Worst Middle School Musical Ever!

I just walked out of a show called "The Best of Broadway" put on by a local Lutheran Middle School. It started at 6:30 PM and the first act ended at 8:10. There was no way I was staying for the second act. One grandmother told me that last night's performance ended at 11 PM.

What made this thing so very atrocious as that the entire cast as singing along with cast albums and soundtracks and most of the time the recorded music was drowning out what the kids were singing. I'd been led to believe that one girl had a pretty good voice but hen she sang "Wouldn't It Be Loverly?" there was a sound glitch and all I could hear was Julie Andrews.

In a pre-curtain speech, the director (who happens to be a former student of mine) explained that she didn't want to turn down any child who tried out and that singing along to cast albums kept them on pitch. I guess there's something to be said for getting all these kids on stage and having a performing experience--one or two actually showed a spark of talent--but it was a rough experience to endure. Looking around at the parents, there wasn't any one of them who had a look of enjoyment on their faces.

Wouldn't a karaoke night have served the same purpose?

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I forgot to mention that alumni took part in the show. Mind you, this was a Middle School show but a college freshman was playing a featured role!

Heaven forfend!

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This is the problem with these types of shows and 'giving everyone a chance'.
It just doesn't work... and now it solidifies my recent decisions I have been trying to make for my next casting project. I'm all for the 'we are the world' tactics in education.. but the best lesson you can learn is that if you are not good enough... you are just NOT GOOD ENOUGH. And you shouldn't be wasting your time, the director's time or the audience's (in this case).

Thanks Dollypop. You saved my weekend casting crisis.
It's tough when heart takes over business...... but back to business.

I just realized that royalty laws were probably overlooked in this production as well.

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^My High school director is feels the very same as you. She NEVER turns a kid away, no matter how bad the audition is (and we all get to sit in during auditions and there are alot of bad ones hahha) but obviously if their bad she puts them in the show, and then tells them to mouth the words during the songs and puts them a in a few ensemble scenes towards the back. And it works, they have a glorious time and find it to be a whole new level of fun, but they dont bring the show down cuz she hides the fact they are horrible at the arts by creative blocking/choreography hahaha

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Fer craps sake.

It's a middle school.

Do you just have nothing else to complain about?

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LOL, Jordan.....

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I don't think this had anything to do with "laziness" because it takes just as much energy to put on a bad show as it does to put on a good one. I think monetary factors may have played a part. (It would cost money to hire a rehearsal pianist). Then there's the lack of theatrical experience or basic "know-how". A director who was just a wee bit more savvy would have found ways to speed up the simple scene changes. Oddly enough, no one seemed to mind that this was a 4 hour show.

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Updated On: 5/22/11 at 06:41 PM

But how was the show curtian?!

Did you get a picture?

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^Thank you.

Did anyone get to see that documentary about the three high schools and their musicals? That was basically what it was all about.

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"It's not all about developing talent"

Thank you.

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I student-taught drama and chorus at a middle school this semester and agree 100% with dramamama. I couldn't have said it better myself.

I always cast my high school productions in a traditional manner. Auditions, call-backs, etc. I didn't always have good musical directors, though and there were a few times roles were cast with kids who had trouble singing the music. (One musical director was dumbfounded at the first sing-thru when she learned that the role of Elsa in THE SOUND OF MUSIC sang two songs. "She didn't in the movie," was her comment--and she'd cast a non-singer in the role. Obviously she didn't listen to the recording of the complete score that I'd given her months earlier!)

Now that I've retired, I find so many of the students who have found me on Facebook are effusive in their recollections of the plays and musicals they were in. One woman--who lives in town--wasn't very good at singing but had auditioned for many, many shows. Finally I cast her as The Mute in THE FANTASTICKS and shesays it was the highlight of her high school years.

The one boy that I thought would go on to a career in either theater or radio because he had a deep, rich voice, stunned us all by undergoing a sex-change operation a few years ago.

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