Scotty Pippen?
On occasion you have to bite the bullet and take one for the team. True I had gone to that weekend college football game with the guys, and yes I had gone to that concert, and then I went to that other concert and I had yet to unearth the idea of me escaping for a long weekend with some of my college buddies to discuss family values and contemplate pressing world issues – okay, okay we were going to the beach to drink beer. The truth is I had cashed in a great number of my chips lately and I was going to have to gain some man points back by doing good stuff for the spouse.
When the Macaroni wife tells me she has three tickets to see Pippin my first thought is “how did she get tickets to see the Bulls play and how far do we have to drive?” When she tells me it’s a play, I take a deep breath and accept it as one of those things you just have to do if you are going to stay in the favorable range on the husband scale. Is it a musical? Is it a play? A pseudo ballet dancing-singing-performance with sparklers and juggling or what? What exactly am I in for? I needed to know to be prepared. What I did know is that it was about 2 or 3 hours out of my Sunday afternoon which might have been spent beautifying the yard or journeying to the beach. I did know that it was to be at StarStruck Theatre in Stuart so at least I did not need to travel to Jupiter, Orlando or Delray.
I was surprised at how packed the theatre was since it was the last of five showings on a Sunday afternoon. I looked around and wondered why these people didn’t have anything better to do that day. I could hear my grass growing and it was beginning to bother me.
The music started, the singing followed and then came dancing. The expression on my face changed from disgruntled garden worker to gently surprised and wondering husband. My eyes widened and I pulled my head back just a bit. I pursed my lips, furrowed my brow and I looked slowly over at my wife. She was smiling and nodding like she had known it all along – this was going to be good.
I had prepared myself for an afternoon of forgotten lines, sour notes and cute but clumsy dance numbers, but I had been wrong. Actually - I had been horribly mistaken.
My first thought was where on earth did these kids come from? Was this some sort of traveling performance group? These kids moved like pros, danced like they had been to Broadway, sang like they had been trained by Christina Aguilera and Adam Levine and had been doing so their entire lives. I found myself leaning forward and hanging on to the edge of my seat to see what might happen next. I had never seen Pippin before but this story was perfectly and brilliantly told. There was no misstep in a dance number. There were no forgotten lines. Not a note was missed by the stars of the show. Each and every member was so polished and so precise. I fell into the story and even found my eyes welling up at the predicament the star of show found himself in.
I have to say that in the end I was absolutely blown away. To say it was phenomenal is an understatement. But how? How could StarStruck take a group of our local kids and turn them into superstars like this? These kids weren’t just good they were unbelievably good.
Local kids from 8 to 18 had obviously been working very hard under the direction and supervision of very capable and consummate professionals. I was so impressed with what I saw that within the first ten minutes of watching Pippin’s opening act, I leaned over to my wife and whispered, “How can we get MiniMac in here?”
By the end of the show I had enjoyed every song and every dance and I had enjoyed the frantic “Grand Finale” moments on stage as much as I hung on the deafening quiet moments of Pippin’s awkward realization. It was a show for all of us as we wonder if our greatest lives and greatest selves might very well be right in front of our eyes. I know for one that I felt like I had been to the edge of Broadway that day and I had been given a very special treat. If Starstruck is going to be doing more performances, I will undoubtedly be somewhere in their audience.
PUBLISHER's NOTE: Do you have kids interested in musical theater or the performing arts? StarStruck has wonderful summer programs which are available to ALL KIDS and there is no audition required to register! Shows planned for this summer include: Beauty & The Beast, Jr., Camp Cats, Camp Disney, and Camp Dreamworks. Click through on the links above for more details. Enroll your kids today and make it a StarStruck Summer!
https://youtu.be/27K9TwcbOaA
