It is Once on This Island by Lynn Ahrens and Stephen Flaherty.

Why? I'll tell you our story.

Over 25 years ago, my husband and I were just two college kids who had just started dating. He was working a part time college job as an usher at our university's performing arts theater.  Once on This Island was touring and came to our school. He saw it and immediately bought tickets for us to see it the next night.

It was our very first show together.

The Romeo and Juliet-esque tale of a poor peasant girl, Ti Moune, falling for Daniel, the wealthy son of an aristocrat, touched our hearts especially deep because my parents didn't approve of our relationship.

But I chose love.

And when we were married two years later, we brought the soundtrack of Once on This Island along on our honeymoon and listened and sang to it wherever we went.

Fast forward 23 years of happy marriage to last Sunday December 3, 2017. Once on This Island reopened for the first time on Broadway and we were lucky enough to be there to see it!  I started crying the moment the first notes were sung.  It was 90 minutes of pure heartfelt emotion.

Even if you've never seen or heard the original musical, if you like musicals at all, you should find a way to New York to see this!  It is an experience like you've never had before.  Everything about this musical is phenomenal!  The staging, casting, and choreography, immerses you into the story of the storm ravaged island and its characters.      

The New York Times review said it was a "Ravishing Revival" and it surely is!

Watch the Official trailer!

IWSG

This is the last post of the year for the IWSG (Insecure Writer's Support Group) started by Alex J. Cavanaugh.  It is a place where we as writers release our fears, hopes, and dreams into the world and give encouragement to one another! We post on the first Wednesday of the month! If you'd like to join us, click the IWSG link and sign up!


This month's optional question is:  As you look back on 2017, with all its successes/failures, if you could backtrack, what would you do differently?

That's a tough question to answer!  2017 has been pretty great for me, but not because of anything I've really done. It has just been fabulous to see the opportunities that my three children have been presented with and to watch them shine in what they love doing.  So I wouldn't want anything to change. And I guess I've realized that while writing is a passion for me that comes just after my love of figure skating, more than anything I want to spend the last few moments I have with my kids before they are all totally gone. I'm okay that writing has taken a back seat.

But with that in mind, going forward to 2018, the quiet times when my kids aren't around, will be dedicated to writing!


Love, is why we tell our story!


Kathy