All that is great and wonderful about Broadway is celebrated at the Tony Awards. Whether you are a fan of plays or musicals, it is all in the spotlight (again) during the best awards show to ever be seen on planet earth.

There is something for everybody when a piece of art is produced on the stage. Singing, dancing, lighting, costumes, scenery, acting, and storytelling. Show me somebody who can’t find something to like about plays or musicals and you have a very boring and narrow-minded person on your hands.

Think about it, why are some of the most popular and longest running shows in history so popular? It is those individuals that were reluctant to attend a performance in the first place who finally quit whining, attend a performance, and find that as they leave they have a song running through their head or a story they can’t get away from at any cost.  What do they do then? They go back to see the show a 2nd, 3rd, or 4th time. Broadway grabs the reluctant and brings them back full of smiles and happy thoughts.

Their is a heightened sense of anticipation prior to seeing a broadway show live. You might be familiar with the storyline or have had read the book that a show is based on. A snappy tune from a show may be one of your most favorite songs. Your kids are excited about seeing something and therefore you are excited by default. Anticipation as the auditorium fills with people and the tension builds as curtain time inches ever closer. The lights dim, people finally start to shut the hell up with the jibber jabber, and then BOOM…showtime…the music erupts, the lights come on, and you are immediately transported to a different time and place, suspending belief in the everyday and the normal boring goings on of daily life.

Now, you may think a description like this is just a bunch of bright eyed  fantastical theatre club crap. Well, let’s have an example. Phantom of the Opera opens with a simple auction. Items from the opera house in Paris are being auctioned off simply and quietly. Lot 664, lot 665, until we get to lot 666. It appears this item has a bit more of a backstory than the previous items. It played a part in a problematic time at the opera house. The auctioneer then says this line, “‘Perhaps we can scare away the ghost of so many years ago with a little illumination, gentleman!” At this point the orchestra erupts into the Overture, a giant crystal chandelier swings down from above and moves over the audience, lower and lower until it arrives at the stage.  Come on!  This is some exciting stuff accompanied by well known and exciting music. If you don’t get even a small thrill from this you are just aren’t freaking paying attention.

Other examples beg to just leap off the page. Getting slapped in the face with the hard punk sounds of “American Idiot”, the beautiful get androgynously creepy opening song “Wilkommen” in Cabaret, the immediate hilarity in “Book of Mormon.” Don’t like musicals? How about the stark immediate reality of “Death of a Salesman”, the tension that doesn’t build up but just starts out at a high level in “Deathtrap.”

You don’t have to know all the songs in “Annie” like the writer of this blog to have an appreciation. You don’t have to have a fascination with Alan Cumming that borders on the obsessive do enjoy a foot tapping show, and you don’t have to be “odd” or “weird” or (gasp!) gay to enjoy the offerings of a Broadway show.

If you feel brave, you want to expand your horizons, and you’ve decided it’s time to work on your jazz hands, watch the Tony Awards tonight. I absolutely guarantee that even Republicans will find something that catches their eye.