Last year I blogged about a Broadway show that failed -- in fact, it never debuted in the first place. It was a musical about the early years of Steve Jobs and Bill Gates that was weeks away from premiering until the money vanished and the show was cancelled. It made me think about "the delusion of art", about how artists are people who have odd, purely inspirational, delusional ideas to create something (a painting, a statue, an instillation, a movie, a book, a musical, a play, anything) and are also delusional enough to think that anyone will care about it or want to work on it or finance it or finally go to see it when it's completed and put on display.
Works of art can enshrine their creators into history, give them legacies that long outlast their lives, become part of the public consciousness and culture -- or they can fail, disapear, their creators efforts all for nought, sometimes even leading them to ruin.
I just read another story about a show that had been in the works for many years and almost made it to Broadway -- until its star created all sorts of trouble, leading to its closure off-Broadway, any hopes of big money and Tonys shot. It's a depressing story, reminding you of the perils, but how people pursue it because they love it, delusional, for better or worse, forever.
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