Screenshot of Lise Leplat Prudhomme in Jeannette, l'enfance de Jeanne d'Arc by There Stands the Glass.
I was terribly mistaken when I thought trading operas for musicals would make my life easier. The majority of the 285 operas I watched last year captivated and edified me. I gain comparatively little from the musicals I’ve screened in the opening weeks of 2021. Two deeply flawed productions illustrate the distress caused by my self-imposed burden. The tawdry sexuality and dorky humor in a 1981 staging of Pippin: His Life and Times starring Ben Vereen and Chita Rivera make it one of the most insufferable shows I’ve encountered. Devil horns replace jazz hands in the loopy Jeannette, l'enfance de Jeanne d'Arc. Everything about the heavy metal musical loosely based on the childhood of Joan of Arc is ridiculous. And I love it. The 2017 film delights me as much as Pippin enrages me. In spite of my reservations, the show must go on.