Life is Like a Musical Comedy

I just finished a great biography about George M. Cohan, the father of American musical comedy, called George M. Cohan: The Man Who Owned Broadway. It's a really fun read, and at the end, the author quotes the last song Cohan wrote, for his last show, The Musical Comedy Man. Cohan died before the show could be produced. But his lyric is so much fun...

Life is what you make it,
It's just the way you take it,
Life can be a tragedy
Or life can be a song.
Scientific teachers,
Philosopher and preachers,
Have forty different themes on the way to get along.
But when all is said and done, why do they worry so?
To me, to look on life is just like looking at a show.

Life is like a musical comedy,
Life is like a travesty show.
Nobody seems to know just what it's about,
Yet ev'rybody's trying to figure it out.
Life, with all its girls and comedians --
Life is like a blackout revue.
Unexpected scenes, all the way through.
Life is make-believe and spectacular.
Life will hand you just a few laughs.
A little dialogue, then somebody sings,
Just like those Gilbert and Sullivan things.
Life is just the same over distant seas,
Life's a serious of inconsistencies.
Lights on, lights out -- before you know;
Life's just a great big musical show.

Hmmmm.... sort of the same sentiment we encountered at the end of Passing Strange --

The universe is a toy
In the mind of a boy,
And life is a movie, too,
Starring you.
Your whole family’s the cast and crew.
That’s a little secret between God and you.

Remember what Stew told us in Passing Strange -- "Some people feel like art is more real than life. And that really gives you something to think about..."

Yes it does.

Long Live the Musical!
Scott