The YEAR of the MUSICALS

Tonight we counted up how many musicals Hunter has seen (or been in) during the past year. TEN!! That's almost one a month!! Eleven if we stretch it to the last 18 months. It started for Hunter with trying out for Missoula Children's Theater in March 2013 for the play The Secret Garden (#1). Hunter played Goose #4. Fun stuff! He thought the costumes would be more majestic. They were a lot more generic than that, but I thought they were cleaver costumes made to fit a variety of children. He wanted to be an amazing white goose--more like a swan goose. But he was a grey, honking, doughnut loving Canada Goose.

That was a fun week of practices everyday and then a couple performances on Saturday. Gave us all a taste of some theater. Hunter was quite a natural on stage and really enjoyed the social part--especially with the older kids.

At the end of the summer, Hunter, Luke and I went to go see our neighbor girls perform in a Sleeping Beauty musical (#2) put on by DreamWeavers Musical Theatre. Hunter and I had kind of tricked Luke into coming. He was a bit miffed at us, but he secretly liked watching it and he got a huge kick out of the funny parts. We loved seeing Olivia and Julia all dressed up. Candice, their mom, was the music director and she kind of started putting it out there that Hunter should do it the next summer.

Candice, who has a degree in music theater, then ventured off to the Knock 'em Dead Dinner Theater for a run in Les Miserables (#3) as Cosette along with her girls playing young Cosette and Ephonine. So Hunter, Thayne and I went to go see that on October 10, 2013. I wish we could have taken Dallin along too, because he really would have liked it. But he was busy, busy, busy with football.

I couldn't believe how much Thayne and Hunter knew the story of Les Mis. We've had the music around our house their whole lives. Lance had been introduced to it in college and then was able to see the production live in Chicago while on his mission. He loves it. He played the soundtrack for me in the truck when we'd drive around together and he taught me the story. I bought us tickets to go see it finally (we'd tried when it can to Salt Lake when we were in college, but it was sold out) for the anniversary tour in 2012. It was so good. I had read half the book before going and I can't believe how much more depth there was to my understanding of the lyrics. Masterfully constructed lines which convey chapters of character development with just a few words. What art!

So taking my youngsters to the local theater company performance was such a treat. It was a bit more family friendly in certain scenes than the Broadway company's too, which was an added bonus.
We did the "student rush" for tickets. So we got lower priced tickets 10 minutes right before the show started and we ended up right on the front row. The girls told us it's known as "the spray zone" because sometimes you might get a little spit from some exuberant actor's lines! It was intimate sitting so close. Olivia was right up in front of us for one of her scenes and she looked up and caught our eyes and her eyes lit right up when she saw us. She worked really hard to suppress her smile, because it was the scene where young Cosette is being "abused" verbally by Theanardier.

An added bonus that night was that Lauren was there too to watch the musical. Lauren, Olivia, and Hunter are a little bit like the neighborhood Three Musketeers. 

the kids from the left: Lauren, Olivia, and Hunter with Julia in the front

Missoula Children's Theater was back again in November. This time for Blackbeard the Pirate (#4). Bruce, Luke and Hunter tried out this time. Bruce as a beach bum, Hunter was a sassy alligator, and Luke performed in the pre-show.  I liked this show. I'm amazed every time that Missoula Children's Theater puts a show on in a week with children of so many ages and huge ranges of acting experiences. I'm bummed I didn't get a picture of Luke. He was so cute for his Dr. Seuss number with a red and a green sock, blue shorts, white gloves and a fun hat.

This was Bruce's first play ever! He thought it was "really fun." So descriptive, I know. He was a goofy beach bum. I don't think he was to act too hard for that role though, because I think he'd really like to be one sometimes! Although, they did act a bit ditzy and Bruce is actually pretty smart.

Can I just say how fun it has been to have a friend that loves musicals! It's been such a blast to have Candice to take Hunter to so many events this year! Sometime during the winter he was taken to both The Secret Garden (#5) and The Little Princess (#6). 

In January, Hunter and I went with Candice and Olivia and Julia to see Mozart's operetta, The Magic Flute (#7) put on by the College of Idaho. It's fun! Papageno! What a fun character. And some seriously beautiful soprano arias. The storyline is a little silly, but that was Mozart's intent to create a light hearted opera.

All winter long our house hold was focused in on ONE musical though--Gilbert and Sullivan's The Pirates of Penzance! (#8)  When the lead, Fredric, lives in your house you get to learn a lot of songs right along with him. Six months later I still catch Luke humming or singing, "A paradox, a paradox, a most ingeninus paradox. ha ha ha ha..." and sometimes we still hear "OFF TO THE PIRATES LAIR!" from Dallin. (I loved that he did that all winter!) I must give this musical its very own post though. I got to watch it three times and that wasn't enough.We all loved it so much! Dallin was really good. Truly, really good!

Pirate King, Fredric, Major General (photo bombed by )

 As soon as Pirates was done, Dallin took me and Hunter to go watch Columbia High School's production of Footloose (#9). Based off the movie and family friendly (the movie isn't) it was fun to see. Helped us realize what an amazing job Kuna High does at producing a musical though--especially the tech guys! We really liked the dancing the second half of Footloose. It was put together very well.

On July 30th, Dallin, Hunter and I headed up to Garden Valley, Idaho with Andrea, Rhonda, and Abby Johnson to watch Seven Brides for Seven Brothers (#10) by the Starlight Mountain Theater. What a fun acting in this musical! We took no pictures though.  

This summer Hunter has spent every Monday and Thursday afternoons rehearsing for The Mad Adventures of Mr. Toad (#11). He was cast a Mole--one of the supporting leads. He was fabulous! He too gets his own section about this experience! 

Mole, Rat, and Badger

I'm kind of liking this new little hobby we are starting of going to see musicals. I only wish I could have made it an even dozen for Hunter this past year. Lance and I went to see Wicked in May. WOW! Just WOW! Probably my most favorite musical ever. Dallin was able to go with Andrea also. I was so excited to be able to talk to him about it afterwards. The Johnsons gave him tickets for his graduation gift. So next time that musical comes through Boise I'm just spending the big bucks and taking everyone!