Cultural Report: The World Goes 'Round...

Yea, from time to time my wife and I get away from the neighborhood garage sales, community meetings and out from in front of the TV, and we do something with a little more class. This time around, our friend Sid invited us to see his niece Lindsay Hicks perform in the musical, "The World Goes 'Round".

Surely you remember Lindsay; she is the Texas gal in this great poke at Sooner fans.

Anyway, we were off to San Marcos Sunday afternoon to catch the last performance by the Texas State University Department of Theater & Dance of this particular production. For those of you who haven't been to San Marcos, or at least beyond the Outlet Mall, you should really take a drive and see the place. And if you are really in the mood, there is Aquarena Springs, but Ralph the Swimming pig is no longer diving.

But for those of us with a little class, the theater made for a great afternoon.

The show is what amounts to a review of songs from John Kander and Fred Ebb. I know, I had to Google them too. But they are responsible for many songs made famous in shows like Chicago, Cabaret, & New York, New York. So in essence, the production was an opportunity for these theater students to show off their singing and show skills. This is not something you'll see at your kid's elementary school. We were seriously impressed with the talent and not just in singing but also several humorous scenes.Of course, we were focused on Lindsay who played Woman 3 - and she was certainly a stand-out in the show - but there were several other performers who made the event worth the drive. Kelly Bales (Woman 1) had an extremely powerful voice. When she and Lindsay performed the song "Class", a duet about two drunk gals decrying the lack thereof in modern society, the result was awesome comedy. They both had great comedic timing and facial expressions that really sold it. And it is obvious these two work well together. Thy paired up again in the second act with "The Grass is Always Greener", an entertaining duet about a housewife and a star trading quips about how much better the others life must be. Again, these two had the audience laughing with their impeccable timing and delivery.

One of the male actors, Tyler Wallach (Man 1) really stood out. This guy did a song, "Mr. Cellophane", which was simply awesome. He also performed with the women in the show on a great song called "Sara Lee" that had the audience really laughing.All of the actors in this show were great. I could probably go down the list and give a song by song listing and point out how well everyone did, but the point is they were all really great.

The musicians in the show were also incredible. If you just had a bunch of amateurs out there, the singers could not have performed the really intricate show tunes. These musicians genuinely did a top notch job, helping to make it a memorable afternoon.

Going up to San Marcos also gave us a chance to meet some of Sid's family including Lindsay's proud parents Jim & Monica Hicks and her brother Jake who plays football at Rice. What a talented family!At the end of the show, Sid was all smiles as Lindsay came out from back stage to meet the family. Definitely worth the drive to San Marcos.