Today was a trip to the past for a couple of reasons.
The first is obvious - School House Rocks! Who over the age of 30 does not remember these little educational commercials that were part of our Saturday morning cartoons? Hearing the music all over again brought me once again to my childhood.
The musical version of School House Rocks is energetic, child-like, and funny. The show is very wordy musically because there are a LOT of words pushed into the short time allowed on TV for the original TV versions of these vignettes and this transfers to the stage production. The music is reminiscent of 70s music though the use of only a keyboard makes it somewhat limited sonority-wise. (I must admit here that while I do understand the need for some groups to only use a keyboard, as a musician, I am biased toward the use of additional instruments.) The plot is fragmented and is written mainly attempting to segue smoothly into the next School House Rocks scene.
The second was to see college friends and acquaintances perform on stage - the place I remember them while at FHC. Somethings never change about the friends. Somethings...do.
The primary audience for this musical would be upper elementary or middle school audiences and adults who have a friend or relative performing in it (like me). It is not necessarily an adult musical so from that aspect I didn't enjoy it. Getting to see my friends perform made it worthwhile though.
Here's a couple of my favorite School House Rocks educational commercials. What are yours?
Conjunction Junction
Interjections
Sunday, October 17, 2010
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