I absolutely love musicals. The big dances, the over the top costuming, the overt emotional displays- I adore them all. I have enjoyed musicals from the time I was a young child. Since I lost all my hearing in one ear, it has been harder to enjoy this media. Unfortunately, if the music isn’t mixed just right, the lyrics can easily blend into the sound of the music and make it challenging to understand. This is especially challenging for live theatre – my favorite way to experience musicals. I find that when I listen to a song on the radio I don’t mind missing some of the words, but in a musical the lyrics provide critical plot movement and you will be confused if you can’t catch what it is being sung.

Upon desiring to attend a musical lately with my eldest child, I started by checking out the accessibility page for the theater (CTM Children’s Theater of Madison). The theater said they provided listening devices and ASL. I find listening devices of any sort typically useless for a musical. The sound is plenty loud, and typically, a hearing device adds volume, when what I need is clarity. I often like a telecoil or hearing loop system for non music events. I called the number listed for accessibility to find out if they offered captioning. They didn’t have a caption option, but were very interested when I said that is what I and many others prefer. I also told them about GalaPro- a captioning app I have used at other theaters. I would encourage you to reach out to accessibility offices of places that don’t offer what you are looking for. Requests like that can really make a difference. The person I spoke with said she would propose it to the board.

The theater offered I could bring my own captioning device, but I have yet to find any software that can successfully caption when there is music playing. Much like my own sound processing, captioning apps seem unable to separate the vocals from the music.

Since I learned captioning would not be an option, but I really wanted to attend this event, I decided to brainstorm solutions. I prepped all my normal theater going gear: ear plugs, device to connect my hearing aid to the hearing loop system, and batteries for my hearing aid. I also thought that since I know captions are typically the best for me, I would make my own captions – so to speak. Musical lyrics can typically be found online with a simple Google search. I went and copied and pasted the lyrics of every song into a document saved on my phone. I did this in a note where I changed the screen to black and font to white to cut down on light pollution. I also brought along a battery pack to make sure my phone would have sufficient charge to last the show.

When I got to the theater, I asked for the listening device, in case it was helpful. I also asked if they had a hearing loop or telecoil (so I could just use my normal system with my hearing aid). They couldn’t tell me if they had a hearing loop and lent me a listening device. I found I could not get their device or mine to hook to the system. As I thought it was unlikely for either to be helpful, I didn’t pursue it further. I decided to warn the folks sitting around me that I was hard of hearing and would likely be using my phone during the show for captioning. Everyone was very kind.

I did love my self-made captions. I found it very easily to follow along and make sure I caught everything. I also was in a smaller theater and realized that seeing faces clearly really helped with my word recognition, so now I know I may want to spring for closer seats in the future for ease of dialog understanding. I found that my “captions” covered almost all of the show, as the vast majority of what is communicated in many musicals is said in song. I have previously tried reading the lyrics right before the show or listening to a recording of the music in advance to familiarize myself – this was by far the most successful attempt.

I wish that captioning for live performances was more ubiquitous, but until it is, this was a pretty solid work around. I don’t know that it would work for a concert unless you had a really firm idea of a set list. I am grateful for the ability to attend a show that my child really wanted to see, and to be able to follow along and not miss it. For me, the time to prep the lyrics definitely was worth it for the enjoyment I had at the event.