Waaaaaiiiiiittt.
You are not ready for this. Stop, drop and scroll down to watch this.
Broadway/recording diva Shoshana Bean teams up with choreographer divine Travis Wall to brings visual life to her acoustic cover of Benj Pasek and Justin Paul's "This is Me" from the Hugh Jackman film, The Greatest Showman.
Wall conceived, directed, produced, and choreographed the music video wherein Bean talks Wall through the fears and doubts that life dumps on us.
Wall, like Bean, is a Broadway veteran having made his Broadway debut in the 2000 revival of The Music Man before becoming a major force in the dance world as a fierce competitor on the second season of Fox’s reality dance competition So You Think You Can Dance in 2006.
Bean, of course, starred on Broadway in Wicked as the wicked witch "Elphaba" and brought down the house in Hairspray. She's since moved on to conquer the music charts with her own R&B/pop albums, touring the country to sold out audiences. I've previously written about Shoshana extensively - find more posts about the diva here.
It was only recently that I learned Bean recorded the original demo of "This is Me," which won the 2018 Golden Globe for Best Original Song. But, with her still strong Broadway roots, it comes as no surprise.
Bonus point for the recording - Proceeds from downloads and streams of the new cover benefit the Los Angeles LGBT Center.
While I enjoyed the song in the context of the film, the powerful point on view here is both Wall and Bean bring their impressive powers to bear on a collaboration where, in my opinion, the song finds its new universal destiny.
Talking about the recording, Tony Award winner Harvey Fierstein wrote, "My daughter, Shoshana Bean, takes this song and makes it her own, which means... she makes it OURS."
Take a look below, and you can download the song here.
