On Broadway!

I am not such a fan of the musical theater.  Really.  That shit is wasted on me.  Let me define that for you if you don't know me.

A while back I had the opportunity to see Les Mis and Showboat in the same week.  Wanna here my review?  "The chair was much more comfortable at Showboat."  I was the guy that woke up during intermission at The Nutcracker (at Lincoln Center) and put on his coat because he thought it was over.  Yea I was that guy.  I shoulda kept my coat on and gotten some fresh air.

Anyway my kids were in the school play. They were in Fame Jr.  I thought they were in Fame with a Jr after it.  No.  Fame Jr  is part of Broadway Jr,. 60 minute musicals designed for middle school kids.  Broadway Jr also got my kids to see a real Broadway Show.  A few weeks ago hey went to see a manatee of Nice Work if You Can Get It.  Matthew Broderick even came out to speak to the kids after the show. It was cool the way he paid homage to the Stage Manager. "I might be a movie star, but she tells me when I can should get a drink of water."







Like most middle school events there was an end of he year celebration

Hundreds of students took to the Broadhurst Theater stage Monday morning, making their Broadway debut before their peers, educators and supporters, as part of Broadway Junior Celebration. 

Hosted by The Shubert Foundation and Music Theater International, the annual event – now in it’s eight year – is a celebration and culmination of the Broadway Junior Program, which builds theater programs in New York City schools with limited arts programing.   Backstage 

So for the 4th school day in a row I chaperoned a school trip.  All thirty school got to perform a song.  Every school had one student speak first for a minute.

Let me paraphrases....

"I made new friends that like me"

"I am really shy, but on stage I can be loud."

"We are really proud of all the hard work"

"Our teachers are great"








So, Dr Dorita Gibson, Deputy Chancellor for Equity and Access (wtf does that mean?) said that being in the school play was a factor in improving school performance.  Duh, you don't need a fancy title to know that.


Musical theater does not have to be for me, but now I understand why it has to be.


And, by the way.  I could not help but stand and applaud after most of the performance.  They were great.





I also got to put my special skills to work on the way to the theater.  I knew that the passes that are given to teachers for their class to get on the subway specifically say that they could only be used after 9am. But we needed to be there by 9 and at 8:30 the clerk in the booth said she would not open the gate.  The teacher in charge told me we were going to have to look for a clerk that would open the gate.  I put a stop to that.  Since they are all going to do their job I directed the 40 of us to an unstaffed entrance and had a kid with an unlimited MetroCard go in and open the gate.