I have never been a huge fan of broadway musicals or performances. Nor have I been huge about seeing stuff at our local performing arts facility, but let me tell you, last night was the best night ever; I got to see Jodi Benson (the women who voiced Ariel) perform live with some of her broadway favorites as well as some disney songs. Of course she ended her wonderful performance with "Part of Your Wold".
As I look back at my childhood, the two main vacations I went on were to the beach or to disney. My first time to disney was when I was four and I have been eleven or maybe even twelve more times since then. Let's just face it, I grew up going to Walt Disney World and it is now a part of me, which may be the reason why I was able to relate to this performance and I was able to enjoy it so much. My favorite character isn't any of the princesses, but my favorite is good old Goofy.
Disney princesses were never a huge draw for me. The classic disney characters such as Micky and Minnie were more my type. As I said I loved goofy which is really ironic since I don't get sarcasm and since I don't have the typical sense of humor. Goofy always made me laugh, but last night I got to experience the life of Ariel from The Little Mermaid. She came to my current city to perform along with a local kids choir that was made up of several kids who had gone through an audition. This wasn't a choir of children who new each other, but a choir of the best. Jodi Benson loves kids, which really makes the performance even better because she was able to relate to the audience.
The performance that Jodi put on was probably one of the most informal performances that I have ever seen. The show obviously started out with a man announcing to turn our cellphones off and put our camera's away, but there was something odd about the man. He clearly was not a man provided by the theatre because he wasn't formal, but he was goofy. They opened the curtains for the children's choir to begin. As soon as the children were done, they scattered into the audience to take their seats with their family. This was the second thing I noticed that was informal. They took time out of the show to make you fear comfortable and put you in a family atmosphere where you weren't judged for your dress or actions.
Jodi was finally introduced where she sang her first song. Part way through a transition from one song to the other she went to grab a drink of water from the piano. She then told the audience that she said she did this because she had something in her throat AND because all mermaids needed water. It thrilled me that she didn't care that she had to take a sit of water while she was performing. She didn't care about how professional she was, she cared about performing with her passion, not her professionalism.
At one point, she had a red dress on and she was talking to the children and telling them to look at her red dress. She then said that they probably wished they had one to. She continued on this hilarious rant by twirling and saying how, ooh it twirls. Then she started imitating the children's reactions. In between her acts she was the most personable and funny performer I have ever seen. There were also tap dancers and men singing parts; the men stole the stage for some of it.
The one man that put on some of the songs sang a bunch of disney songs. One was from Ratatouille. He had the chef hat on, the accent and everything. He had a notecard clearly visible since he didn't no the words. Then he proceeded to sing Under The Sea and had to stand by the piano looking over his notes. It was absolutely hilarious. They didn't care about being perfect, they cared about their audience. If they made mistakes, they laughed at them and so did we. There was no offense either way.
I don't know if this performance was special because it was disney or that I had my hopes up. This was someone I wanted to see because she was Disney after all, but she didn't just sing disney songs. Most performances I either get bored or my eyes get tired; this performance I stayed in tune, awake and alert for the whole thing. Could it be the informality? I really don't know, but it doesn't matter. I had the best time of my life and thats what really matters.
She also shared how amazing it was that the songs she sang were written and how grateful she was for all that others had done for her. She expressed and shared stories of personal experiences with other disney creators. She believe it or not, is friends with the person who played belle in Beauty and The Beast. I definitely give this performance a two thumbs up. I never really like performances, but this one kept me involved.
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