I had to share this with you!

Ugh. I used to post that High School's clips on here. They did COMPANY too.

I think it's utterly ridiculous for a HS to do FOLLIES. But I really don't want to get into this argument right now.

Is this the school that did GYPSY?

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I give them credit for pulling off choreography similar to the 2001 revival. It came complete with a single file of women raising their arms and swaying! Where was the golden glitter hailing down on them?

I don't see why a high school do FOLLIES. The choreography with the younger selves makes little sense, especially since the movements at the beginning when the older women are facing upstage isn't remotely similar to the one the younger ones are doing.
The girl playing Stella has a nice voice though with that wig she looks like she's singing Annie instead of Stella.

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While the material is probably over the heads of some of them, and clearly they don't have the gravitas to pull it off, what do you expect from a high school? Should they only do shows in which they can all play teenagers? I'm not being snarky, I'm just curious.

I say good for them for having the resources and support to this sort of show on a high school level. By the time I graduated high school my school was doing those awful back of the magazine type plays that no one has ever heard of.

Updated On: 7/16/08 at 03:13 PM

I just wonder what people think this school should be doing as an alternative to those they've been doing.

And I'm sorry - I would have foamed at the mouth to have done Follies or Merrily when I was in high school. I can't believe on this board I'm the only one.

Phyllis, I agree with you. I'm in high school, and I would kill to do some of these more challenging shows. Sure, they'd be difficult and the cast wouldn't have the nuance of an older cast, but so what? It's high school. I think it's better to do shows that will challenge the actors, rather than doing the same boring standards.

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When I was in high school we didn't have the budget ( or space to rehearse) to do a musical. I can understand people saying that some musicals are ones that high schoolers shouldn't be touching. However, I do wonder what are some musicals a high school can be doing that aren't the typical Grease or Charlie Brown etc. What are some other shows that one would consider high school appropriate that haven't been done to death?

Personally, I am all in favor of having high school students doing material that would challenge them. In my high school even though we did plays only we did plays that most high schools wouldn't do and plays most acting students would do until they were in college.

I remember one story (this was before I was in the high school but still to give you a sense of my drama department) where my school was having trouble getting the rights to do The Elephant Man because it was around the time the most recent revival was closing. By the time we would have started performances the revival would have been closed for a couple of weeks. My director wrote a letter and got a reply from the playwright who was convinced that high schoolers couldn't pull of that material well but if they wanted to try he wasn't going to stop them. My school ended up having the last laugh because not only did they pull it off they did an amazing job at it.

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check my local high schools production of crazy for you tell me what you think. the video quality is a little bad.
crazy for you

"but maturity requires knowing when you are in over your heads." and "I blame the directors of these things for trying to fulfill their ambitions through the kids, who may not really be up to the challenge."

So your point is that any 17 year old girl attempting Mama Rose is in over her head and won't be fully believable in the role, nor will she match Patti or Angela or Bernadette so they shouldn't be trying? Well, duh. Of course they won't fully succeed. That's what "training" and "learning" are.

With that kind of attitude -- seemingly that they shouldn't try what they can't totally succeed at doing -- I assume you also believe that high school football or basketball should be abolished too. After all, there's no way any of those kids will match the skills of an older professional. They're in over their heads and their coaches are just "trying to fulfill their ambitions through their kids who may not be up for the challenge." And why on earth should a high school band or orchestra perform in public since there's no way they'll match the skills of a nationally known Philharmonic orchestra?

I will agree that sometimes the high school kids get a false impression that their show was just as good as Broadway (aren't their parents telling them that, for example). But so what? What would the theatre be without dreams and confidence?

Follies at a HIGHSCHOOL?

Wow.

ljay889,
I only ATTACK when attacking is warranted! None-the-less, I like having the reputation. It keeps the riff-raff to a minimum.
Personally, I don't especially like this number [as performed by this HS], but a youtube "viewer" asked for it, so I reluctantly added it.
Some comments made in this blog have caused the clip to go into limbo-land... "IS EVERYBODY HAPPY?"