Culture on My Mind
Jukebox Musicals
February 17, 2023

This week, I’m back to the performing arts with the Theater and Musical Lovers YouTube Channel.

The channel and its associated Facebook group were established as an unofficial gathering of Dragon Con attendees who love theater, musicals, and the performing arts. Their goal is to create a community of fellow thespians and fans at the convention. This time, they assembled to talk about musicals that take a different approach to storytelling by starting with a collection of songs and working backward to develop a story and link them all together. The jukebox musical – Ain’t Misbehavin’, Mama Mia, American Idiot, Rock of Ages, and the like – sometimes works, sometimes doesn’t, and sometimes is just fine.

On February 13th, Gary Mitchel and Sarah Rose were joined by Greg Houser (website), Jacqueline Cocanougher, Rob Levy (Modern Musicology Podcast), and Steven R. Denham to put in their quarters and let their dancing shoes tell the tale.

Note: Depending on security settings, you may have to click through below to see the video directly on YouTube. You should definitely subscribe to their channel for more updates.

The Theater and Musical Lovers Group will be hosting more of these panels. If you’re interested in participating or have some topic ideas in mind, head over to the group on Facebook and drop them a line. 

You can find Gary and Sarah on the socials: On Twitter, they are Gary_Mitchel, SarahRose_KPK, and Daisuki_Suu; on Instagram, they are Gary_Mitchel and Daisuki_Suu; and Gary’s horror-themed podcast that he hosts with Erin McGourn is A Podcask of Amontillado. Of course, the Theater & Musical Lovers channel can be found on YouTube.

Culture on My Mind is inspired by the weekly Can’t Let It Go segment on the NPR Politics Podcast where each host brings one thing to the table that they just can’t stop thinking about.

For more creativity with a critical eye, visit Creative Criticality.