Scarlett Letters

I had a very different take on it, but when I first saw it, I was 8 or 9, and it was my dad's high school music dept that was putting it on, my dad directing. So maybe, due to what was cut out to make it appropriate, and what was emphasized, I just understood it differently. Or maybe it was my age. But I always thought that the women (all 2 of them, so not including the queen, although she was still strong if evil) were the strong ones, the ones living actual life, while the men were running around being stupid. And when Pippin finally figured out at the end that he'd been kind of stupid all along, he realized what was important was in front of him all the time. So my takeaway of that musical has always been that all the show and flash in the world is fun but it isn't what's important: what's important is love. And glorifying war and winning and flashiness is bad for you. Also, no matter how important you are, you still have to do your chores. (That may have been emphasized by my mom.)

Also that Ben Vereen is awesome - we had the Broadway recording and I played that record endlessly.