“We love you Conrad, oh yes we do! We love you Conrad, and we’ll be true!”.The girls walked down the aisles of the dark theatre holding brightly burning candles, softly singing this song to the love of their lives, Conrad Birdie. It automatically excited me for the rest of the play, and others in the audience whispered excitedly among themselves.
As “Bye Bye Birdie” continued, we were introduced to many other interesting characters beyond just the crazed teenagers.
The first two were Albert (Taylor Hughes) and his secretary Rosie (Lindsey Hendrickson). Albert is Conrad’s songwriter and is about to face unemployment because Conrad is going to leave for the army in just two days. And Rosie … well, she’s getting fed up with all of Albert’s nonsense. She is in love with Albert and just wants to marry him and live a happy life together, which is taking a little longer than promised. Of course Albert’s dramatic, too-attached mother isn’t helping the situation. “Mama” isn’t a very big fan of Rosie and she lets it be known. Her hysterical breakdowns and witty, rude comments toward Rosie had the entire audience cracking up.
Of course, there would be no “Bye Bye Birdie” without Conrad Birdie (Travis Longacre) himself. Albert’s plan to make money before he goes to the army consists of Conrad having his “one last kiss” to the lucky girl who gets chosen. “One Last Liss” was one of the more fun and upbeat songs in the show, and it had everybody trying to sing along with it.
The lucky girl just happens to be Kim McAfee (Kathy Yount), who is is more exited to be a woman rather than a15-year-old girl. Yount sang “How Lovely to be a Woman,” which was a little slower than the other songs, and did a great job on the vocals, especially hitting the high notes. Once reality set in, her teenage ways started to surface as she screamed excitedly to her parents (Brooke Vasconcellos and Kyle Peck) about how she, of all the girls in the world, was going to be kissed by Conrad Birdie.
Overall, the acting was phenomenal, as well as the singing. In fact, I thought that the fun, upbeat and humorous songs were the best part of the play. The fact that the cast could sing made it that much more enjoyable. Director Mr. Rick Eldridge couldn’t have picked better people for the characters. Everything went really well together, and this was one of the biggest casts in the history of the program.
The set looked magnificent. The colors were very bright and vibrant, so it made it fun to look at.
“Bye Bye Birdie” was personally my favorite play that I’ve seen so far and it was a perfect pick for the spring show. The fact that it was so good makes me want to come back next year to see what they amaze me with next time.
By Brittaney Campbell
