Last night, Janet, Eleanor, and I went to see a performance of The Kids from Wisconsin at Kaukauna High School. (For those of you from around here, that isn't the old Kaukauna High School down in the flats; it's the new Kaukauna High School out east of town with a brand new theater and all. I'm glad we went there early because I had to get directions from a lady at a gas station. No, I didn't use Google Maps this time, silly me!)
Janet had been a member of The Kids back in the early 70s. She was the pianist for the troupe back then. She was in it at the same time the current director, Mark Dorn, was a member. Unfortunately, Mr. Dorn wasn't in attendance last night, to Janet's disappointment.
That aside, The Kids put on a wonderful show. Here's a picture from the introductory segment of the show:
The Kids interspersed medleys of well-known songs performed by the singers with medleys that the band performed. This gave The Kids time to change costumes. I think they must have changed costumes six times!
The singing sets featured songs from ABBA, Paul Simon, and the broadway musical, "My Fair Lady". The band was terrific and their several sets included the music of Louis Armstrong, Stevie Wonder, Van Morrison (Moon Dance was excellent), and a big crowd pleaser: themes from TV cartoon shows. I liked "The Jetsons" theme the best. Eleanor loved this segment.
The Kids also danced up a storm. One of their sets was entirely dance with everybody dressed up in hoedown clothes. The band's guitar player got up on a stump and played a mean fiddle. In the 2nd act, The Kids performed songs from "American Idol".
Most of The Kids were also featured in solo performances during these medleys and they were all fantastic. Janet mentioned that the sopranos had some challenging material to work with, but they pulled it off.
We knew Eleanor would get a big charge out of it and she did. Janet was watching with a critical, admiring, and envious eye. She told me that, in her day, there were no costume changes at all. For this performance, even the band members changed costumes for the 2nd act. They also didn't have battery-powered microphones back in the day. These Kids did; the band members were able to move around the stage during their sets, unlike in the Old Days. Really about the only complaint she had was that the balance between the band and the singers was a trifle heavy on the band's side. Me, I just loved it!
One of The Kids was A. J. Vanden Heuvel, a hometown boy from Kaukauna. He performed a few solos and got the biggest hoots and hollers from the audience, as you might expect. He got to perform the most fun number: "I'm Gettin' Married in the Mornin'" from "My Fair Lady".
One of the two major corporate sponsors is the Wisconsin State Fair. The Kids will perform there in August, of course, but that'll be quite a run. They're performing twice daily every day of the Fair. That's 21 performances. They won't be two hours long like last night's performance, but still!
You gotta hand it to these marvelous young people -- all between the ages of 15 and 20. They put on a terrific show.