I want to see this play 100 times. It devastated me. The beautiful kind like when you were 14 and first realized you were alive. Or wanting to quit your job to live in the Never, Never but realize you’d probably end up crawling back begging to put cardboard boxes together 70 or 90 hours a week.

The music and lyrics are so good – there has to be a cult following. I loved the two songs that gracefully seeped between the scenes reminding us why we were there, that one fateful decision. Like the one our parents made or any of us made. The narrator doesn’t let you forget it, a reminder of our decisions.

Oh, and the ingenious sound cues, the horns, the horns.

I read much about the class issues being the heavy in this story. Played out as poor kids are more naughty than well off kids. Probably. I keep thinking about what it means. A mother that loves truly still has a hard time. Life is not fair? I still want to believe it ends up being fair somewhere. Letting this play go to Broadway will help that. I have 98 more times to see it.

Tell me it’s true. That it’s not just a story. That this ensemble is recording a soundtrack. on vinyl.

Also, I just quit my job.

Photos by Jen Maufrais Kelly