Musical Memory: Barbra Streisand's I'm the Greatest Star
University of New Hampshire - 2003ish
Three Faces and an Eyebrow aka How I came to be friends with Joe and Sean
Funny Girl. Fanny is one of my DREAM roles. It is one of the few classic musical theatre leading lady roles that I would be appropriate for. You see, I'm usually cast as the silly best friend that lingers in the background...but Fanny. She's front and center!
When I was enrolled in what is equivalent to Musical Theatre 101 in college, we had to get up weekly and perform for each other. Our teacher decided that it would be a brilliant idea to have "anonymous" student feedback as part of the process. Picture a roomful of young, egotistical musical theatre hopefuls with easily bruised hearts, and you'll realize quickly why this was such a bad idea. This "anonymous" comment system, quickly became a mudslinging festival - and even more targeted when we started to recognize each other's handwriting...
So one day I get up to sing I'm the Greatest Star from Funny Girl
It's a hard piece. A vocal marathon. I was no Barbra, to be sure, but I plowed through. At the end of class, I was flipping through my feedback and I noticed the handwriting of the WORST kind of musical theatre types - the over eager, bitchy student that THINKS she is talented (but is really not) and feels that she has license to shit all over every one, when really she doesn't have a stool to stand on. Ahem (I'm not bitter). I looked down at the slip to read the following:
The lyrics say "I've got 36 expressions..." Well, all I saw were three faces and an EYEBROW.
Well, my jaw hit the floor, and just as I walked in the hall I ran into Sean and Joe - a sweet couple at the time, and my classmates (that I did not yet know well). They took one look at my livid face, and I took one look at them and shouted "SHE SAID I HAVE THREE FACES AND AN EYEBROW!!!" Sean grabbed the slip of paper, looked at it and uttered something to the effect of "What a cunt," and we all fell into hysterics.
The rest is history.
Though they parted ways back at school, I am still good friends with them both 'til this day. Joe and I even invented a drink called 3 Faces and an Eyebrow (gingerale, grapefruit juice and vodka vodka vodka) - and I'm the Greatest Star will always remind me of the beginning of two beautiful friendships!
1 comment:
Awwww! How sweet is that? Who is that little b...., I've got that perfect symphony for her to listen to.
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