we have a favorite musical at my house, one that we've been listening to the sound track of since my kids were in their respective wombs. our favorite part is of the musical is at the end, when the whole cast sings
O-K-L-A-H-O-M-A OKLAHOOOOOOOO-MA! YA!
it gives me goose bumps.
truly.
all that talk of belonging to the land and a farmer with his brand new wife, the whole thing just makes me happy. all of us actually.
i love that it makes my kids happy too.
plus who doesn't love a musical title that ends with an exclamation point?
oklahoma!
you see the title on the front of your play bill and you just know you're going to have a good time.
lucky for us, it was the jr.high music theater production which meant spencer and allie got to be a part of all the fun this year. spencer was especially excited that there were so many kissing opportunities, too bad for him, he didn't get any of those roles.
however, spencer did play the most handsome cowboy ever, i especially loved his authentic chaps on loan from patsy's son brian. it was especially fun to see spencer dance - i loved the kansas city number the best when all the cowboy boots were making so much noise and all the boys were so out of their element but having a great time any way.
unfortunately, i didn't get too many live shots of allie - because of her heavy dance schedule, she was primarily teacher's assistant but did manage to weasel her way into a couple of dance numbers and she was great! and grandma saved the day for us with a beautiful dress that she made special just for allie.
it wasn't just the kids having hectic rehearsal schedule, i also stayed plenty busy with this production with a big job of my own. i was in charge of costumes. ok, stop laughing, really, i can sew a straight line! ok no, not really. but i DO know how to gather and organize and make a million trips to good will, which i did, and it was hard. and it took a ton of time, but it all turned out so great (the whole production, not just my costumes), that it was worth it and it made me feel proud to have been part of such an awesome production.
and you know, where i am, ethan is also, so oklahoma became a big part of his daily life as well. he loved this production and the cast loved him right back, he was always the hit of every rehearsal, even the director declared him her "favorite moore". he sat completely enthralled at all but one of the performances with me. i think his favorite part was kansas city too because he loved the cowboys, and took to wearing his red boots around all over the place for a few weeks. but his favorite song which you can even still now here him singing, is "oh the farmer and the cowman should be friends..." which is so precious.
he also loved that my van was full of different costume pieces here and there for about three months and took advantage of these things often. once with cousins when we were playing a the park.
after every performance, he was subjected to the girls leaving their heavily lipsticked kisses on his cheeks, but he didn't seem to mind this too much.
over all i would say it was a great experience for everyone and a really fantastic show.
now with pimpernel over for taylor, and oklahoma! over for the jr. high, i'm excited to take a music theater break for a while, until next year....
as a side note, a funny oklahoma related story....
several years ago while on a long road trip to arizona, oklahoma! the movie was playing in the DVD player and everyone was singing along. my SIL april starts singing, "oooook-lahoma where the wind comes crashin' through the corn!" of course, we all busted out laughing because those are definitely not the words, but now, in our family, they sort of are because we sing apey's version of it all the time.
i love that apey girl.
