In Defense of Revivals.

Dear Reader,

I just spent the last year writing a thesis analyzing revivals. Here it is! https://www.proquest.com/dissertations-theses/evolution-tenor-baritone-voice-classification/docview/3070114719/se-2

That thesis dealt with very technical, musical, and numerical information. Something I didn’t get nearly enough time to speak on is what revivals can do.

Sometimes, they are star vehicles, prestige or cash grabs, a remounting of a museum piece, or anything really between bizarre and avant-garde to a concert to a statement to “Les Mis is back again, and the tempi are 15% faster.”*

Disclaimer: Medium is different. I pulled that particular number out of my butt. The tempi are probably not literally 15% faster; I feel like that’s a question I could get verification from an MD about. However, I’m not going to. I use my time with my colleagues and mentors more wisely than that.

I recently had the privilege of seeing the Follies concert and that show has been a revival of sorts even since its inception, being a pastiche nod to the work of artists of a lost era.

Part of me longs for more new work; another knows that the BEST revivals can reach new artistic achievements possible in our time and something to say from a new vantage point… to a different audience.

The team changes, or the actors do, or the technology does… or some combination. I just saw Tommy. THAT IS SOME TECH and some PIPES on the actors.

The point about the audience, too. This art form has a rich past and a potentially cool future. Watching footage will be special, or digital live-streaming will be special, but the element of theater of being able to witness real-time thoughts, feelings, and actions. That’s the magic that revivals have that simply sticking to the original cast albums and productions cannot reproduce.

To quote one of the songs in my thesis, “Everything has its season, everything has its time.” There are merits to doing new work and to joining the lineage of past work, making it new again.

This is a little musing to let you know that post-grad Sandy is back and ready to get back to writing and making stuff!