All That Jazz

The Child and I zipped down to Audrey Hepburn's yesterday so we could attend opening night of Molly's summer musicale. Molly is one of my favorite neices (and not just because she reads my blog) and there isn't much I wouldn't do for her, including driving 1.5 hours to hear a group of high school kids sing show tunes.

There were some extremely talented kids in the class of '03 who come home from college in the summer and work with the younger kids in the high school theater program. They put together a 2 hour program (down from an original 3) that highlighted popular musical theater since the 1950's. 8 kids, 2 in college, 2 in junior high, 4 in high school. 5 girls, 3 boys. Got the picture? No. You don't.

a) The kids looked fantastic, dressed and coiffed to the nines.

b) They had pipes.

c) They had chops.

d) Most of them had moves.

Some of the voices were a little weak, especially in the beginning, what with nerves and all. You could tell from their stage presence who was in junior high. But all of them were completely into what they were doing and dished up medleys of songs that were fun, amusing, and sometimes downright mind-blowing. After the Caberet-like opening of "let us entertain you" type songs we got a little "West Side Story", a bit of "Les Mis", a smattering of "Lion King". We were treated to medleys of Andrew Lloyd Webber, Stephen Sondheim and Jonathan Larson (he of "Rent"). One of the most enjoyable bits, for me, was the Kander & Ebb medley...the guys who wrote music for shows like "Chicago". (Who knew? The music was familiar but I realized the shows were ones that had been choreographed by Bob Fosse and that's the name I attach to the music. Silly me.) One of my favorite songs was "Coffee in a Cardboard Cup" which posits that the trouble in the word today is the haste typified by take-away coffee.

The highlight, in a collection of highlights, might well have been when Molly sang "Don't Cry for Me, Argentina" (which happens to be the first song The Child ever learned to sing). She and this boy also did a pretty terrific "Tonight" from "West Side Story". Also, there was a moment during intermission, with Audrey Hepburn and I in the bathroom trying to drink from the sink faucets because the only water fountain is in the band room, which wasn't open, but you kinda had to be there.

The best thing about the evening, simply, was the spirit and energy of these kids. They were talented and yes, some more than others but you could tell that all of them, if they keep at it, could be good, possibly even great. It wasn't hard to imagine that some of them, if they really want it, could end up going places. I'm not just saying that. Sure, the road to Broadway is littered with the corpses of talented kids with a dream and it is more likely a girl like Jessica Simpson, with a pushy father and willingness to pander, is more likely to get the gigs than the earnest, hard working, talented kid from Boondocks, USA. But on a night like last night you could believe anything was possible for these kids because you could see they believed it. And sometimes it is really important to me to see that kind of hope and purpose and dream-spinning. Plus, I was just super proud of my Molly.

Anyway, caught up in the moment, I solicited the autographs of all the kids, telling them that when they are famous I can sell my program on eBay and make a fortune. And I was only kidding a little bit.