Now, before we start, I'll give you some history on this song, since I'm guessing none of you have ever heard of it. It's from the criminally underrated, yes, criminally, Broadway musical, known as The 25th Annual Putnam County Spelling Bee, criminally underrated because it's awesome, and piss-your-pants funny.
Then comes the I Love You song. Literally, the first time I heard this song, I was sobbing. It's about this girl named Olive, who's mother has basically abandoned her to go on a, quote on quote, 'spiritual journey' in India, while her father has abandoned her for his work. She's having a hallucination about her parents saying they love her, even though she has accepted that it's chimerical: highly unrealistic,wildly fanciful...
The I Love You Song
By: The Cast of The 25th Annual Putnam County Spelling Bee
Love had always been a cold, abstract, unknown thing in Maka's mind. Sure, she had read about true love in fairy tales and storybooks, but it was never present in her life.
Yes, her parents both said they loved her, but by the time she was 10, she knew they didn't love each other. By that age, she knew her Mama hated her Papa, and vice versa. Papa had impregnated Maka's Mama when she was 18, and decided to marry her. But married life wasn't good enough for Spirit Albarn.
So he began to womanize. There was constant fighting, all of which Maka heard, late into the night. Sometimes, to make herself feel better before she fell asleep, she would envision her parents, happy together, smiling and dancing and laughing, like Maka thought they should be, like how all people acted when they were in love. But she was fully aware that these images were nothing but silly, chimerical hallucinations.
That's when Maka started to notice the change in her mother; the normally bright and energetic Kami had become a shell of her former self, seeming to simply move through the motions of life.
Then, when Maka was 12, it happened. Her mother went away for a few days, and never came back. She was found 2 days later in her hotel room. Death, from overdose of sleeping pills. Now, whether it was suicide, or accidental, Maka didn't know. She tried not to think about it.
Twelve was the age that Maka had developed the idea that true love in itself was chimerical. Purely fiction, unrealistic, wildly fanciful. The cold truth that no one smiled and danced and laughed when they were in love like in the stories hit Maka like a brick wall. Love was pointless, pitiful, imaginary.
Because of that, she had fallen for Soul Evans sideways. She refused to realize it until Soul had admitted it himself. And the rest is history.
So now, as Maka lay in her bed, in her lover's embrace, she realized that, love, as cold and abstract it could be, was wonderful, and very, very real. A risk, for sure, but definitely worth it in every way.
Sorry, this story is kinda dark, but so is the song. Please review!