Relay: No Show Tunes? No Disney Songs?

I’ll admit it: I enjoy show tunes. Listening gives me great joy, and I particularly like breaking out into song with a selection from a favorite musical. Be it Broadway hits like “Rent,” “Chicago,” or “Wicked,” I’ve been known to belt out a number or two. But only when appropriate, for instance when I’m alone, like in my car or in the shower, or when it’s clearly okay to make a ridiculous spectacle of yourself, like at a karaoke night at a bar. Since when is that a crime?

Since I showed up at karaoke night at M.J. Dowling’s, apparently.

Despite a brief stint as a Noyac resident, I’d never been to this particular restaurant before. But on a recent Friday night out with a friend, we decided to skip our usual favorite places and go somewhere neither of us had ever visited. Upon looking around, we thought M.J. Dowling’s felt welcoming, and we decided it was appropriate for two 30-something women to sit and enjoy a drink. Our thoughts were confirmed when, not once but three times, we saw a television commercial promoting Anna Throne-Holst, who is running for Congress as a Democrat, featuring a message clearly aimed at our still-somewhat-youthful demographic.

M.J. Dowling’s has karaoke on Friday nights, of course. Around 10:40 p.m., the karaoke M.C. announced he would begin taking requests.

The bartender turned to me and asked me and my friend if we would be singing. She declined, but I nodded my head. That’s when he narrowed his eyes at me and said something that left me deeply saddened: “Okay, but no show tunes.”

Now here’s the thing. I worked as a karaoke M.C. myself for a few months, toward the end of 2011, and I get it. When I had my gig, I encouraged my singers to sing upbeat songs. It keeps the rest of the crowd happy, and happy crowds spend money, which keeps the bartenders happy, which keeps the management happy, which means they keep paying a karaoke M.C. But if someone really wanted to sing Adele or something else kind of slow or emotional, I couldn’t stop them. The customer is always right, right?

There are plenty of upbeat show tunes. But I shrugged it off and picked “Heartbreaker” by Pat Benatar. If someone else were to scoop up that song before I did, I would have requested “Waking Up in Vegas” by Katy Perry as a backup. Solid non-show-tune choices, I thought.

It was only in casual conversation a couple of weeks later with David Rattray, The Star’s editor, that he identified this experience for what it was. I’d been profiled.

I was wearing dark-framed glasses and a deep shade of berry-colored lipstick, and I had on a gray dress with blue flowers, and tall boots. Maybe I looked a little eccentric. Could that be what pegged me as a Broadway enthusiast? I had ordered a pint of Steam Anchor and French onion soup. Was beer and soup a weird combination? Was that what did it? Maybe I was just way too enthusiastic when the karaoke M.C. opened up requests.

That night, though, the profiling got worse. “No Disney songs, either,” the bartender said.

I swear the only reason I have an iPhone playlist of all of Walt Disney’s princess ballads is my former gig as a dance teacher specializing in classes for toddlers. But the bartender didn’t know that, and I certainly didn’t volunteer the information.

In the end, I guess I just looked the part. I have to say I felt a little “On My Own.” But to that I say, “You Can’t Stop the Beat,” and that night will surely make for quite a “Memory.”

Christine Sampson covers education for The Star.