Tonight is opening night! As promised, here is the final song of the show. After a relationship of more than fifty years, HOPE has become gravely ill, and CHARLES can’t bear the thought of losing her. Through the course of this duet, they both come to terms with the inevitable.
LONG STORY SHORT demo #15: “Letting Go”
Of course, there is much more to a piece of theater than only the songs…and even though this is the final song of the show, there is a plot twist that happens afterward that may still keep you guessing. If you like the music, we hope you will consider joining us at the show. (If you are nowhere near Pittsburgh or Palo Alto, then we hope eventually LONG STORY SHORT will come to you.)
Thanks so much for joining us on this little serialized musical journey. As of today, all 15 tracks are available as a downloadable collection for $10. Enjoy!
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“…It’s the journey together despite everything…”
One of the many, many lines in “Letting Go” that made my eyes spring leaks. Memory can be a cruel mistress, demanding payment, again and again, but you pay and you pay gladly, taking the good and the bad together because one does not exist without the other.
Listening to Val & Brendan in “Letting Go” reminded me of all the music that they have shared with us over the years. Their lyrics always just as incisive as their music, reflecting their lives and ours, “…the constant amid all the change…” It’s what has made GL GL.
The yearning for the past, the fear of the future, our constant companions, but love is the glue that holds all of it together. GL has been a big part of that love. It is the one thing that has separated what they do from whatever other bands do: their unconditional love, for “better or worse” for their work and their audience.
This love radiates, spectacularly unafraid, outwards to you and to me, forces you to deal with it, with them, ask questions, take a stand, decide. Whatever answer you get puts you right inside a swirling universe of life’s possibilities, laughing, crying, wanting more, living and dying in that precise moment. It is that moment that GL create and propagate so well, so completely, so amazingly. Does art imitate life? Or is the other way around? Are you ready to hold that mirror up for as long as it takes to get the answer? Laying yourself bare is no easy thing and that’s what I see with LSS/GL: the courage to reveal what you see in that mirror. For me, that’s what “beshert” means.
It doesn’t matter what the box office receipts will eventually say, having heard what I have heard, and felt, over these past weeks, LSS and GL are a singular success. They have created a musical experience that is a worthy heir to the best that American theater has produced.
Thank you, Val/Brendan/Gene, for all of it. cl
hi, my name’s mikayla. i heard you guys play at Lms. you guys were amazing! i loved hows your songs are kinda rock type, which is the music i like. you guys were great! it would be awesome if you could come to our school again!