"I hate the singing parts..."

     Christmas in early 1970-something always meant that Winifred Freeman had to watch "White Christmas" or "Holiday Inn" as many times as they would show it on one of the 5 or 6 channels we were blessed with on our first color television set.  Then and now I'm convinced they're actually the same movie...characters change and some songs change but little differentiates one from the other.   The stories were good enough (it was Christmas, after all, and nothing embodies the magic of childhood like December 25th.)  But I thoroughly despised and ridiculed the moments where characters suddenly launched into song.  And they told me "Ultra Man" and "Speed Racer" and the "Banana Splits" weren't real and just for fun?  But it IS real when people start singing to each other with an orchestra playing??  While riding on a train hoping that it will "Snow, snow, snow...." when they get to Vermont?  THAT'S real?   My mother laughed out loud every time I said "I hate the singing parts."

     I was exposed to many other musicals in those formative years.  Mother loved "My Fair Lady" (I think the primary draw was her crush on Rex Harrison)   And "Fiddler on the Roof" came on television at least once a year and all I remember from that is someone wishing to be a "rich man."  Sound of Music was, again, a good story but who among us has had opportunity to run and sing our way through lush mountain meadows with full orchestral accompaniment?  Or stand in a gazebo and woo our crush by singing to them that we're "16 going on 17" (or whatever....man card rules forbid from me remembering the exact lyrics.) 

     But then something happened.  My older sisters started going to and listening to this musical based on the last week of the life of Christ.  First it was a stage production then a movie came out by the same name.  I never saw the musical or the movie but I did sneak in and give a listen to the soundtrack which had a really big album cover.  Some of the songs were a lot cooler than the ones belted out by Rex Harrison or Audrey Hepburn.  A musical that was as "cool" as some of the "hippy" music that pissed off the grown folks - that was worth a listen.

     Fast forward 40 years or so.  The same guy that put together the musical about Jesus' last week has taken one of my favorite movies and turned into a musical with a lot of "singing parts."   It's enjoying a pretty strong run on Broadway and, as luck would have it, my bride and I were taking a trip to the Big Apple as part of her birthday celebration.  Along with my youngest sister's family, we head to the Winter Garden Theater on a windy March Sunday and check out the matinee performance of "School of Rock."  Tides turned, the heavens shook and lions and lambs laid down next to each other.  See, I sat glued to my seat and thoroughly enjoyed this bit of culture, singing parts and all.   Of course it was a huge help that the singing parts were mostly of the very loud, bombastic variety  - key elements to most of the music I enjoy.  But there was also those darn kids...

     Children's efforts in the dramatic arts are fun to watch no matter how many lines they forget, how many notes are sung or played flat or how amateurish a presentation looks.  So take a bunch of kids that are very, VERY good at what they're doing (be it voice, drums, basses or electric guitars) and it's nothing short of fireworks.  There weren't any forgotten lines or flat notes and I heard some musicians better at their craft than many making a lot more money.  A couple of hours in a theater flew by and I ended up wanting to take the little doll in pigtails home with us (banging on her bass, making her best rock & roll face and singing like an angel)  I now follow a couple of 12-year-olds on Twitter.  I now know some "singing parts" by heart and listen to them often.  Amazing how appealing something becomes to me when you put "Rock" in the title...

Do yourself a favor....