Tale #20: Move Your Hips and Dance Like a Fish

Music Theatre International is one of the biggest theatrical licensing companies in the world. It might be the biggest, but ever since Tams-Witmark, R&H Theatricals, Samuel French, and the ALW Collection were merged together under one umbrella (Concord Theatricals), I cannot be certain that they are still the biggest.

Music Theatre International (MTI for short) was the first licensing company to create an education division. Through that division, they were the first company to create condensed versions of popular musicals that they called “Junior” musicals. The short 60-minute versions range in titles from classics such as Annie, Guys & Dolls, and Fiddler on the Roof, to Disney megahits like Frozen, Beauty and the Beast, and The Lion King.

With the success of the junior musicals, MTI expanded it even further by releasing “KIDS” versions. These were 30-40 minute musicals. Other companies saw the immense success and launched their own versions with the titles they had in their collections. Now, Concord Theatricals has youth editions, Theatrical Rights Worldwide has Young@Part, and Broadway Licensing has JV editions.

The biggest draw to these versions, besides the shorter scripts, is that they come with a pre-recorded rehearsal soundtrack and performance soundtrack. These fully orchestrated soundtracks give the kids a professional performance experience without the need for a live pit orchestra. This makes it incredibly easy for schools, community theaters, and after-school programs to do these shows. This makes theater more accessible for children across the country.

For every K-2nd, 3rd-5th, and 6th-8th grade youth show at VACT, we always used the pre-recorded soundtracks that came with the show licenses. For the majority of our youth show performances, I would be in charge of playing the soundtrack. I would have to follow the script, play the music when it was time, and manage fade outs for scene change music.

To run the music, I would sit at the back of the theater next to our Sound Designer Dale. He sat at the soundboard and I would sit at the table next to the soundboard. I would run the show’s soundtrack off of my personal laptop. While Dale and I couldn’t talk back in our little sound/music section, because obviously there was a performance going on and you shouldn’t talk during a live performance, we had our secret method of silent communication.

I cannot for the life of me remember which show this next bit happened at.

One performance of “insert junior musical title here”, I was all ready to go like normal. I had my laptop open, the playlist loaded, and my script was on the correct page. Dale checked if I was ready to which I said, “Yep! Let’s go”. He cued the lighting team and they took the house to half (aka they dimmed the lights over the audience). This is the universal cue that a show is starting. Cue the overture.

As I went to play the pre-recorded overture, all of a sudden, my computer froze. My computer froze and the rainbow wheel of doom started spinning and spinning and spinning and it would not freaking stop. I couldn’t click anything on my computer and there were 600 audience members waiting for the show to start.

Oh yea, VACT youth shows were (and still are) a hot ticket.

While the rainbow wheel of doom spun away, I immediately hopped out of my chair and fell onto the floor to find my show bag. I flipped the bag and dumped all of the contents onto the floor.

Dale looked over to me and gave me a look that I instantly knew meant “what the hell are you doing?” I had no time to respond as I grabbed my emergency backup iPod and got back in my chair. It is extremely important that you always keep a second device on hand that has the show soundtrack loaded.

I was in a such a rush that I plugged the aux cord into the iPod before opening the correct playlist. I plugged in the iPod, bumped play on accident, and…it was not good.

Now, one final piece of information is necessary to finish this story.

One of my favorite songs to play during camps and rehearsals when we wanted to do something fun with the kids was “Juicy Wiggle” by Redfoo. We have a little dance that goes with it and the kids love it. I started this tradition one summer camp day in 2015 when the kids were bouncing off of the walls and I had already run through all of my pre-planned activities for that session. I had seen Redfoo perform this number on Dancing With The Stars and knew it had a little choreography I could do with the kids. Think “Cupid Shuffle”, but bigger.

The kids absolutely loved it and it is still a tradition to this day. We used it all the time. We even danced to it at my wedding reception. The “Juicy Wiggle” became part of my VACT identity alongside choreographing, designing playbills, and making sure everyone had really nice printed door signs for their auditions.

The “Juicy Wiggle” was a big part of my time at VACT. Which is why it was the song my backup iPod was currently set to when I plugged the aux cord in. We had used it for our final rehearsal as a fun celebration of their show opening.

Redfoo’s “Juicy Wiggle” started blasting through the speakers of the PAC as I frantically tried to hit pause on my iPod touch.

I scrolled as quickly as I could back through my iPod to find the show playlist and finally got the show started with the overture. I breathed a huge sigh of relief before I proceeded to pick all of my crap up off the floor and put it back in my bag.

Nothing like that has happened since (thank goodness). It is a lot of pressure to run music for the youth shows. It is a lot of pressure without having this incident burned into your brain.

“Now, move your hips and dance like a fish.” – “Juicy Wiggle” by Redfoo