Suddenly...my dreams are motion...

... and I-I-I-I-I am willing to sail any o-oh-cean...

That delightful lyric is from the hit song "Suddenly" made famous by Ms. Olivia Newton John in the infamously wonderfuly awful film Xanadu. Which is now a Broadway musical. For real, y'all. In fact, the shows tag is "Xanadu on Broadway. Seriously." I love it!

When I was ten years old, I had a notion that I was going on be on the exhibition roller skating team for the 1980 Olympic summer games. I practiced every day in my roller skates ( bright blue ones that looked like tennis shoes). I did figure eights in my basement. I did training laps around the block and I worked out "long programs" on my porch to a portable radio. I found out that there was a movie that involved two of my favorite things at the time...Olivia Newton John ( I was a BIG Grease fan too) and roller skates. I HAD to be there. I begged my mom to take me and she did. ( I will say that this was probably one of the last movies my mom actually went to the movies to see...perhaps I sullied the movie going experience for her by forcing Xanadu on her... Sorry Mom). I love love loved it - what I didnt fall asleep on.

There was so much to love about it. I learned about Gene Kelly... subsequently watching anything that he was in after that. I learned about ELO ( Electric Light Orchestra for those of you who don't know - thier sound, with tight harmonies and sweeping epic musicality made me just want to sing everything they made). But most of all, it made we want to find out more about Greek Myths. There were references I just didnt get and my mom told me they were referning to mythical stories. We actually went shopping after the matinee show, we went to B Dalton where I picked up my first book on mythology and we went to Kemp Mill Records and Tapes (actually we went to several) to get the soundtrack recording of Xanadu.

And so, ladies and gentlemen you can see why when I happened upon a story about Xanadu the Broadway musical - my heart leaped! Today at Little Shop rehearsal the fella playing Seymour was talking about how he had gone to NYC to see it. We had a great conversation about it and it made we want to go see it quickly ( cuz I am not sure that it will be around for much longer). I dont know how that is going to happen with my fulltime Ye Olde gig and Little Shop about to open... but, where there's a will... there's Xanadu!