Well, they did ask her to spell it...
and she got it wrong!
It was so sad.
She got as far as supercalifragilisticexp..then said A instead of I.
I mean it's a long word and harder to verbalize, you know? It was sad though. I wanted to see her jump during Pandemonium.
Anyway, she sat in the second row of the "stands" in like left-center if you're facing the audience. When they told her to come up, she got a standing ovation!
And yeah, we were eating up every little movement she made. She sat in the front of their stands, between Sarah and Jared. Now there's a fun Broadway debut story...sitting next to Julie Andrews.
She intensely listened when Sarah sang about Olive being pro-choice but being a virgin, nodded and kind of mouthed along the "gin" part of it. It was very funny.
When she was called up to spell, Lisa said something like many girls gave up their hope of starring in their school's musical when they found out Ms. Andrews was transferring to their school or something.
They defined super...as...some really great, ecstatic feeling...in other words.
The sentence was something like bipolar Mary flunctuated between feeling supercalifragilisticexpialidocious and eh.
So she asked them if they wanted her to spell it forwards or backwards. The principle said he was afraid she'd ask that. We cheered a lot, but then...yeah.
Emma got one word and did the bouncing, but then was out.
When the show was over and the cast finished taking their bows, they invite Julie and Emma up to the "stage" and as soon as she went up Julie said for the record supercali...is a very long word but she can say it "backwards" and repeated the "backwardsness" (because of course it's not completely backwards) of the phrase in the movie, but still very very awesome to hear her say that in person. She and Emma gave a great speech thanking the amazing cast and us for coming for Kids night, how these are the future theatregoers, how hopefully tonight was the beginning (or continuation) of a lifetime of seeing theatre.
Honestly, the kid audience really did not bother me much. The only real time was a huge wrapper noise during the I Love You Song. There was a lot of movement...and well I guess it's an easier show to talk during so that wasn't annoying...just there was a lot of movement, often a parent taking a child to the bathroom I imagine. I've honestly been in much worse audiences--where kids weren't even the problem.
All in all, it was a great performance and everyone involved--audience and cast--seemed to be having a wonderful time.
"If there was a Mount Rushmore for Broadway scores, "West Side Story" would be front and center. It snaps, it crackles it pops! It surges with a roar, its energy and sheer life undiminished by the years" - NYPost reviewer Elisabeth Vincentelli
