A new Broadway musical is about your life. Come up with a title for the big show, and write a mini-review of it.
My Mother’s Daughter
The musical adaptation of the award-winning “gin-soaked” memoir of the same title is a delightful coming-of-age tale for mother-daughter relationships everywhere. Every mother will relate to Nancy’s first Act battle anthem, “I Brought You Into This World, I Can Take You Out of It,” the pop-rock hit about the frustrations of raising a teenage girl. Similarly, young women will resonate with teenage Sara’s soulful rock ballad “You Just Don’t Understand.” There is also a fun ensemble piece called “Fight Nice!” in which Nancy scolds Sara and her sisters for playing too roughly with each other. The girls deny any wrongdoing and the song highlights their complex relationships.
The first Act is characterized by the stylistic differences between mother and daughter. Nancy’s songs are reminiscent of 80s pop while Sara’s songs are heavily influenced by early 00’s rock and alternative. By the second Act however, their songs begin to blend and harmonize. Sara is older and establishing her career and sees the past with more clarity. There’s a reprisal of “You Just Don’t Understand” which becomes a song of reflection rather than accusal. There is still a strong rock influence to Sara’s songs, but they lean more to the classic rock she grew up listening to with her mother. There are notes of Journey, The Who, and Heart evident in both women’s songs.
The final scene is set at Sara’s wedding reception and Nancy’s final song will leave no dry eye in the theater. Instead of the traditional father-daughter dance, Sara dances with her mother as Nancy soulfully sings “In My Daughter’s Eyes.” The show ends with a stunningly choreographed celebratory ensemble piece that will have people talking for years. It’s a wedding, after all. The show opens next week on Broadway!
Notes: Good lord did I struggle with this. It was worse than revising my resume. My life has not been that long and it is not all that interesting and I don’t like exaggerating about myself.
I spent two days trying to come up with a memoir-esque title to work from but everything was either too dull or too inappropriate. In the end I tried to find a common theme for my adult life and this was what I came up with. I then looked up some examples of Broadway reviews of other musicals to get an idea for how to write one but I’m not sure how much they really helped.
I was also sidelined with a minor migraine last night and that’s why this is a day late. Thankfully it wasn’t full-blown, but I was having serious photo-sensitivity issues and everything was too bright to focus so I went to bed early. I thought I’d have better luck tonight, having had a whole extra day to think about the prompt, but sometimes the struggle bus is out of control.
I think it goes without saying, but I will not be getting to all the prompts I posted on Sunday. Oh well. Sometimes life is like that. It’s your turn anyway. Write your own mini-review of the musical based on your life, if you haven’t already! Have a great night! See you tomorrow!
Closet Full of Notebooks 