The Guy Who Didn’t Like Musicals

Director’s Statement

Immersion. Escapism. Rapture. Salvation. The characters in The Guy Who Didn’t Like Musicals (TGWDLM) perform an interesting question: what happens when aliens—who dance…and sing—invade our society? But, if you think about the implications, the question goes much deeper than that: “Is this the secret: singing and dancing through life?” Theatre serves as a form of escapism for many, but when we’re transported into the world of Wicked or My Fair Lady, do we really forget about the issues that pervade our own society—racism, sexism? TGWDLM externalizes this internal conflict. We can laugh at a musically-inclined, alien version of Donald Trump not because fascism is funny but because it emphasizes (with spectacle) how absurd the current state of U.S. politics is. Perhaps singing and dancing makes the pill easier to swallow, but are we then viewing our world through rose-colored opera glasses? The musical pandemic in Hatchetfield offers salvation and freedom from all worries in exchange for the end of the world as we know it. But is that ignorance worth it?

- Morgan Kelly