So yesterday was Katie's school play, "Godspell", which this year ran to two whole nights.

Fran saw it Friday night and stated that Katie was, startlingly, not off-key during her big solo number. Having heard Katie sing her whole life and never once hearing her hit the note that she meant to hit, I was not entirely certain that I believed him.

I thought that the show should be funny, because the school shows are always funny, though fortunately there would not be imitating the movie like they did last year, because nobody has ever seen the movie version of "Godspell", certainly no high-school and junior-high students in New Jersey.

Kirsten and Cynthia and I went, and this year there were reserved seats and un-reserved seats, and we did not ask for our reserved seats, but were kicked out of our un-reserved seats by someone with reserved seats, so we went back and got our reserved seats, which ended up being much better, because on two occasions when the kids came out and talked to the audience, Katie was able to come directly to us, and it would have broken her heart had we been elsewhere.

The show was actually surprisingly good in many ways, though we were jeering quietly (or possibly not so quietly) before it started about the director's note that stated that "Godspell" is about community (you thought it was about Jesus or Christianity or something like that? Nope, community. Which is why you can produce it in public school you see!), and the fact that rather than the twelve apostles there were, in fact, twenty, because they had to get as many kids into the show as they possibly could.

The thing that we thought was the funniest was that they had brought in a ringer to play Jesus, an adult Equity actor rather than casting one of the kids, and the mere thought of one of us three professional actors appearing in a school play in Weehawken, New Jersey just paralysed us with mirth.

Then the show started and, you know what? It wasn't bad! There was, of course, some really horrible singing, unfortunately amplified nicely, and some of it really wouldn't have been nearly so painful to listen to without the mics, but some of the kids were just darling, one boy was really super-cute, and Katie was great, and the professional Equity actor was really good!

And I knew why they got him, because it really works that Jesus is a little older than the rest of the cast, he spends so much of the show teaching them, plus he was a real singer, and most importantly of all, he could keep a straight face when the kids were singing off-key directly into his ear.

And Fran was right! Katie was astoundingly not off-key during her big solo of "Turn Back O Man", and she was, I am horrified to say, incredibly sexy. She is 13, and everyone is very pleased that her hormones haven't kicked in yet, so the thought of sex is still looked at by her with slight disgust, but when they do, it'll blow the doors off this place, because she will know how to work it.

Hell, she knows how to work it now!

I know how parents feel when they say that they hope they'll be dead before their children start having sex, because I am not that child's parent and I feel that way myself. Okay, maybe I hope not that I will be dead, but rather that I will be struck blind before I have to see it.

Kirsten had a bad time of it, though, since she has perfect pitch, and the caterwauling going on sometimes would make her bite her lip until the blood came.

The real nightmare moment of the show for her and for all of us was "We Beseech Thee". The girl singing is could not sing, not once bit, and towards the end of the song, Kirsten suddenly hunched down protectively in her seat, and I could not figure out why, until I realized what was coming.

"You know what note is coming, don't you?"
"And she can't hit it!"

I clutched the back of the seat in front of me, and we all three stiffened when that last high note was hit, making eyeballs bleed as far away as Trenton.

My personal hardest moment was my favourite song, "By My Side", one of the songs that I sing the most in my everyday life. I adore it, it is a part of me, and I was sitting with crossed fingers that it would not be rended in twain, but rended it was. After it was over, Kirsten whispered in my ear, "Sorry about that."

But by golly, nothing was worse than "On the Willows". This song is sung by the band, who were all adult professional musicians, and you'd think might be able to sing a little bit. You would, in fact, be wildly mistaken.

What made it worse was that they were having mic problems in the second act, and of the two singers, the one with the better voice was un-mic'd (I just tried three ways of spelling that, and that's the best it gets) and the one with the crappy voice singing out of his range was clear as a bell.

The bad-voiced one was playing the bass, and for some reason he was mostly behind a flat. At one point I whispered to Kirsten, "Why is the bass player behind that flat?" and she answered, "Because he is ugly," but when he started to destroy "On the Willows" with every keening note, I said, "No, that's why he's behind the flat!"

All in all, though, it wasn't bad, and we were very proud of Katie for being the best thing in the show (besides the messiah) for the third year running! That's my girl.

And by the way, here, in this entry, are the shots of my high school production of "Godspell"!

Today's horoscope:
Clarify goals and Be sure your intentions agree with the intentions of someone sharing tasks with you. Mutual decisions promote accomplishments.

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Last Updated Sun 3 March 21:54:09 2002