If you ever think it weird that there is a genre of theater and film with people singing and dancing, you’re not alone. But the real mystery is not that this art form exists. The real wonder is that people sing or dance at all. The real wonder is that long before there were ever musicals, there were men and women who sang, who danced, who even played instruments.
The musical seems less strange or absurd when we realize how ordinary people have sung about their feelings, danced their nights away, or have skipped down lanes as a naturally as any other part of their lives. We even mark special moments in our lives with song, for instance birthday parties and worship.
The musical is a drama in which people sing and dance. So too is life itself. Perhaps the strange thing is that we have come to think of music as something that should primarily be recorded, performed, or done by professionals–as a genre of pretend or unreality.
One day, we shall sing and know that we are partaking in something as real as we have ever known or desired. In that day human existence will become nearly inseparable from song.
