Hairspray!

It should have been a happy recall of those bouffant times, when we teased and sprayed our hair into impossible ‘beehives’ to stay in fashion, until brittle hair and threatening baldness made us realise that natural fall and bounce was the right way to go.  Instead, it was an evening of muffed lines, flat voices, a mike system that copped out more than once and a storyline that was robbed of its punch because of all that.  ‘Hairspray’, the musical, may not be among the better known or as sing-a-long as the Lloyd-Weber offerings, but it does have catchy tunes and chirpy lyrics.  Despite being set in the sixties, it still has a young flavour and the message is still valid.  Though black/white segregation is mostly a thing of the past, discrimination is not, and even ‘impossible’ dreams can be realised. 

After two hours, my immediate reaction was ‘what a waste of an evening!’ And then I overheard the director and teachers telling the children how well they had performed and there were congratulations offered all round. That’s when I did a reality check.

Here were school kids who had never ever done something like this: acting in a Musical and essaying parts that were as alien to them as the Man in the Moon. Okay, so they did stumble at times, but the one thing that came through was their one hundred percent commitment to the performance and their total enjoyment – they were onstage, in the moment and lovin’ it! And every child in the school had their spot in the limelight.  How cool was that?

Those schoolchildren may never ever sing or dance onstage again (or they may – who knows?), but they will carry the joy of this moment with them for the rest of their lives and probably hand it down to a future generation.

So, what’s more important: a flawless, professional performance or the happiest school time memory?