When did I become a Bandstand account? I don't know but you should've seen something like this coming

So Bandstand is playing its last performance tonight and I'm feeling really emotional, so I'm going to talk a little about my experience with this show, you don't have to read it if you don't want but I have to get these emotions out

So I'd been in love with the concept of this show, and had been wanting to see it for about two years, starting when it opened at Papermill Playhouse 

I was SO happy when it was announced that it was transferring to Broadway because it meant I might have a chance of seeing it, and a few months later we actually got tickets for it

But when the Tony nominations were announced, I was very upset for Bandstand, obviously, but I was worried that the fact that it only got two nominations meant that it would close right after the Tony Awards

BUT GUESS WHAT it didn't, it's made it A LOT longer than I'd thought it would and I'm so extremely grateful for that

So we went to go see it, front row seats, and I was obviously expecting it to be amazing

It was so much better than I could've ever imagined 

This show is SO INCREDIBLY IMPORTANT 

Not only does it have a gorgeous score and script, the lighting design and choreography really stood out to me as well

And every single member of the cast is amazingly talented, not just Laura and Corey (though I mean come on why didn't either of them get nominated?)

Geoff Packard, Joe Carrol, Brandon Ellis, Nate Hopkins, and Alex Bender (and I'm sure Joey Pero as well, I just didn't get to see him live) are all CRAZY talented. I mean acting, singing, dancing and playing instruments, and doing all of those things exceptionally well? You don't come across talent like that very often

As for the actual message of the show, I HAVE NEVER SEEN ANYTHING LIKE IT in a musical before and it's so important 

These days people think that we don't need to care as much about PTSD, they think that people are open about it now

THAT IS NOT TRUE

Yes, it was more prominent in the 40s because World War II was almost literally hell for most people involved 

But it's still happening today,  and we're ignoring that

Everyone this season was praising Dear Evan Hansen for looking mental illness right in the face and addressing it, and don't get me wrong, I love Dear Evan Hansen

But Bandstand does the exact same thing, and it does it while set in a time period where people didn't talk about ANYTHING, nobody told anybody about their PTSD, because not only would they be seen as weak, but they believed that the people who didn't experience those things didn't deserve to be 'burdened' with knowing what happened

Bandstand is also a show about mental illness and nobody really understands that, it shows that PTSD can happen in people that you least expect, and it shows that it can manifest itself in several different way (OCD, trust issues, alcoholism, actual physical brain injuries) and that's honestly something a lot of people need to see and understand 

IN CONCLUSION I love this show so much, it does not deserve to close, by any means, it deserves a much longer life than it's gotten, but I'm so incredibly grateful to have been able to see it and meet the wonderful cast, and you can be sure I'm going to see it again when it goes on tour, I hope the tour brings some more fans to this shows small little fan group