SUNDAY SHOWSTOPPER SNIPPET… Always Starting Over

For today’s SUNDAY SHOWSTOPPER SNIPPET, I was looking for a song of resilience – of getting back up and LIVING, even after you’ve been broken. Of finding the strength and hope to start over.

If/Then opened on Broadway as “a new musical” in March 2014, and ran for almost exactly a year. The story followed the if/then scenarios of one woman, masterfully given life by the incredibly talented Idina Menzel. The goal was to show the audience that, although we may not control our own destinies by the choices we make, life still goes on, and life is still worth living.

The show received very mixed reviews, but, it’s star, Idina Menzel, received deserved praise. Despite wonderful performances by many in the cast, If/Then’s success or failure was directly linked to whether or not Idina was on stage. If Idina was not in the house, the show was not in the house. In fact, when she had to take a scheduled break for a week in late January 2015 to travel and prepare to perform at the Super Bowl, the Broadway production went DARK! They cancelled performances and returned money for the week. In a rare move, the producers even contracted for Idina to star in the tour – clearly broadcasting that they knew that they wouldn’t have an audience without Idina’s power.

This snippet is the ’11 o’clock number’ – “ALWAYS STARTING OVER.”

Personally, I think they could have stopped the show after this number, because, for me, it says it all.