Friday, June 1, 2012

Rock and Roll Forever: A Musical at St. Andrew the Apostle School, Gladstone Missouri





I had the pleasure over the 2012 Mothers’ Day weekend of watching budding talents that may grow up to be musical icons that will rock our world in the up future.
Completing a conference I was in Kansas city for a few days for mother’s day and to socialize with my young nephews and nieces. While I treated them with my avuncular goodies and company, they invited me to their soccer games and their school Rock and Roll Musical performance they were performing in and had been rehearsing for months.

The venue of the performance, St. Andrew the Apostle School’s gym was packed to the brim with enthusiastic and proud parents and relatives of the kids, and the passionate teachers and administrators of the school who each felt especially proud of their students and their school programs. The parish priest as well as the school principal in his casual blue jeans pants and red t-shirt were among the cheerful hosts, milling around, exchanging pleasantries and warmly greeting visitors to the school.

Pre-performance, the pupils could not contain their excitement as they playfully stomped about on the stage and interacted with each other as would siblings of the same household, which indeed they were by dint of the seemingly cordial family atmosphere of the school. As the musical director hinted that the program was about to commence, they wasted no time in assuming their positions on the elevated three angled-platforms flanking the elevated stage. Their discipline in assembling without effort and staying poised for the first chord of the musical surprised and impressed the adults in the audience.

Heralding the melodious rendition, some of the featured artiste’s impressionists strutted through the stage as they were introduced to welcome applauses…Little Richard, James Brown, Elvis Presley and the Beatles!

At the conductor’s instance, these young talented kids beautiful belted out the lyrics to the songs effortlessly without missing a beat.  This was accompanied by beautifully choreographed hand waves, dips and flow that gave sass and verve to the performance.

The joy the kids radiated belting out their numbers was so infectious that the adult audience and other kids caught the melodic fever, clapping along and bobbing their heads in full enjoyment of the performances.

The appropriately designed props accompanying the performances of the Beatle songs, the Beach boys and the great costumes for those that played Elvis James and Ed Sullivan brought smiles to the faces of the audience that I was sure reminisced on those days of great music that every baby boomer enjoyed. I was immensely enjoying the musical and artistic parts of my nephews Nnamdi and Ekene, that I don’t see often leaving so far away. They were dressed in jeans, white shirts and street-cool leather jackets as they rocked and rolled like the original artistes intended it to be. My niece, Chi-Chi, a natural performer and dance enthusiast was clearly in her element wearing a period puddle skirt and red ruffle scarf over her neck and a white dainty blouse. She looked every inch the part and sonorously belted the tunes as she swayed, jigged and stretched to the beat in unison with the wonderful choreography.

After an hour, the program was done with but the memory will linger on for a very long, long time. Watching my young family members perform in public with great confidence and self-assuredness while having the fun of their lives tells me that they are fully ready to claim their future and would make the best out of it. Thank you St Andrew the Apostle School and the entire student body as well as the patient and tireless staff for making my Wednesday May 9, 2012, evening a fun time in Kansas City area and for starting mothers’ day weekend on a very positive and cheerfully musical note.