It's Showtime!

Every year we publish an entire all-school musical revue within the first few issues of Music K-8 Magazine. It's a revue that you can perform with all of your students or just one or more select classes, as you prefer. This year, our revue is called It's Showtime! and it offers a suggested venue for you to showcase your students' talents however you like. In this first issue (September/October 2017), you will find the first two songs. More music, script, teacher's guide, and other extras will be found in the third issue this year (January/February 2018).

Because of the flexibility of the program, you can create a true variety show with songs, instrumental pieces, dances, skits, comedians, magicians, acrobats, and/or any other type of act you like. Or you could keep it more focused on just singing, even selecting a theme, such as old favorites, springtime, folk songs, etc. However you choose to use it, you will find a bounty of resources from Music K-8. Check out our web site at MusicK8.com for our new Index (which we also send as a hard copy to all of our subscribers) for lots of ideas.

The first song, "It's Showtime!" provides you with a strong opening statement that sets the tone for what will follow. Part show tune, part rock/country/pop anthem, it is actually pretty easy to learn, despite its eclectic nature. Let your kids sing along with ours on the Performance/Accompaniment recording to help get into the spirit of it. The key to making it work well is the enthusiasm. Be sure your students sing with excitement. Also, have spoken soloists exaggerate their lines, either with hushed anticipation, all out bursting joy, or some combination thereof.

You will note there is a second part that starts during the section at bar 22 which we affectionately dubbed "the hoedown." This is optional and at that point, it's actually unison. It becomes a separate line at bar 26, the chorus, which glides right into a halftime groove. We have isolated part 2 and put it on our web site for free downloading. (See the box on page 78 for more information.) The bouncy show style resumes on the D.S., complete with the joyful exclamations.

We suggest having performers throw their arms out to the sides every time they start the word "showtime," to give it some punch. With both parts singing, it will have a staggered movement effect, which will be pretty cool. The claps at bar 22 (also optional) will further add action to the performance, but if you want to put in a few more steps or other show-like hand gestures here and there, by all means, please do! Simple shoulder or knee bounces can have quite an impact when performed by a big group.