ALL ARTS Dispatch | Melissa Etheridge Off-Broadway | Season 2022 | Episode 7

August 2024 · 4 minute read

[ Cheering and applause ] -♪ The light of the band ♪ ♪ You came to my ♪ ♪ Window ♪ ♪♪ This is not only sort of a musical memoir.

This is also a deep spiritual story and how my life was changed by the things that happened in it and how, as a woman, I have decided to walk my path.

My wife and I, even before we were together, we were always talking about doing a show and our love of Broadway and musicals and how to marry what I do onto the Broadway stage.

That's really what we've been thinking about for ten years, but this, seriously, for about a year.

We really, really started working on this a year ago.

So, I've really gotten a chance to get this into my soul and know what I want to present and how I want to present it.

Not to overwhelm people with too much emotion, but just enough and just enough humor and music to where, when people leave, they feel lifted up and exhilarated.

♪ Come to my window ♪ ♪ Come inside ♪ ♪ Wait by the light of the moon ♪ ♪ Come to my window ♪ ♪ I'll be home soon ♪ -♪ It's only fear that makes you run ♪ ♪ The demons that you're hiding from ♪ -♪ When all your promises ♪ -♪ They're gone ♪ -I've known Melissa for over 30 years, so, I've seen her, obviously, onstage and she's so brilliant, but to see her on this kind of stage is so intense and great and brave and magical.

Here's the thing about Melissa.

She tells the truth and she's so talented and sings better than anybody.

But I'm really, really excited about the story.

I'm proud that she thought of it and that she's following through with it.

I think, if an artist wants to come to Broadway or off-Broadway, it's a great place to be.

I mean, it's fantastic.

-She has... so many stories to tell that it was actually something that we were like, "How are we going to shorten the night?"

Because it could be, you know, much longer.

The wisdom she has to impart, there's so much.

So, capturing it in ways that feel really visceral, really emotional, that can continue to sort of transform and take us on a journey.

She's reliving, in a way, her life.

-Well, my fans, the deep ones that are going to be here tonight, the ones that have seen me hundreds and hundreds of times, you know, they know everything about me.

They know what I've been through.

They know my music.

But there's even some things that they didn't know, that I'm revealing here.

♪ I don't care ♪ ♪ What they think ♪ ♪ I don't care ♪ ♪ What they say ♪ ♪ What do they know about this love ♪ ♪ Anyway?

♪ -I've seen it a million times now, and it makes me cry each time and lifts me up, so, it's an amazing show.

It's like a pop-up card of Melissa, in a way that nobody's ever seen.

There's so much more to Melissa.

People always say, "I knew she was that.

I had that experience with her when I was young, listening to her music, but I didn't know she was so funny.

I didn't know she was so thoughtful," and so to see Melissa then be here, in this magical world, to be able to bring her rock 'n' roll alchemy, healthy, amazing, spiritual message, I've never seen anything like it.

-I would love for people to feel hope.

I think that her message is a really beautiful one because, walking through the fire over and over again, you got to, you know, keep showing up.

With her, it was always with music, but I think that that's a really important message in the show.

-I've always lived my life, you know, even when I was a teenager, thinking, "Someday, they'll make a movie of me," or something.

So, I was like, "I have to live my life, you know," and I used to think, "I so don't have a very interesting life," but then, once I'd lived it, I went, "I have a very interesting life," so, it's kind of a cool thing, but you got to be willing to use your life as your art.

[ Wailing ] ♪♪ [ Cheering and applause ] ♪♪

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