I love musical theater. Once upon a time I dreamed of being Maria in West Side Story. And then I thought I could be Julie from Oklahoma!. I’d run around the house singing Oklahoma! in a range that only dogs might hear and felt chuffed when my sister would tell me to stop singing like that but my Dad, the resident musician, said, “that’s just a higher register. She’s fine.”

I still remember that car ride on the road to Bemars, a very much defunct pharmacy where I used to buy baseball cards with lots and lots of coins from a wonderful blonde woman whose name I no longer remember but want to call her Sophie (that’s a shame I can’t remember her name because if there was ever a character to write about, it would have been her with her cigarette voice, 100 watt smile and laughter, not to mention that she had to actually count out all of those coins!), sitting in the back seat because I was still knee-high to a grasshopper but boy could I belt out “Oklahoma!” Wow, so that was like a paragraph and a half, right? And more than a few memories to melt my soul.

Which brings me to the only musical that I’ve ever seen twice at the theater: Les Misérables. There was a point in my life where I could have sung every single word of the entire score. (That may still hold true and may be true for Evita, my love for Mandy Patinkin is still strong (ha). Sometime I’ll try it out. 😉 )

And now we come to another one of my favorite things: the flash mob. I don’t know about you but I just love those sudden productions at shopping malls where people start singing. It fits the ludicrousness of musicals where people just start singing wherever they are, or Ally McBeal, if you’ve ever seen and loved that show. (If you haven’t seen it, go no. Stream it. Love it!)

So, here we are, Music Monday and One Day More. First it’s the flash mob and then a few more offerings. Let me know what you think.

And because life can sometimes be crazy or coincidental, I offer you this James Corden carpool karaoke in which Jane Krakowski from the above mentioned Ally McBeal (and no, somehow, very badly on my part, I DIDN’T plan that out!!!)

And finally, the one that must be part of this, the beautiful Broadway version. I won’t say that these voices are more beautiful because I think all of these voices are beautiful. What a song!