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Life Lessons From My First Broadway Musical 🎵

  • Writer: Live True
    Live True
  • Aug 24, 2025
  • 5 min read

2 months have passed since "the Spelling Bee" - and I only downloaded the recordings/ photos of our show last weekend, and began documenting this personal first (✅ Broadway Musical!).


With the benefit of this retrospect, I am present to what it took to see this bucket list item - since watching Les Miserables in secondary school - through:


  • 2 hours rehearsal x 2 days X 12 weeks

  • 1 week of nightly tech rehearsals and 4 shows 

  • All my executive functioning to integrate fast-moving scenes, complex score and multi-limbed dance steps to muscle memory, at the anxiety-inducing pace set by Director Caleb Goh and Musical Director Joanne Ho. I am a fan of front-loading… 

  • Even if I often felt that I was barely keeping head above water. Serving as Voice co-captain kept my feet to the flame! 

  • Activating my imaginary arms 🐙 for all of the above, while holding space for clients, projects, and my 2 vastly different kids. Just the week before tech, I was #stagemom on 3 days for A1’s dance competitions, and keeping hyperactive/ always-bored A2 gainfully occupied during the school holidays.

  • Over the 13 weeks, I was more "all business" than I wanted to be. There were many conscious choices to carve out brain space, utilise every commute, keep up with missed rehearsals, conserve limited energy, opt out of sidebar jokes/chats, soothe my nervous system, duck out of rehearsal for a global call across 3 continents. 7-am school dropoffs mean I made it to ONE post-rehearsal supper and I only got to socialise after the show closed - at Nathalie Ribette's post-show party, Pangdemonium’s Heathers and Phantom. 


As the songs recede in my memory, these are lessons that are still fresh and will stay with me:



1️⃣ Discomfort is your friend


I knew this going in - and chose to support myself in every way I knew how. Celebrating post-audition, no matter the outcome. Holding self lovingly. Downtime/ quiet space. Show up, do the work, trust the practice. Finding a quiet place when the dressing room got too manic. Mantras like: 

“I’m doing what makes me feel alive, even if most days I feel right on the edge. And that edge isn’t always dangerous.” 

This was a new process and context for me, and I give myself grace for navigating it wholeheartedly.

In my current calmer, unchallenged, rested state, I see that the surrender point could have come earlier… and there was so much more room for whimsy in my approach. I only got to experiment and fully breathe into my character just before tech week. It was in this sacred pre-game huddle, sharing 3 breaths together, where my last wall - not constructed to keep others out, but to keep it together - came down. 

I also didn’t quite connect to this show initially. With my personal top 3 musicals (Les Mis, Rent and Phantom) being chronicles of love, death, pathos in sweeping spectacle, I had never pictured my first musical to be: 


  • comedic and rife with puns

  • improvisational - 2 audience members participate every show

  • have big dance numbers, or 

  • play teenagers from a small-town.


Nonetheless, from this hilarious musical that won multiple Tony Awards, I have learnt more than I imagined about the musical theatre craft and grown beyond the confines of my imagination. (And also a few obscure words along the way!)



2️⃣ Theatre/ drama as a safe space


Saying “this is a safe space” doesn’t make it one. My workplaces, and even some past creative containers, have been more unsafe than safe… so I don’t take it for granted at all. 


In this production, we were blessed by a seasoned leader who brought a strong vision, while giving room and invitation to co-create and experiment. The culture at Sing'theatre - whether Showstoppers or Open Mic nights - is a special space that welcomes all. Hugs and joy are aplenty, and shame doesn’t get to take hold between the cracks.



In my first year of supporting my neurodivergent brain, I am pushing the limits of what feels safe - which includes taking up space with my ideas and voice - and trusting the unfamiliar.



3️⃣ Contributing with our gift(s)


It feels safe to play small. But in a psychologically-safe, creative setting, hierarchy or qualifying criteria doesn’t matter. 


It was incredibly healing to be around people - whatever their age, performing experience, ethnicity and orientation - bringing their gifts sans second-guessing to shine unapologetically. That kind of energy literally calls the same out of you. One doesn’t need to wait for permission or earn their place (well, once auditions are over). 


Appointing me Vocal co-captain (in absentia!) in early rehearsals was an act of trust by my castmates, who didn’t seem to care (know?) that this was my 1st Showstoppers as a humble ensemble member. And as it turns out, this score - with no repeated sections, quirky harmonies, demanding singing with “teeth and lips,” no falling back on choir technique - was the challenge my sight-reading and hypersensitive hearing have been seeking… and I was happy to be able to contribute musical notes to others who had different talents. 


I’m reminded that every one of us (whatever our billing) has a jaw-dropping superpower (or two) that makes the collective show GREAT. 



4️⃣ Gratitude: to connect with human beings


It has been a long time since I have received handwritten notes - it takes me back decades to green room love of high-school choir and college productions.



That was a mobile-free time where tactile writing ruled communication and I’m glad this hasn’t changed! 


The last show day, my helper (who does everything to make our household work) went on home leave. So I could barely eke out a ❤️ in response to the posts put out by the team in the post-show week. For the 20-something individuals who shared space during this episode of my life: I have so much love for you. Regret #2 is not taking an individual selfie with each person involved in the production but thanks to our official photographer’s Yu Khing and prolific chat group, this reel is a love letter to each person, and one to look back on. 


For those who supported from far and near: 



Thank you for your presence, beautiful flowers, pre-show wishes, and celebrating this undertaking with me in many other ways. I love how this show brought me the gift of renewed connections too - like Sharad’s dad Krishna Ramachandra. Finally, those at home who held the kids missing me on those nights out, including Jeremy Tan who said, “go for it!”



I am now contemplating my next creative adventure. Many of my cast mates have already put up their next shows, workshops etc. (which means they had been rehearsing in parallel all along  😅) Given the construct of my life and myself, one creative project at a time is the pace at which I feel alive (and gives me time to watch and support them!). 


Audience love is its own brand of wonderful, but I believe the biggest reward for every creative folk is a new level of trust in their instincts and abilities. 


I hope you enjoyed my encore as the curtain comes down on Sing’theatre’s 25th Annual Putnam County Spelling Bee. Thank you, and good night! 🙇🏻


 
 
 

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