Selection of show tunes will get you back in race

Has summer’s end got you down? Is romance waning, too? Does a hard look at your budget make you quake? Does a new enterprise scare you? Do you feel like a loser at the game of life?

Your challenges may be real – and really worrisome. You may not have the power to stop seasonal change, instill passion in a cool lover, receive the raise you crave, feel brave, or win at every enterprise, but you can decide how to react to all of this stress. But you do get to choose whether you sing the blues or strike up the band and use some rousing songs from musical comedies to cheer you up.

Before you dismiss this as silly or simple-minded, remember, musical comedies have a long history of personalizing quintessentially human predicaments. They do this chiefly through songs that wax lyrical about the human condition from its most spunky to its most melodramatic. In short, there’s no business like show business to help us through life’s ups and downs.

OK, it’s September. Summer vacation is at an end. Never before has the impending onset of cooler temperatures – with their attendant heating bills – been so anxiety-provoking. Still, September is a month to celebrate – at least in the song “Try to Remember” from the musical “The Fantasticks.” “Try to remember a kind of September, when life was slow and oh so mellow,” the song advises. “Try to remember a kind of September when dreams were kept beside your pillow.” If this sounds oh-so-sentimental, remember, this was the keynote piece in the world’s longest-running musical with a record-breaking run of 17,162 performances. Surely the song by Harvey Schmidt and Tom Jones struck a chord with many.

Still, the change of season may seem tame compared with the loss of love. Fortunately, there’s a musical comedy number for every possible approach to this. For the spunky, there’s the Rodgers and Hammerstein piece “I’m Gonna Wash That Man Right Out of My Hair” from “South Pacific. For the utterly bereft, try the same songsters’ inspirational “”You’ll Never Walk Alone” from “Carousel.”

As for money woes, turn to the anthem of the wishful thinker, “If I Were a Rich Man,” by Jerry Harnick and Sheldon Bock from “Fiddler on the Roof,” or the plucky “I’ve Got Plenty of Nothin'” from “Porgy and Bess” by George Gershwin and Dubose Heyward.

To overcome fear, “Whistle a Happy Tune,” a la the Rodgers and Hammerstein song from “The King and I.” Finally, for winning against all odds, there’s no song that says it better than Richard Adler and Jerry Ross’ “You’ve Gotta Have Heart” from “Damn Yankees.” Trust me. You simply cannot remain discouraged when you’re belting out the words “You’ve gotta have heart. All you really need is heart. When the odds are sayin’ you’ll never win, that’s when the grin should start!”