Middle school singers sang about ups and downs of being a kid at this year’s Spring Sing concert, directed by Mary Ellen Agnew-Place and titled “Just Kidding!” The show featured the grade 6 class and also featured middle school vocal groups Dynamics, Harmonics and Vivace, performing a series of songs about childhood from several famous Broadway musicals such as “Les Misérables,” “West Side Story” and “Hairspray.”
After the opening number of “Kids” from “Bye, Bye, Birdie,” the show entered its first set of songs, which followed the theme of famous orphaned characters of Broadway musicals. Grade 6 student groups sang the wistful “Castle on a Cloud” from “Les Misérables” and “Where is Love?” from the 1960 musical “Oliver.” The grade 6 show choir Dynamics, directed by Agnew-Place, finished the set with the “Annie” favorite “It’s the Hard-Knock Life” and “I Won’t Grow Up” from “Peter Pan.”
Adolescent angst was the theme for another stage of the show, which featured Vivace and the girls of Harmonics, directed by Dave Hart, singing Marc Shaiman and Scott Wittman’s “Mama, I’m a Big Girl Now,” from “Hairspray,” and performances of the Rodgers and Hammerstein classic “Sixteen Going on Seventeen” by the male singers of Harmonics.
Director Monica Colletti and the entire group of Harmonics singers kicked off the next part of the show, dedicated to parents, with another Rodgers and Hammerstein piece, “The Other Generation” from “Flower Drum Song.” Vivace returned to the stage to sing Harold Rome’s “Be Kind to Your Parents” before grade 6 students performed “Never Say No” and “Plant a Radish” from “The Fantasticks.”
For the finale, all of the night’s singers stood together onstage to sing “Happiness” from “You’re a Good Man Charlie Brown.”