Not Me Monday - Musicals

Last night my parents and I stumbled upon ANNIE GET YOUR GUN on television. We have seen this musical on stage a few times and we love the music. This musical includes such classic songs as "There's No Business Like Show Business," "You Can't Get A Man With a Gun," "The Girl That I Marry," and "Anything You Can Do, I Can Do Better."

I realized the topic for my "Not Me Monday" while I was watching the movie and listening to the beautiful old songs: I did not grow up believing these examples of love seen in musicals and fairy tales. Not me!

I would never grow up thinking that men and women can fall in love at first sight, like in SEVEN BRIDE'S FOR SEVEN BROTHERS.

I would never believe that a man would want a prim and proper and perfect wife, like Frank Butler sings about in "The Girl That I Marry." I would never believe that a man would be excited for the responsibility of marriage, like he sings about in, "My Defenses Are Down." And I'd certainly never believe that after all the twists and turns of a love story, he would end up loving and marrying the spunky red-head who claims "Anything You Can Do, I Can Do Better." (In this version of the movie, she was blond... but we all know that Annie Oakley had red hair!)

I would never grow up expecting my life story to be like Cinderella's in Rogers and Hammerstein's CINDERELLA, or Nellie's in SOUTH PACIFIC. I'd never dance around my yard pretending that they were the mountains of Austria pretending to be Maria from THE SOUND OF MUSIC.

In these movies, the women don't jump from man to man to man throughout their twenties trying to find the one they're meant to serve. In these movies, there is one man pursuing one woman - and they have challenges - and they get married. I would never grow up believing that example of love. I would never grow up hoping and dreaming for that kind of life. Not me.


I would never be disappointed when my life is not comparable to a musical from the mid-1900s. Not me.

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