afro-tastic

I just witnessed one of the finest things ever.
I really have.
Tonight I went to my school's musical, Hairspray (arguably the best production ever), and it was absolutely completely indescribable. It was about 70 times better than Grease last year, and I thought that was great. But this was even better.
It helps that I am about the biggest fan ever of Hairspray. I have seen the movie about 7 million times and I know almost every line - well, the funny ones. And so this made my day. But this was live and the people singing and dancing were not professionals. They were kids from my classes. And their voices were not autotuned or perfected in a sound booth. It was live.
From beginning to end there was pure talent oozing out of every corner of the stage. If you're eyes happened to wander across the stage, you would see that everything was in perfect condition. Props glided smoothly across the stage during scene changes and the costume changes were ridiculously fast. It was believable, lively, and fun.
There were no technical problems. No one forgot a line. Every verse to every song was belted out so melodiously that I got shivers in my legs. Was this not Broadway?
How much work went into this? Well, just calculate 4 hours after school, Monday through Friday and Staurdays (sometimes Sundays) for two months, and then more 2 weeks until opening night. That is a lot of Hairspray.
When we go to these shows, we often don't realize how much work goes into them. I know because I have been in a few plays (nothing to this level) and I also have friends who were in it tonight, but some other people just came for entertainment. Tehy might not have noticed that everything was perfect or that the lights and music came completely on cue, and that there were two students, whose names we don't know, who sat tirelessly next to the computers and sound boxes to make sure that each second of the production ran smoothly.
We can't forget the hard work and rehearsals that go into these things. We can't forget the hard work of the light and music operators and the choreographers. We can't forget the "techies" who do all the backstage work. In short, we have to give credit where it is due.