Part three in the story of “What happens when 3 of the original Broadway Stars of Memphis Broadway crash a rehearsal of MEMPHIS with the High School All-State kids” continues with the entire company singing “Memphis Lives in Me.”
How did you do watching that? Me, tears streaming down my face while it was happening and I just had to let them fall as both hands were on the video camera. You can definitely hear me sniffling in this video.
Why the tearful theatrics? You sit at your desk at you casually toss around producing terms like “future licensing to high school and colleges” but that’s all just talk and contracts and there aren’t faces attached to that. When you actually see a show that you helped launch being embodied in the next generation of aspiring theatre folk, reality slaps you in the face. HARD. People will do this show, like I did Little Shop of Horrors and Pajama Game and Brigadoon in high school. There will be legions of actors who have these roles on their resumes; who use this music to audition for other shows.
So the fact that the show closed on Broadway doesn’t sting so much because MEMPHIS does, in deed, live.
“Hockadoo!” shouts the Full Company of the Illinois High School All-State Theatre.
