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:

MUSICALly Inclined...

I'm probably gonna lose a lot of cool points for this post, but oh well. I was crusin' on youtube and I came across some clips from different musicals. Growing up, my mom and dad made us watch a lot of musicals...which I think is where I get the habit of wanting to dance to everything! hahahahahahahahaha!

But here I've included some videos of some musicals I grew up watching. You can laugh, it's funny! There are some genuinely good musicals that i tried to find specific songs from, but to no avail. One of them is Les Miserables. I feel lucky to have gotten to see it multiple times on Broadway before they ended the run. But that is one of my Absolute Favorites! I wish they would do a movie remake of it, in musical form, but include the love triangle between Cosette, Marius and Eponine...there's so much emotion that goes into it all...I'd love to see it played out.

Another one would be Hello Dolly. My fave song from that one is HELLO DOLLY...which features Louis Armstrong...so fantastic!

But, here are some other ones that I grew up watching and am a fan of nowadays as well. We'll start with the oldest first then move to my more current faves. :D

GREASE 2.
i chose this one because it's the least heard of. hahahahaha...but it was actually one of my mom's favorites... so we watched it a LOT! so I bought it...to relive the memories. Here's one of my favorite songs from it...the motorcycles are so cool and the song is so cheesy. hahahahahaha!




FOOTLOOSE.
A young Kevin Bacon dancing in the dark with such angst always makes for a fun show. And technically, this isn't a musical...i don't think, but the fact that it involves choreography should make it count.




NEWSIES.
So much energy and tons of laughs came out of this one! I also love the Chorale reprise of this clip: Seize The Day. Me and my friends Brittany and Sarah all share a love for this musical.




CINDERELLA.
So there's an older version with Leslie Ann Warren... but this is the more recent version. It features a new trendy cast and a fun combination of Brandy and Paulo Montalbon in lead roles. The song is called "The Sweetest Sounds."



and then we really fast forward and jump ahead to:

HAIRSPRAY.
A funny take on a classic story. Last year for A LONG DAY, all the girls got together and tried to learn this dance with the instructional video on the bonus features. Fun times...silly times. The song: Ladies Choice. PS: James Marsden's little bird dance is hilarious!



And last but not least...


HIGH SCHOOL MUSICAL 3.
Yes, i know. I'm sick for liking the HSM franchise. But I do love this song...it's so sweet.



Okay okay...you can keep laughing. :D I would just like to take a moment to clarify that a large part of my love for musicals really does stem from the fact that both my parents were fans of musicals and made us watch them all the time with them. hahahahahahahaha. :D