Burbank High School’s music extravaganza is back again, opening last night May 19, 2011 and continuing through Saturday May 21st. And they did it one more time; once again it was a true five star mega wow performance by individuals, small groups and Burbank High School’s collection of multi award winning show choirs. All true but I just have to begin this review by making a special mention of two super star quality American Idol winning young vocalists, Mallory Maisner and Ellen Marlow. If I was forced to pick just one I could not. Either or both could and did capture an audience and hold them. Congratulations ladies, you are both fantastic. Now on to other highlights of the show.
I can’t imagine anything inherently funnier than the worldwide obsession with facebook. Ashley Gonzales, Mitch Hollis, Christopher Jayasinghe and Hayley Smith apparently agree and developed and performed a hilarious spoof of this internet phenomenon in “Be My Friend.”
Award winning show choir Out of the Blue knocked it out of the park with their performance of New York Medley, Hollywood, Shenandoah and South Medley. I was particularly moved by their smooth delivery of Shenandoah. But I found Rockin’ in America to be just a little out of place for Out of the Blue. Out of the Blue is smooth and mellow, and when I think of “Rockin” I think of screaming guitars and wild men or women rhythmically prancing about the stage. That said they were magnificent.
Dance Ensemble was pure and superbly choreographed energy. In many ways it was comparable with the Broadway hit Burn the Floor. It just didn’t last long enough, the audience wanted more. Well actually I think just watching this super talented group wore a lot of us out. Bravo!
Skylar Goode and Alex Naveira were outrageous as two robots contemplating their new world in which “The Humans are Dead.” It was a brilliant comedic performance and kept the audience laughing large.
With passion, power and poise the lovely Mallory Maisner reached out from the stage and captured the hearts and minds of the rightly awestruck audience with her rendition of I Am What I Am. What you are Mallory is simply spectacular.
Yet another of Burbank High School stable of utterly fantastic show choirs is Sound Dogs. Yes they sing, yes they dance but Sound Dogs also always seems to deliver a large dose of humor and they did it again with their Tribute to The Village People. I just have to step into geezerdom for a moment and point out that these young performers did not even exist when the Village People were at the pinnacle of their career. Never mind, their performance was both solid and concurrently hilarious. Thank you Sound Dogs for giving us all a gay old time.
Recently crowned “Grand Champions” at a national show choir competition in Fairfield, Ohio IMPRESSIONS opened up Act II of this year’s Pop Show with Here Comes the Rain, I Love a Rainy Night, Stormy Weather and Sunshine Medley. Along the way they transformed visually from fairly dull to dazzling glitter. But their essence is their sound and movement, all simply superb. When their set was done and the thunderous applause settled down I over heard the gentleman next to me say to his wife: “I think that may have been the best choir set I have ever heard.” Yep! I would have to agree. IMPRESSIONS is truly impressive.
The Rat Pack is back and again they did a great job projecting that good old Las Vegas swagger and super cool style. But again I kept wondering, which one is Sammy or Dean or Frank. Maybe I am just being a little too literal. It was all good stuff gentlemen, thank you.
One intriguing production piece was Rolling in the Deep featuring vocalist Megan Delbarian and backed by a fabulous dance team consisting of Kristina Albarian, Kendra Cole, Mary Dzhambaryan, Kari Irwin, Danielle Kerr, Anna Kunza, Amelia Lewis, Tori Park, Erika Reyes and Julie Westbrook. It was beautiful and haunting and very well put together.
A rib splitting take off on the ancient Banana Boat Song was performed with style by Jacob Jun, Julian Mracky, Alex Naveira, Kayson Stevens and Robert Wells in Banana Medley. It is hard to imagine but a group of guys dressed as bananas really can be extremely entertaining.
Ellen Marlow took the stage again and again captured the audience with her stunningly beautiful rendition of Time. If this young lady does not emerge as a super star in the music world it would only be because she did not want to do so. What the heck, Ellen Marlow, CPA – why not? By the way I do, of course, jest but FYI Mick Jaeger was very close to being just that when he got together with a couple a guys and formed a little group they called The Rolling Stones. Their music careers have been pretty good, and Ellen is way better looking and sings much better than ol’ Mick.
Then it was time for the multi award winning, utterly amazing, genuinely world class super show choir – In Sync. This is something you would expect to see on Broadway or the West End of London, not on a high school stage. Yet there they were with yet another spellbinding performance. For this level of magnificence we must not only thank the performers themselves, each excellent in his or her own right but the also award winning Burbank High School, Vocal Music Association Choir Director extraordinaire Brett Carroll for his great leadership and vision. It was a perfect end to an almost perfect show.
Last year’s Pop Show scored a 99% in my book. I wondered then how Brett Carroll and company could equal or exceed last year’s stellar performance. This year was at 97.8% and here is why. REVIEWERS NOTES: Please reduce somewhat the heavy reliance on back lighting. Yes it is dramatic but at times it became overwhelming. And the show became a bit too long. Yeah I know every good act has to have a shot, but it really would be best to keep the time under 3 hours. Still 97.8% is an A+ and this remains a show very much worth seeing.
This was written and published the morning of Friday, May 20th, 2011. There is still a show tonight at 7 p.m. and again tomorrow night assuming the world is still in existence. Just get thy self to the Burbank High School and if you don’t know where that is just Google it. But do go to this show, it is some the best entertainment anywhere and you will love it.
One final note for all those I did not mention in this article. It is simply a space issue. You see I have this mean, ugly draconian editor who ties my hands on these matters. Were it up to me I would mention each and every performer in this amazing show. You all truly do deserve kudos for your performances. So if you are not in this article, let’s try again next year. Same goes for the photos. To each and all CONGRATULATIONS on a wonderful show.
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