"The Angry Grammarian: A New Musical"

For the past five years or so, Jeffrey Barg has been writing a column for the Philadelphia Inquirer called "The Angry Grammarian". The last one appeared on February 23 of this year, and Barg moved his peeves to Substack. At about the same time, his musical rom-com premiered at Theatre Exile in Philadelphia.

There's some coverage in an article by Jane Von Bergen, "Commas, syntax and usage star in 'The Angry Grammarian: A New Musical'", Billy Penn 3/5/2024:

Are you eager to read this story?

It’s about “The Angry Grammarian: A New Musical” a world premiere musical rom-com on grammar opening soon in Philadelphia.

If eager, perhaps it’s because you’ve always loved a good song about commas or have received a small reading bribe from writer Jane M. Von Bergen.

Or, maybe you are anxious to read this story.

Yes, you are going to read, but you are worried the mention of an Oxford comma will be triggering, you loathe musicals, and you often find Von Bergen’s humor a little nauseating.

Jeffrey Barg, both “The Angry Grammarian” playwright and Philadelphia Inquirer Angry Grammarian columnist, maintains a long list of crimes against language – and these days, the misuse of eager versus anxious is right near the top.

“I’m eager to correct it – not anxious to correct it,” he said.

Barg is probably both eager and anxious to see how audiences react to the play he wrote with Jersey theater artist David Lee White, who teaches advanced improvisation, theater history and dramatic analysis at Drexel University.

Performed by the Pier Players Theatre Co. at Theatre Exile March 7-16, “Angry Grammarian” charts the romance of two language fans who fall in love over a shared passion for grammar and punctuation.

So you've lost your chance to see the production — I didn't see it either — but you can experience a number of the songs on Jeffrey Barg's YouTube channel.

But the eager/anxious case featured in Jane Von Bergen's review is a classic example of ignorant peeving, rather than a "crime against language". The OED's entry for anxious includes sense 3, glossed as "Having a strong desire for something, to do something, or that something should happen; keen, eager, greatly concerned", with citations back to 1570.