I haven't actually read this book. I may one day or I may not. Today I'm talking about the musical. Izzy has been begging to see it ever since she heard about it. I was able to avoid taking her to the movie last year, but this year we had a friend staring in a local production - making it much harder to resist. I warned her that it is long and confusing for a kid, but she insisted and I gave in with out much fuss. Who doesn't want a night out at the theatre?
Besides wanting to crawl up my own arsehole during the Lovely Ladies bit (Seriously, who takes a 4th grader to a musical with a catchy number about prostitutes??? Oh yeah, that'd be me!), it went remarkably well. It was really a good local production - minus the truly horrific wigs. C'mon Zach Scott, I know you can do better! Izzy loved it and has been singing and/or humming most of the numbers ever since. She's even teaching herself to play some of the tunes on her violin.
I knew from our experience with West Side Story that she has a penchant for zeroing in on the most inappropriate song *and* its most inappropriate lyrics and singing them over and over and over. In that case it was Gee, Officer Krupke and the lines 'My parents treat me rough. With all their marijuana, they won’t give me a puff'. So, of course, for the past two weeks I've been treated to Lovely Ladies all day, every day. And, really, you haven't lived until you've heard your nine year old earnestly belt out the lines (with perfect crescendo I might add), 'Don't they know they're making love to one already dead!'
That song aside, Javert is her absolute favorite character and she has declared she will be him for Halloween next year. After watching West Side Story it was Bernardo - whom she still loves with deep intensity and I really can't blame her. This year she was Odile (the black swan from Swan Lake). I'm not going to overthink why she always identifies with the antagonist...
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