Re “The Amazing Middle School Thespians and Their Technicolor Talents”
Curious to know why you did not mention the very fine performance of Sarah Toutounchian as Potaphar's wife in the Middle School production of “Joseph and the Amazing Technicolor Dreamcoat.”
Not to take away from any of the other well-deserved plaudits, she certainly should have been included.
No?
Mr. Van Natta may be contacted at dalendolor@sbcglobal.net
Ari Noonan responds: I am pleased you asked. The paternal dimension of my personality says, yes, sir, you are correct and I am wrong. The journalist side says: Not so fast.
Here was the thinking that went into the crafting of this intended sensitive review of a fabulous afternoon of grownup entertainment by 11, 12, 13 and 14 year olds.
Even though the Andrew Lloyd Weber musical is 29 years old and my age is just past that, I never had seen the play. When the six girls described as Narrators classily pranced onto the stage in the opening scene, I was immediately enveloped. For elegance and magnetism, the girls were unsurpassed.
I know less about the entertainment world than I do about marriage where I am at the bottom of the learning curve even though, if you look to my left, you will find a stash of slightly tarnished onetime Mrs. Noonans.
Joseph was the obvious headliner. But Pharoah is going to perch in the upper right hand corner of my mind every time I return to the Robert Frost for the rest of my life.
I think I counted 58 students on stage, and unless your ex-mate’s child by a previous mistake was in the crowd, I defy you to tell me two were as tall as the Empire State Building and the remaining 56 were supporting players. It also is important to remember that this is not the NFL. The 58 cMiddle School students are younger than all but two of my neckties.
I found their skills evenly distributed. Thank heaven, this was not a sports game where several students won and many lost. Imagine a parent sitting in the top row of the Robert Frost and her daughter had the tiniest role of the afternoon. How proud and grateful both of them must have been.
Twenty years ago one of my favorite rabbis spoke to the cattle call formula. “If everyone is praised,” he said wisely, “no one is. If everyone is blamed, proper fault never will be assigned, and the true culprits will escape.”
When I came back to the office to write my review, I thought of Rabbi Lapin — and Pharoah. It would be silly to cite each of the 58 players in the body of the story (although all were identified at the end).
The main point of my story was the ringing professionalism that Diane Feldman and Courtney Bradshaw taught the students. Ten students were mentioned by name in the story for their specialness, emblematic of the neon performances of their 45 classmates.
I hope discussion of the process is helpful to your understanding, Mr. Van Natta, not a justification but as a token of transparency.
At the end of the program, adults came onto the stage. That is when I should have left. I don’t know how many individual parents were thanked, but after the 75th name was called out, who cared? The meaning of a citation had been dulled. My eyes glazed over. Had they stopped after six moms, it would have been an honor. Cattle calls are a sedative.
