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Taylor Swift · S1 E4
The Theater Kid
Musical theater obsession, the Berks Youth Theatre, and first performances before she could drive.
The curtain at the Berks Youth Theatre goes up at eight. A ten-year-old in a Sandy wig is already in the wings, running lines she has memorized so thoroughly she can recite them backwards.
"Love Story" -- Taylor Swift (Fearless, 2008). A period costume drama of her own design: she plays a woman across multiple scenes, builds to a declaration, and resolves on a precise emotional note. The instinct for costume, character, and climax all traces back to Berks Youth Theatre.
Love Story
"Love Story" is written in approximately twenty minutes in Taylor's bedroom after her parents disapprove of a boy she is seeing. The song is structured like a three-act musical: meet-cute, obstacle, resolution, with a key change into the final chorus that functions as a show-stopping climax. In the real Romeo and Juliet, everyone dies. Taylor rewrites the ending. It peaks at number four on the Billboard Hot 100 and number one on the country charts, becoming one of the best-selling country singles in digital history.
The Theater Kid
“I was obsessed with musical theater. I loved the idea that a song could tell a complete story, a beginning, a middle, an end, and make someone feel something in three minutes that would take a movie two hours to build.”
— Taylor Swift, Entertainment Weekly, 2008
TAP TO REVEAL: Taylor Swift loses a televised talent competition at thirteen. What does it teach her?
Bonus Listening
"Tied Together with a Smile" (Taylor Swift, 2006). Written at thirteen about a friend struggling with an eating disorder. A portrait of someone else's pain, rendered with the empathy of a girl trained to inhabit characters on stage.
"Love Story" became one of the best-selling country singles in digital history, but it was written under unusual circumstances. How long did it take?
The Berks Youth Theatre gives her a stage, and the talent competition loss gives her a strategy. What she does not have yet is a reason to choose country over Broadway, and that reason arrives on television: a woman from Ontario in a cowboy hat.
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