'Twas a Year Full of New Line, 2022

'Twas a year full of New Line: Pandemic Year Three;
And the Bad Boy was back, to our fervent fans' glee.
Their gratitude grew, with each gutfelt remark,
For letting them gather again in the dark
To be told a story, like we had once done,
Of human adventure and journeys begun.
But we never quite managed to run a whole run!

Back in fall '21, we had opened again,
With a musical written for only two men.
The stage was small-ish, and the audience too,
But we all felt that this was our duty to do --
To help us to heal, spin the stories we need,
To help us connect again, help us succeed
In finding our way home, as Bad Times recede.

Our first Head Over Heels suffered ars interruptus;
Plague shuttered our show with alarming abruptness!
But in March '22, though all broken a bit,
We brought back this heady and healing, smash hit!
Our audience all had to keep themselves masked,
And most folks were happy to do as we asked --
But a handful believed they were thus over-taxed.

We then opened Urinetown, also delayed,
And noticed that this was our Real World portrayed!
The satire felt more like Life than before;
But at least we could laugh at what we can't ignore.
Its government/corp'rate corruption and graft,
In the hands of mad artists, with mad skills and craft,
Revealed the grim truth, yet we laughed and we laughed.

We all feel so lucky that New Line has gotten
To do shows as wackadoo as Something Rotten!
So smart yet so silly, so slyly subversive,
You might be persuaded to find it perverse if
It wasn't so brilliantly, gut-punching funny,
This fable of love and ambition and money,
That dabbles in darkness but winds up so sunny!

This Plague isn't done with us; Life isn't fixed;
Our workaday world is still good and bad, mixed.
But stories still do for us what they do best,
Remind us that we're all a lot like the rest,
Remind us that all of us face the same night;
Our stories connect us all, so that we might
Gather here in the dark to catch glimpses of light.

Stay Safe and Have a Happy New Year!
Long Live the Musical!
Scott

P.S. I started these year-poems on a whim way back in 2013. If you're a glutton for punishment, here are my poems from 2013, 2014, 2015, 2016, 2017, 2018, 2019, and 2020.

P.P.S. If you'd like to contribute to New Line Theatre, just click here.