Museo, My Mother and Me – Musings and a bit of a Review

Last Sunday, Mother’s Day, I attended Museo by Youth Singers of Calgary at the Southern Alberta Jubilee Auditorium or, “the Jube,” as it’s affectionately called here – I wonder, do Edmontonians do the same for their Northern equivalent? Because it was a one-off show, I decided to wait until I had a break in the action to write about it, and I got one, so here it is. Since I have the luxury of being able to write about Museo after the fact, this is more “musical musing,” than “review”, so I’ve posted it in both categories.

Museo was Youth Singers of Calgary’s big spring show and included performers of all ages, from 3 1/2 to adult. I had a lot of initial interest in Museo when I first posted it on the Calgary Musicals Meetup Group Site. Everybody seemed to have heard about this group except me – probably because I didn’t have children or grow up here. In order to snag good seats I bought a couple of tickets on spec when they first went on sale, assuming I’d find a taker, as I’ve done for other popular shows. (My $25 seats cost almost $35 through Ticketmaster after fees – if that’s not a racket, I don’t know what is). For the first time so far, my gamble didn’t pay off – in fact, try as I might, I couldn’t even give my second ticket away and ended up going on my own. No big deal. I don’t begrudge an extra charitable donation in support of the arts, if not Ticketmaster . On the plus side, the seats I got just happened to be almost exactly the same ones I bought for Jersey Boys in June (1st row balcony in front of the walkway), so I got a chance to check them out in advance and satisfied myself they were good. In fact, as I suspected, the sight lines were much better than the more expensive ones in front of the walkway, which proves that it’s always worth doing your homework, as one row can make quite a difference in price – I’ll discuss this further in a future post I’m planning, called “Musicals for Misers”. I managed to get a media pass for Jersey Boys after I bought my tickets for the group (one of the perks of this gig) so I have one ticket left if you’re interested – just go to that Calgary Musicals Meetup Group event and follow the instructions).

Robert the Bruce sculpture outside “The Jube”

One advantage of going to a show alone is that you get to explore things you wouldn’t otherwise. In this case, I picked up a brochure for Calgary 2012  - Cultural Capital of Canada. I have only been following this initiative peripherally – they just had their official kick-off earlier this month. I missed out on applying for a grant, but have just enrolled as a volunteer cultural ambassador. I’m not exactly sure what that entails, but since I’m already doing that through this blog and the Meetup Group, I figured I might as well make it official. I also got to appreciate all the fine art the Jubilee has to offer, and there’s a lot of really good stuff there (if you can call art “stuff”). Even if you have no plans to go to a show at the Jube, it’s worth a stroll through their “gallery” sometime. I particularly like the large wire eyeglass sculpture made out of shopping carts in the main lobby. Now, can someone tell me what’s the connection between the Jubilee and Robert the Bruce, King of Scots, whose big, bronze statue overlooks downtown just outside the Jube’s front door?

OK, on with the show. I have to admit that Museo wasn’t really what I was expecting, although that’s probably my fault. I guess that based on the poster and the title, which, of course, means “museum” in Italian and Spanish, I thought there would actually be more science/archeology involved. I’m a geologist by training, so maybe I was just hoping … Some would consider Museo “just” a year-end student “concert/recital”, but it was no less of a musical than the revues you might see at Stage West, which include song-and-dance numbers interspersed with commentary – in this case by the museum’s “curator”. The “story” here was essentially about human evolution from the primitive to an imaginary futuristic state, with an extraordinarily broad range of songs chosen to reflect the themes. One of my favourite performances was “Walk the Dinosaur” by one of the younger groups, in the “Ancient Civilization” section which opened the show. It was followed by a section called “Planet Earth” to end Act I. I also really liked the “Post-Modern” section’s Beatles medley that opened Act II.

