Bear River music students felt out of tune during this year’s “Puttin’ on the Ritz” performance.
Students said “Puttin’ on the Ritz” started off rough during the first showing on May 12, but leveled out during the second showing on May 13. Bruins appreciated the Beatles-themed music and entertainment performed by the Bear River Show Choir, Starlite, Jazz Unlimited, and the Men’s and Women’s Choirs.
Band and Choir Director David Ahrens reflected on this year’s show, including a brief fainting spell by a member of the Choir.
“It went really well,” he said. “We had two performances and it was a little unusual, we had a little bit of an emergency situation during the first one and it sort of threw the vibe off a little bit because we were all a little concerned for the student that was injured. It was an unusual evening, but then we came back on Saturday and did it again and things were a lot stronger for the Saturday performance. I think people were a little more focused. It was good, we had a good turnout.”
Mr. Ahrens also talked about the theme from this year and the general way the show is organized.
“It’s always a fun performance,” he said. “We usually do music from Broadway or from musicals and things like that. It was a little more pop-oriented. Then this year we did the Beatles stuff, it was the first time we’ve ever done that, so that was kind of fun and that might turn into a semi-regular way to end things.”
Senior Max McDaniel compared the show to a party.
“What’s not to like?” he asked. “It’s ‘Puttin’ on the Ritz,’ it’s the last show of the year. It’s always exciting seeing your friends up there. They performed Find and Seek (Hide and Seek). That was a good one; JU killed it. There was some glitter flying around, it was a party.”
McDaniel has attended eight “Putting on the Ritz’s” throughout his life and he equated this show to one of the greats.
“I thought they had a very great show,” he said.
Breeze Davis, another senior who has attended many Choir shows, said the reason she went this year was for her friends.
“I’ve been to every Choir show since I was in high school just for all my friends, so I had to go basically,” she said. “It was the last one. I mean it would kind of suck if I didn’t.”
Davis thought that the show was good, but unorganized.
“The whole thing got kind of mixed up and Starlite had to go first,” she said. “Usually they put that apart, which would be more exciting, so it was kind of just not really exciting music happening when people were starting to get bored. … I liked (Starlite) like, the dancing and everything. JU sounded really good, that was cool. I just liked to see all my friends basically.”
Drew Callipare, a senior Jazz Unlimited and Starlite member, elaborated on the reasons why this show started off so roughly.
“We weren’t that organized, we didn’t get to learn all our songs quickly enough. Like we started kind off late and it’s always next to AP testing, so if you have a lot of those tests you’re gonna miss a lot of practicing,” Callipare said. “That’s always kind of a problem. This year I just feel like it was a little more unorganized.”
Trace Anderson, a senior JU and band member, talked about what needs to be done to bring the show back up to peak performance.
“Ahrens did the best he could with what he had, but I feel like it’s just too much for him to be doing Band and Choir both,” he said. “Sometimes I feel like it’s hard for him to manage, or to put all his energy into one, because then one gets left behind. Putting 50 percent into each is just going to bring the whole program down. If we got someone in there that was just for Choir, that might help.”
