A Modern Day Love Story is a musical both conceived and directed by Matt Rosansky, then brought to life by University of the Arts. The musical involves several characters wrapped up in the love games of the twenty first century. Chasing this boy, fighting for that girl, we cannot help ourselves but be hopeless romantics in one way or the other. We run after the person of our dreams, fangirl over this attractive celebrity from that show or this band. There lies a societal feeling of yearning some form of love--or pressure to yearn.
Of course, love comes in many forms, not just the happily ever after one sees in the movies. Familial, platonic, friendships, relationships, and so on. The word love has become a social construct and sadly, twisted on its head to make people believe that we all need a partner in our lives or we will be alone and isolated from the universe. This modern day love story makes one realize that we need a reality check, but also for one to be true to themselves and not hide any feelings. In a weird sense, it teaches us both to veer away from love and to face it head-on.
Even if it seems like a paradox, it makes sense. The only thing is that it depends on the situation at hand. The musical definitely hit the nail on the head on showing how pointless and even upsetting on how our society encourages us to act upon certain people one gravitates towards. For example, when Jeremy and Noah fight for the same girl, Kathryn; Jane wanting to be with Noah, but too self-conscious to reveal her feelings towards him.
All of these things are a grateful, yet also painful reminder that love is a complicated thing, and the fact that 'happy endings' do not exist in our reality, but also there are consequences to your decisions and could accumulate until the final straw. On a more personal note, being in three official relationships myself and experiencing other lovely shenanigans (and then being the one giving advice to all my friends because I'm the one who seems to hold the crown of love), having a love life is a messy thing, but not something to be messed with. Seriously, you do not want to mess with love because it will bite you at some point. Hard. Make sure that when you have feelings for one though, do not keep it bottled inside. Even if you do end up hurt or worse yet, heartbroken, you have had the courage to speak out and say something rather than not and regretting so later on.
I recommend this musical to anyone who can be able to go. Their last show is this Friday, the 5th of November. Tickets are only five dollars and free if you are a student of UArts. Even if you cannot watch the show, I hope my thoughts on it and the topic of the show, in general enlightened you with a bit of advice on love.
