This weekend, students stepped into Hatchetfield, a community plagued by musical theater. The Kenyon College Players’ production of The Guy Who Didn’t Like Musicals, staged in the Harlene Marley Theater, follows Paul Mathews (the guy who didn’t like musicals), played by Noah Song ’29, as he tries to save the world from an apocalypse. I left the show feeling absolutely shocked at how a musical seemingly so absurd could convincingly tackle the weighty issue of the danger of societal conformity. 

I had the privilege of attending The Guy Who Didn’t Like Musicals on Friday night. It was sort of ironic to me, because typically I don’t like musicals. However, this production had the perfect mix of comedy and realism, making it more than bearable. My problem with musicals has always been that the music never quite seems to perfectly fit within the plot, but when the whole plot revolves around everyone suddenly being infected with the need to sing, it fits seamlessly. The show begins by introducing Paul, a man working in tech support who just doesn’t care for musicals. Throughout the show, he’s surrounded by coworkers who all enjoy attending them in their day-to-day life, or by people who love singing cafes like the one Emma, played by Laura Carter ’28, works in. Paul’s coworkers don’t understand his distaste for musicals, and Paul doesn’t pay any mind to it until a meteor hits Hatchetfield and starts infecting people with a musical virus. Paul runs into a flash mob on the street, featuring a woman soliciting for charity, a homeless man and everyday people. He fears this interaction, but does not understand the extent to which musical theater is infiltrating people’s minds until everyone he knows slowly starts to perform a choreographed song around him. 

Honestly, one of my favorite parts of the show was the characters’ confused facial expressions as they witnessed the synchronized singing and dancing of their coworkers and friends. In an email to the Collegian, Song wrote about these reactions: “Every character has these little side ad-libs and behaviors that I believe add so much heart and humanity to every scene. Looking off center stage on occasion is recommended; you never know what you might catch!” The show had an interesting balance of the absurd and the everyday. It presented an alien meteor turning daily life into a musical and exemplified realistic reactions from cast members’ responses to such a plague, which made the production a truly entertaining watch.

However, I couldn’t help but pick up on the underlying message: Beneath the strangeness of the production, there seems to be a metaphor for assimilation. Director Lauren Karg ’28 confirmed my interpretation in an email to the Collegian, stating, “At its core, the theme of the show is the loss of individuality and agency in favor of conformity.” In the last scene of the show, after Paul finally conforms to his musical-loving counterparts and succumbs to their plague, Emma is lured in by Paul, seemingly normal at the time, before he breaks out into song and the rest of the cast emerges singing and dancing. As the show ends and the rest of the cast begins their bows, Emma runs around the audience while begging for help, making audience members face the dangers of bystander syndrome. Carter wrote, “It’s not often that you get the opportunity to scream your lungs out or break the fourth wall so directly in a show. It was very rewarding to let it all out at the conclusion of a high-stakes act.” And it truly was an experience — Carter even ran up to me, out of breath, and asked, “Do you have a phone?!” In a daze, I said, “Yeah,” and picked it up, thinking that she broke character and needed the time, before she screamed, “CALL SOMEONE!” She made my heart nearly jump out of my chest and all I could think was, “Is she actually in trouble? Should I really be standing here clapping?” Maybe that’s just good acting, or maybe the show not only tackled conformity but also the ways we act when someone is in danger. While it was jarring to have someone scream at you for help at the very end of a show, if anyone in the audience genuinely thought something was wrong, they would have been crazy. (And since I received my email from Carter with her answers to my interview questions, it has been confirmed that if I fell for her breaking the fourth wall and thought she was in serious trouble, I was just that: crazy.)

Overall, The Guy Who Didn’t Like Musicals ended up being a very entertaining watch on the surface, but an even greater commentary on the way society chooses conformity over individuality, as well as the ways in which we face danger as bystanders. As an audience member, I could see that the actors brought their real personalities and natural reactions into the show to curate an absurd reality that left the audience starstruck, especially after being faced with a girl screaming at you to help her!