Almost Paradise

Yesterday Kayliegh and I went to Islander Middle School on Mercer Island to see the junior high kids their do a musical production of FOOTLOOSE. I wasn't quite sure what to expect, except that I was counting on the "angry dance" to be in there—you know, the dance that Kevin Bacon does in the barn. Anyway, they didn't do it, which was kind of sad. Another thing that caught me off guard was that instead of saying the ever classic "JUMP BACK!" that Kevin Bacon says in the movie, the kid playing Ren McCormack would say, "GET OUTTA HERE!" Kinda wished he'd said "jump back" instead, but oh well, whaddayado? My favorite was the kid that played Willard. He was hilarious and he played the piano in one of the songs and did a great job. I felt like his performance alone was worthy of the ten bones i paid to see the show. Although, by the end I was wishing I'd dropped a 20 spot in an effort to help them raise money to improve the terrible PA system they had the music blasting through. There were also some "guest celebrities" there . . . okay so maybe it was just middle schoolers that had uncanny resemblances to other grown up actors. ;) I swear one of the girls looked like Nasim Pedrad from SNL. A mini-me version of Kay Panabaker was also there, along with a mini-me version of Michelle Trachtenburg. ;) It was awesome! All the students did a great job!

Naturally I'm a sucker for musicals, and since Footloose is one of my favorite movies, I had a really fun time watching the middle schoolers sing and dance and re-enact their version of Footloose. It reminded me of the times I got to spend doing plays and musicals as a kid. It was also really sweet to watch them honor their teachers and the crew that helped out with the production.

Anyway, here are 2 pictures and some videos from the evening:

Opening number: Footloose

(footloose)


(hurts so good)


(holding out for a hero)


(ren fights for the dance)

Earlier I updated my status saying

The J.High show of Footloose DIDN'T include the 'angry dance' :( So I'm going to blast the song while I cook & do my own in the kitchen

And a lot of people requested that I record it and put it on YouTube. I didn't record me doing it when I was cooking, but I DID have one of my housemates record me dancing to it around the house. I had her do it around the house because it would have just been boring confined to the kitchen alone, and because we had to do some strategic filming, since some personal information is on our house whiteboard hanging in the kitchen. So I apologize ahead of time if you feel cheated. I hope it makes you laugh anyway: