Passion Piece

My favorite musical is going to have to be the one entitled “Bye Bye Birdie.” Conrad Birdie was the biggest rock & roll star of the 60's ever to be drafted into war. Aspiring song writer, Albert, is convinced that he can make his fortune and marry his girlfriend Rosie if he gets Conrad on the Ed Sullivan show to his biggest fan goodbye before he goes to war. Albert's mother will do anything to break him up with Rosie. Kim and Hugo, the high school steadies, live in Sweet Apple, Ohio where most of the action takes place. When Conrad gets onto the Ed Sullivan show to kiss Kim, Hugo busts in and punches Conrad in the face. Conrad is knocked out and everyone gets into a big furry. After this is all over Conrad leaves for the war. The man to write this initial book is known as Michael Stewart. The man who wrote the screen play is who is known as Irving Brecher. The director was George Sidney, and it was release on April 4, 1963. The themes of “Bye Bye Birdie” include: musical, family, comedy, fantasy sequence, young love. The reason that I personally respond to this material is because when I was a sophomore in high school this is the musical that we performed for our community. I always have loved performing in front of an audience. I think it gives you a rush that you can not get from anything else. I have always performed in front of people my whole life. In doing these musicals in my high school, in a way, people in the community respect you more when they know that you have been apart of them. I want to say that it puts you up higher than other people in a way, because everyone knows how much time you have given up in order to make the show a success. In order to put on any performance you must be committed to it entirely, if you are not then it will not work out. Everyone who is involved must, without a doubt, give it their best effort. You really learn how to work with others, especially people that you do not like, you have to learn to get along. Tensions will run high when you are working with the same people everyday, and you have to learn how to work through them. Having these qualities and learning to work with people so closely will definitely help anyone in the long run, and I recommend that people get involved with them. When I was a sophomore being in this musical, I loved it. Honestly loved it. Because being a sophomore in my high school you basically just have a role that consists of being in the background or the “mob,” if you would. You make so many friends when you do this musical, so many different characters that I would have never, ever met if I did not become a part of this annual musical. There was a lot of down time during rehearsals where you basically have to get to know other people, or sit by yourself in a corner. I choose to get to know other people, and it without a doubt changed my life in so many ways. I can honestly say that I love everyone that was involved in the productions that I was apart of. Through my high school years and going threw the different roles that I had I progressed in my acting, singing, and dancing… for the most part anyway. In my senior year I even got the role of a Pirate in “Peter Pan“. I really do not think that I would have gotten this role or any other role of this significance if I would not have been involved in “Bye Bye Birdie.” Because if I would not have gone out for the musical my sophomore year I would not have done it any other year from then on out. I will never forget these memories that I have made during this musical. The friends I have made who somehow turned into my family at that point in time. It all meant so much to me and it still does. I really do think that everyone should be involved in something like this. I want to say that this musical itself spoke to me and that if I watched another school perform it that it would speak to me personally…but I doubt it would. Being in a musical and seeing it be performed are two complete different things. Although both can most certainly be life changing.