Just Remember It’s High School

Last night Ace and I went to a local high school’s theater production to support a guy that plays with me in the church band. He is a senior and had a lead role in “Children of Eden“, a horrible, theologically-incorrect musical co-written by the same guy that did “Godspell” but also a guy that helped with “Les Miserables”. So I was shocked at how appalling the play was – some of the musical numbers were meandering messes and don’t get me started on the theological inaccuracies. To be clear, I’m not talking about the school’s production – I’m strictly talking about THE PLAY. The poorly written, badly thought out, messy musical itself.

As for the production, the staging was minimalist in nature – no real scenery, no elaborate costumes. Most of the budget seems to have been spent on the plethora of animals getting on Noah’s ark, and it was money well spent – I turned to Ace at some point and said, “I feel like I’m at ‘The Lion King’,” and he told me that he had just said that himself. In particular I loved the peacock for the beauty, but the turtles had my heart. At some point all the animals left the stage, and staying in character the turtles slowly trundled off-stage and took a good 2-3 minutes doing it even while the scene continued on without them. Hilarious.

Some of the ensemble songs were very well done. You could tell that a lot of the kids had real talent. Sure, there were some clinkers in there (have I said yet how big the ensemble was? It was HUGE), but I kept reminding myself that it’s high school, not Broadway (I might have been more forgiving if I hadn’t just seem “Spamalot” less than a week ago). My church buddy David did a great job portraying Cain in the play – in fact, at some point Ace turned to me after David’s solo and said, “He’s the best male singer thus far.” At the intermission a few minutes later Ace asked me to remind him which kid was my friend, and when I told him it was Cain, Ace exclaimed, “Oh! That’s the kid I thought was the best so far!”

The biggest applause, however, was saved for a little girl named Tina Lao, who portrayed Noah’s Wife (or “Mama Noah” according to the character sheet in the program). This little thing broke out with the most amazing voice I have heard in a long time. And her solo perfectly suited her. I was shocked when I consulted the program and found out she is only a sophomore. Ace and I both agree that she needs to try out for American Idol next year when she is 16 years old because she WILL not only make it to Hollywood but she WILL make it to the final twelve. She was absolutely amazing. If she is cast in a lead role again (and she should be) then I’ll go see every production she’s in. I can’t even express how truly amazing she was.

The play was long – it started at 7:30 p.m. and ended about 10:20 p.m. The theater was extremely warm – all of us were sweating and fanning ourselves. We sat with Christopher and Anna, friends of mine from church. They had heard we were going and when Christopher’s dad and mom couldn’t make it, Christopher took the tickets and brought his fiance.

I’m sad I haven’t gone to other productions since we moved here in 2001. Christopher was telling me that our bandmates Obie and Ryan as well as his sister were all in school productions when they were in school. THAT would have been hilarious to see.

Either way I’m inordinately proud of David and his performance. He had real power in his voice that he doesn’t show on Sunday mornings when he sings at church. I told Christopher we need to harness his theater energy into Sunday mornings, and he agreed.