I had a surreal dream last night, and can only remember a fragment of it, but I think it’s worth recounting so it can be stuck in someone’s head other than mine. In the dream, I was watching a community theater production. Now that I think about it, though, it had a very Waiting for Guffman feel, and I think Catherine O’Hara and Eugene Levy may have been in it, so maybe I was dreaming a sequel. In any case, I was watching this play, and there started to be some music in the background. I hadn’t realized it was going to be a musical, and as the music got louder I suddenly recognized it and realized in horror that they’d made a musical out of the songs of Tom Waits. So I’m watching these people up on stage looking like a glee club in their sweater vests, and as the musical intro finishes, they start singing Tom Traubert’s Blues. And imitating his singing voice. They’re doing that musical thing where the lyric gets bounced around throughout the cast until the chorus, where everybody sings, so every other line is someone new doing a bad Tom Waits imitation. While looking chipper and show-choir-ish.
It’s haunted me all day.
