With the world starting to open up after lockdown, a road trip makes perfect sense for that first step outside. Stephen Brotebeck’s musical short, Sharing The Love, follows three friends who venture out on a post-pandemic road trip to San Diego and reconnect with the community thanks to a local car dealership.
Lockdown has pushed Will (Julio Catano), Taylor (Melissa Glasgow), and Jacob (Sheldon Gomabon) to their mental and emotional limits. The three decide that they need to get out of the house, get tacos, and hang out at Balboa Park and the beach. Taylor insists they head out in her father’s car for sentimental reasons. The day is going great until the car breaks down.
Sharing The Love is quite an accomplishment when it comes to indie musicals. But, let’s be real, the music is not quite Broadway ready (but it could be), and a study of music videos and movies would have sent the cinematography to the next level in finding more interesting camera angles.
The singing and harmonies are good but at times a little pitchy. And yes, if you can’t stand the cheesiness of musicals, then this is probably a pass for you. All this to say, it’s not the perfect musical, but pretty damn impressive for something thrown together over lockdown.
“…they need to get out of the house, order tacos, and hang out at Balboa Park and the beach.”
There are a lot of positives in Sharing The Love that will please fans of musicals. First, there is an actual story structure that is often overlooked in lesser films. The opener establishes its characters and their individual wants and desires. Though the story is about an outing to downtown San Diego, an emotional connection is found in the story of Taylor and her father’s memory.
The primary song, Sharing The Love, is essentially dialogue put to music. I applaud the fact that the song actually rhymes and never takes poetic shortcuts. Sharing The Love is also constructed to transition into a quiet reflective moment and then morph into a big dance number at the end.
Yes, the dance number feels like a commercial for Subaru of El Cajon. Still, I won’t begrudge any indie production partnering with local businesses for subtle or overt product placement. As far as indie musicals go, Sharing The Love does enough things right to warrant a recommendation.
"…quite an accomplishment when it comes to indie musicals."
