Middle School Musical

(A digression from the norm here)

We attended the closing night of Back To The 80s, the long running musical at the Westside Middle School (3 nights). One can only hope there will be a revival, a la Kiss Me Kate, Chicago, and other staples of Broadway.

The songs, by the popular team of Michaels-Lauper-Ocean-Bon Jovi-Madonna-Loggins-Geils-Slick (there are more, of course) were strong, and eminently suitable for the plot. The story os one that could become a classic: Good boy loves good girl, who is tricked into loving the bad boy, but in the end the good boy wins the good girl and the bad boy gets kciked in the groin by the nerd.

The cast was one strong performance after another. All students at William Ocean High, the characters had names like Feldman, Bueller, McFerrin, Tiffany, Easton, Corey, Alf -- all of which reminded us of something we couldn't put our finger on during Back To The 80s. There was some good acting, nice singing, and tremendous dancing.

The fact that she is our step daughter by no means prejudices this reviewer, but Samie Steed put on a dancing performance for the ages, and perfectly delivered the final smackdown of the bad kid.

I would be glad to recommend everyone see Back To The 80s, but, as mentioned earlier, this was the last performance.

And by the way, the band was tremendous.