Gene Kelly Nominations

The Gene Kelly Awards is among one of the worst ideas ever to strike musical theater.  It's right up there with whoever decided to make musicals out of movies, and not the reverse.  Reasons for disdain are as follows:

• If done properly, the same schools would win year after year after year, as some directors are simply better than others, and some schools have a larger talent pool than others.
• In an effort to avoid number one, the judges avoid selecting the same schools every year, which results in the best shows rarely winning.
• They are so specific to the point where people are designing their shows and budgeting their shows around what the Kelly judges are looking for.  And if you're really good, but not what they're looking for (KM), you don't get nominated, and that is wrong.
• Not all schools participate, and so the winners get the sense that their shows are the best of all, though normally they're not.

However, the following is my biggest complaint:

• They create a spirit of competition within the performance environment.  This is entirely unnecessary in the art world.  Musical is not a sport.  It's reached the point where backstage before our show, people were hoping they did better on certain nights when the Kelly judges were there.  Furthermore, competitive spirit is never good in the arts.  Many of my companions know what it is doing to dance.  I don't want the same thing to happen to high school musicals.  It is perfectly fine if two schools put on really good shows.  It is perfectly fine if thirty schools put on really good shows.  It should be about the audience, not about the judges.

Nevertheless, the cast of Pirates of Penzance finds themselves nominated for Best Costume Design, Best Ensemble, Best Direction, Best Actor (PH), and Best Musical.  We will be performing downtown.  It will be fun.  But there are other ways to have fun.

-NM