The show was pretty impressive. The singing and dancing were great, and it’s not often you get to see hundreds of people on stage, even at a big Broadway musical. Sure, there were some flubs, like someone stopping to tie their shoe, or not being able to hold their pose or not being quite where they’re supposed to be on stage. Although I’m sure some of the kids (and perhaps some of the more uptight parents) were mortified, to me that just adds to the fun and charm of a show like this. The mostly young performers did an amazing job of memorizing a lot of songs, with dance moves, to boot. I’ve been in plenty of choirs, and singing alone is challenging enough. At close to three hours, I did find the show a little long, however, as did the young lad sitting behind me who spent much of the second act asking his parents if it was almost over. The young family next to me left at intermission, which may have been a good call. Perhaps some tighter editing would have been beneficial – as it would for this post, you’re probably thinking (my longest yet) .

A crazy amount of work must go into putting on a show like this, and the performers, their parents and the myriad of volunteers have a lot to be proud of. Kudos to artistic director, executive producer and YSC founder Shirley Penner and her creative team – Tricia Penner, Jocelyn Jones and Steven Morton – for pulling this off. The lighting (Scott Baier, Red Lightning), sound design (John Hildebrand),  thousands of costumes (Catherine Barclay), choreography and live band were on par with what you might see in a professional theatre company, and there were lots of cool special effects, including some funky dancing in fluorescent-striped overalls under black light in the final “Futurama” section.

At one point during the performance, I noticed the vacant seat beside me and thought about my late mother and got a little weepy, imagining all the recitals and concerts and shows she must have attended or been involved in, with five children in any or all of ballet, piano, choir, band, and, of course, musical theatre. (Dad was more into softball and swim team, although he would have gone to a lot of those shows too). Mum was the convener or “head mom” for our ballet troupe and prided herself on designing better costumes for less money and less work than the other troupes, and it was really important to her that every girl thought her costume was the best. She always had a helping hand and consideration for those mothers who weren’t handy with a sewing machine, or didn’t have much money. This was the sixties, so almost all of them were homemakers, of course, and they were expected to make the costumes themselves – maybe they still do, for all I know.

I remember Mum taking me to a show at another elementary school the year we did Peter Pan (we only did big costumed events every three years and all the public (whoops, I mean Protestant) schools in Montreal had the same theme), and showing me that while I and my fellow mermaids got shiny green tinsel for hair, the other school’s girls wore shredded garbage bags. The truth is, we mermaids really would have preferred to have been pirates, because we mostly sat around waving our arms, and their dance was way more fun, but that was “Miss Patsy’s” doing, not my mother’s, and we DID really love our costumes.  Mum heartily encouraged our interests in these endeavours, without pushing us, something for which I am forever grateful. I can’t even begin to imagine what May would have been like for her every year!

Later, when I was performing in musicals at Acadia University in Nova Scotia, sometimes on stage and sometimes in the pit as pianist, I could always count on her to fly out from Montreal to see my shows even in the dead of winter, and it usually was. (She started working as an airline employee when I was a teenager, so it was cheap for her). I know that if she were well, she wouldn’t have hesitated to jump on a plane to use my spare Museo ticket, and I’m sure she’d have loved it. And she sure would have been proud to see any of her kids perform on a stage like the Jubilee. What a kick! I hope the Youth Singers realize how lucky they are to get such an opportunity and remember to thank their Moms (and Dads and everyone else involved) for letting/encouraging them to do it, and for putting in the time behind the scenes to make it happen, even if that’s “just” to work to pay for it! I’m sure I didn’t do enough of that when my mother was alive, so if it’s not too late, thanks, Mum, and Happy belated Mother’s Day. This one’s for you.

Emilie Slovacek Calder 1929-2004

Youth Singers of Calgary does several performances a year. The next one up is Enchanted on May 26. I plan to take the Calgary Musicals Group to their production of Fame in July. For more information on the group and upcoming events, go to Youth Singers of Calgary or check out their Facebook site, which includes a link to their Museo photo gallery. I hope to interview them somewhere down the road and will share what I learn.

How about you? Are you or your children involved with Youth Singers of Calgary, or have you been involved in the past? What can you tell us about your experience?