Welcome to the Musicals Thread, the Avocado’s space for anything and everything related to musical theatre! Every month I’ll post a discussion prompt, but please feel free to comment on other topics, from new discoveries to old favorites. If you have ideas for future prompts or would like to write a feature for the thread, let me know!
“You, dear friend, who taught so well,
You can go to…Hartford, Hereford, and Hampshire!
– Eliza Doolittle (My Fair Lady, lyrics by Alan Jay Lerner)
As Louise Hovick conceded to her mother, “No kid does it on his own.” Musical theatre characters will often find themselves, if not in a formal teacher-student setting, imparting to or receiving from one another some sort of instruction or wisdom. It may lead to virtuous or villainous ends. It may be one dimension of a more complex connection or the focus of only a single scene or song. Either way, that moment can serve as a crucial turning point, providing the direction or encouragement to keep the story moving forward. What are your favorite/the most memorable pedagogical relationships from musicals and why?.
These relationships aren’t usually central to the story, but an arguable exception is The Secret Garden. Orphaned Mary Lennox initially has no one else to connect to but the staff at her uncle’s estate, who teach her about the land and its potential for growth. Their lessons of awakening dormant strength and life come to apply to Mary, too.