Spectacular Spectacular

No really, our 3-year-old's preschool 'concert' was unmistakably like a production of Moulin Rouge. As Sean and I arrived at the Corrientes (Buenos Aires version of Broadway) theatre downtown last night, we were simultaneously mystified and astonished by the overdone set and props for what we thought would be a group of kids singing badly for the better part of an hour.

I knew it was on another level when I found out that, not only were the tickets $50.00 per family, the tickets had a specific sale date, at 8:30am. I arrived at 8:25 and still got tickets 6 rows back. Knowing what I know now, I probably could have gotten better seats if I greased the palm of the preschool secretary.

The evening's theme was "Flying with Rhythm", although they misspelled rhythm. The tickets were made to look like boarding passes, and the set and props were all airport related. The narrators of the evening (5-year-old class) wore pilot and flight attendant costumes. Naturally, only the boys were pilots.

The dress rehearsal probably deserves an entire blog itself, as I almost got into a brawl with the preschool director. Upon arrival at the theatre downtown, she asked me who was going to fetch him afterward. Fetch, like a dog fetches. She said this because it's usually the nannies that drop off and pick up. When I told her I'd be staying, she freaked out and said something about it being 4 hours long and that parents couldn't be present. When I told her that I would just sit in the back, I thought she was going to stroke out. She literally wouldn't even let me in the lobby, and by literally, I mean she actually blocked the doorway and then ran after me when I went around her.

Teague's class dance and costumes represented the pop category of rhythm; the boys wore Michael Jackson regalia and the girls wore Madonna. Luckily, not the cone bra Madonna. When Teague appeared wearing a glove on one hand and a shiny getup, complete with hat, it was bizarre, to say the least. Michael Jackson is definitely a pop icon, but the irony of 3-year-old children wearing his costumes is not lost on me.
I am his mother, and therefore completely biased, but I have to say, the kid is a total ham, and the crowd ate it up. I had worried he would freeze when he saw that there was an audience, but he had a gigantic smile the whole time, he remembered his moves, and appears to have more rhythm than his mom and dad combined.
He's on the far right.

Other classes had similarly strange costumes, including the 2-year-old class, who represented the hip-hop category of rhythm and danced to House of Pain's "Jump Around". I couldn't make this up if I tried. Their costumes were supposed to look like football jerseys with rolled up Adidas pants, and they each wore a giant gold necklace. You haven't lived until you've seen a 2- year-old Argentine do the running man.

The fasten your seatbelt portion of their opening number.

All in all, the production was quite amusing. Of the 15 or so songs, only 2 weren't American songs. It was very interesting to get the Argentine take on what they consider country (Billy Ray Cyrus), hip-hop, rock and pop. Not surprisingly, there were poodle skirts and Elvis costumes for one class; Sean was disappointed that Teague's class didn't have the honor and is trying to figure out how to buy one of the Elvis costumes from a 4-year-old. I hear bribing works well.

One thing's for sure, we will never witness another production quite like this one again!

His class during the 'encore'. Teague's classmates (l to r) Nacho, Serena, Felix, Valentina, Teague, Joaquin and Santiago. The school's director (we call her Sue Sylvester) is on the far right.