Originally published on October 2, 2017
This past week I had the privilege of seeing Bernadette
Peters in concert at Mercyhurst University. I’m so glad I had this opportunity.
For a while there, it seemed like I wouldn’t be able to, but as luck would have
it, the stars aligned and at 7:21 on a Thursday night I was sitting in the
balcony for the first time ever, snapping a pic of the stage and posting it on
Twitter. I was alight with excitement, and in my mind I was trying to think of
what she was going to sing.
The concert was amazing. There’s just something about pure
talent that makes the time fly. Theater and music and entertainment are often
said to be used as an escape, and this was no exception. I wasn’t worried about
the paper due the next day. I wasn’t thinking about the weekend, the stressful
rehearsal I had just run from to get there in time, or the pile of things I had
to do tomorrow. I was in the moment, marveling at the talent of the singer and
the trio. She sang two songs I was definitely expecting (“You Are Not Alone”
and “Children Will Listen” from Into the
Woods, the piece of theater in which I first discovered her) and many from
past shows, but also songs that meant special things to her. She had an encore,
where she sang a lullaby she wrote to put in the back of her book about
animals. Well, that one made me tear up.
So it was this “brush with celebrity” that made me think
about how we view celebrities. I’ve touched on this before, if not on here,
then in conversation, when I saw Starkid’s Firebringer
last summer. That was a completely different experience. In there, I was closer
to the stage. The setting was smaller and more intimate. The actors and
actresses were closer to my age, and I had been watching them for many years. And
afterwards, my friend and I waited in the lobby for them to come out. They
changed into street clothes, carrying backpacks, ready to take pictures and
sign autographs for fans. They were…normal. Just like me.
Yet it was a different sort of experience leading up to
watching Bernadette Peters. We were talking about it all day, whether when I
was trying to work on that paper due tomorrow or waiting for a class to start.
People were talking; they had seen
her, they had heard her. And what do
you mean you’ve never heard of Bernadette
Peters? She is a celebrity, elevated, idolized. That’s the mindset I had
when I was sitting, waiting for it to start. There was the small part of my
mind that was saying, “Five days ago, you
were on that stage. You’ve been on that stage many times before. And
now…someone you’ve only seen on video is there. And every other time you’re on
that stage you can know Bernadette Peters
has stood on that stage too.”
I’m not saying we should stop elevating celebrities, or
giving them the respect they deserve. I just feel like sometimes we go way over
the top with how we act or think or view them.
(Hey, I’m guilty of it too. Reread my inner monologue above.)
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