Full Disclosure

We weren't going to make it to see Craig this time.

My friend Craig--professional trumpeter, music-man and all-around wonderful person--was performing in The Addams Family at the Grand Theatre in London. Since he lives in London, this is what he'd doubtless refer to as a "preferred gig", a run that comes complete with seeing his wife and son every morning and going home for a nap between matinee and evening performances if he wants to.
Since I don't live in London, actually seeing this performance looked unlikely. At almost the last minute a Saturday-sized hole in our schedule opened up and, Craig re-jigged things so we could attend with his family, and...what better way to spend a Saturday night?

I was going into this one almost blind. My cultural tapestry is riddled with holes you could drive a truck through: one of them is The Addams Family. The first show was before my time; the second one is background nattering every once in a while, not because Eva watches it, exactly, but because it's on one of the channels she watches. (My wife is a strange person, as I think I have made clear). There are very few shows that manage to snag my attention and that hasn't been one of them.
No, my only real exposure to the Addams Family comes by way of the most profitable pinball table of all time. I was an aspiring wizard once: if you ever wondered how it's possible for a man to go into  first year university with ten grand after all expenses were paid, and come out stone flat broke, without doing drugs of any kind--that was one reason. I bet I spent at least five hundred bucks in quarters that year. At least.

Anyway, after a straight-out-of-first-year-university supper at Burger King at Oxford and Highbury--and we only ate there because we couldn't find the Swiss Chalet that was signed and which I sorta-kinda remembered being on Highbury someplace--we found our way to Craig and Nicole's.  Oh, the perils of navigating a once-familiar city that is no longer half as familiar as you kid yourself into thinking it is. Very soon it was time to head downtown, to the Grand Theatre.

I hadn't been in the Grand since Agnes of God in...holy crap, Google says 1985. Grade seven, that would have been. It doesn't seem to have changed much. We sat second row balcony and the place was packed.

As Eva and I perused the program waiting for the house lights to dim, I confess--full disclosure--I was a little chagrined. I'd understood that the show was this year's rendition of the  High School Project but hadn't fully grasped that everyone on stage and almost everybody offstage was, in fact, a high school student. Craig himself was mentoring a tenth grade trumpeter in the pit (there was also a student violinist); the cast and crew hailed from all of the Catholic and most of the public secondary schools in London and area. (Nobody from my two London high schools, but a couple from my actual alma mater, Ingersoll District C.I., which raised my eyebrows a bit.) They put on one full production on the main stage each fall and one springtime show in the smaller McManus theatre, and it really is a high school musical. They're overseen, of course, but cast and crew are all kids.
Eva and I sat there, in the middle of an audience full of mostly family and friends of the performers, and felt --again, full disclosure--a bit put off. I've seen high school productions. Been in a few of them. Not to put anyone down, but...unless you're a friend or family, you're not likely to appreciate them overmuch.

So I thought to myself. Then the curtain went up.

I'm not going to tell you that everybody gave a stellar performance. That would be a lie, and lies just get you in trouble...one of the morals of this musical. But there were several real standouts--the female cast in particular, a couple of which have a future in theatre that could be their present at this point. The dance numbers were well done, as was the stagecraft, and you couldn't help realizing what talented kids can do given the run of a full professional theatre.
The play itself was creative, with pop culture references scattered throughout. Truth be told, I listen to these things more than I watch them...the music was really impressive, and challenging. Craig's an old hand at musical theatre scores at this point, and was, as always, fantastic. His second was great, too, for fifteen, and almost great enough I could drop the qualifier.  Craig has been playing trumpet since he was knee high to a valve and he agreed with me, afterwards.

Listening to Craig at these things is going to become an expensive hobby, I can tell. First Cabaret and now The Addams Family...and somehow I think whatever I see next, iTunes will have the Broadway recording of as well.

Some of the music really spoke to me:

Move toward the darkness
Don't avoid despair
Only at our weakest
can we learn what's fair

When you face your nightmares
Then you'll know what's real

Move toward the darkness and feel

Full disclosure ...I had a great time. Thanks for the opportunity, Craig. Looking forward to the next one.