It's Tuesday, July 14, and today you're in for a treat.
This morning's message comes from the theater artist Laura Griffith Langs, who's performed on Broadway in shows like The Light in the Piazza, Oklahoma!, and South Pacific, but lives in Seattle and is best known locally for roles at 5th Avenue Theatre and ACT.
Laura took a break from acting three years ago to have a baby, and the baby is now at an age where she's bouncing off the walls, so Laura wasn't able to record a new message—but that's how we ended up with this special treat.
It's a video of Laura singing to her baby three years ago, back when she enjoyed being sung to (not the case, these days!), and the video is trained entirely on the smiling baby's face. Remember three years ago? When COVID-19 didn't exist? We barely do either.
Laura's singing "Cockeyed Optimist" from South Pacific.
"My daughter was born right before the election in 2016, and I think I sang this song to her a lot when she was a baby because it was my meditation on hope."
South Pacific was the last show Laura did in New York before coming back west to find love and start a family.
Six months later, she met her future husband, John Langs, who is now the artistic director of ACT Theatre. When Laura appeared as Squeaky Fromme in ACT's production of Assassins in 2016, she was three months pregnant.
Laura, right, as Squeaky Fromme in Assassins at ACT.ACT Theatre/Photo by Tracy Martin
By the way, the baby? She's probably the only person in the world who isn't overjoyed when her mom starts singing. "She is not impressed now," Laura says. "It's my only superpower, and she's totally immune. She won’t tolerate my singing anymore, but she sings to herself all the time which always makes me smile. She is quite the composer."
Okay, that is hilarious—Mom's a Broadway star, but baby's a critic.
Thank you for that laugh, and for your brilliant voice, and for this blast of joy this morning, Laura.
