I was in a conversation recently, and someone said something that stopped me cold.

“I only do shows about finding your family.”

I thought about that for a second. And then I couldn’t stop thinking about it.

Because the more I turned it over, the more I started to wonder if that wasn’t just a personal creative philosophy. Maybe it’s the whole game.

Here’s my thesis:

All musicals are about finding your family.

Say it out loud. Let it sit. Now start poking at it.

Falsettos

One of my favorites. A man leaving his wife for another man. His son. His ex-wife. Her new husband. A pair of lesbian neighbors who show up when it counts. They form the most unconventional, complicated, beautiful family you’ve ever seen on a stage. Finding your family? That’s the whole show.

Altar Boyz

A boy band spreading the gospel. Five kids who found each other and built something bigger than any of them could’ve been alone. That’s a family.

Fun Home

A daughter reckoning with a father she never fully knew. A girl finding the map of herself by tracing the map of him. Literal family. Figurative family. Both at once.

Oklahoma

Farmers and cowboys figuring out how to coexist. A community becoming a family of neighbors . . . and yes, figuring out who belongs. That’s the whole story. The romance is almost a subplot.

A Chorus Line

Seventeen dancers. One job. And the thing that makes it sing isn’t the audition. It’s the moment you realize they’ve become something to each other they didn’t expect. A family.

Now try to break it, folks. Think of a musical that doesn’t fit. 

I’m waiting.

Literal or figurative. Dysfunctional or beautiful. Blood or chosen. It doesn’t matter. The through line is there. What we keep making (and what we keep buying tickets to see) is the story of people finding where they belong.

And maybe that tells us something about why we love this art form so much.

Agree or disagree? Let me know in the comments below.

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