Helen Grace I am haunted. This conclusion came to me at 2 a.m. in the morning the day after watching Mozart L’opera Rock. After waking up at 1 a.m. and unable to fall back to sleep for an hour, I began to suspect that this has something to do with the show. Indeed, it does, but my recognition of this reality wasn’t immediate at all. I wasn’t thinking about the show, in fact, I was actively trying to avoid thinking about Mozart at all knowing that the floodgate is infinitely easier to open than to close. However, no matter how many “Modern Family” funny compilations I watched, the lights and music of this show never left the edge of my mind. So I changed up my strategy. To read the most non-canonical fan-fiction there is to push myself into the fandom world which bears as much similarity and differences with the musical’s canon world as shampoos and conditioners. Spoiler, the second strategy failed as well, which is how I came to write this review confession from my deepest fan girl self at 4 a.m. in the morning. I don’t think I can put my feelings into words at this stage of sleep deprivation, but Mozart L’opera Rock (even when almost half of its scenes can break your heart into pieces) is the summarization of everything wonderful in the world: music, lights, stars, romanticism, life, death... and after all that, still contains just enough edge that its transcendency won’t become a cliche. Watching this show makes me lament my atrocious ability to write poems because I would have written thousands upon thousands of them in praise. Every single act — from its music to its backdrops, from the choreography to the slightest glint at the edge of the singing actors and actresses’ eyes — is simply perfection. Walking out from the theater, I truly believe that no matter who the audience is, whether they only came for a brief afternoon of cultured entertainment, or like me, have watched the official recording thousands of times online and have exhausted the resources of every video of the cast and fan-videos in this universe before seeing the show live for the first time, they will inevitably fall in love with the musical by the time the curtains are shut. However, what pushed the show beyond transcendence, beyond perfection, to the highest but also the most personal level, is the cast. On stage, the actors and actresses become their characters. They live and breathe through the characters in a way that even the world’s most skilled performer cannot reach. Beyond the performances, they also accepted acts of affection from fans with an uncommon sense of being genuine. Within the scenes, the cast inserted subtle references to our pop culture. Sitting just before the stage, I was lucky to get acknowledged for holding my hands in the shape of a heart. | 