GUN PLAY 1950'S STYLE

Walking around the block the other day, I heard 3 little boys playing in a backyard. One of them shouted to his mom, I imagine, "We're playing an army game, but it's non-violent." Playing KP maybe. It made me think back to how us postwar kids in the mid-1950's always were playing army. We spent hours killing imaginary Germans and Japanese. I don't remember us being aware of the Italian involvement in the Axis, save for the little song, "Whistle while you work, Hitler is a jerk, Mussolini pulled his weenie now it doesn't work," which we loved to sing. A lot of us had genuine helmet liners to wear in our play, and lots of toy companies produced all the army necessities one could ever need. My favorite was the Mattel burpgun. I also loved my Bulldog Tank, for playing army with toy soldiers.

My thoughts on armed play in the past then jumped to playing cowboys. If we weren't playing baseball or football on Pineview Drive, we were probably playing army or cowboys and Native Americans. I then recalled my favorite cowboy gun. It was the Nichols Stallion 45. It cost five bucks, no less, and came in it own very special box. It was so heavy, it was tough for a kid to hold up. I bought mine at W.A.B. Drugs in Sea Breeze. Then I wondered if I or someone else could buy a vintage Stallion .45, now. I checked and sure enough ebay had a mint one in an equally mint box. Price--$895.95. I guess there are a lot of boomers who value their childhood and put a high price on it.

Enough reminiscing. I'll now try to get to the hazy point I am trying to make. It was logical that we played war and cowboys back then. Our fathers were WW II vets, and cowboy shows took up half the limited schedule on the 2 TV channels we had to watch. As a result there were few days when the suburban air around our houses wasn't filled with cap fire and shouts of "I got you!" and "You're dead!" For this we never got in trouble. That was an O.K. way to play. None of my friends became bad people, although, one guy, who lived close, but wasn't a playmate, became a murderer. I think it's safe to say that this wasn't brought about by playing army as a child.

What am I saying? I guess I'm saying that my childhood friends grew up to be gentle people, and yet, if kids now played the games we played then, they'd get shipped off to the Junior Shrink. We are an interesting and changing people, society, culture. . .
Perhaps, the biggest irony of our youth was that all the kids who played army to glorify WW II came of age just in time to qualify for the least glorified, most despised conflict, of all time, the War in Vietnam. We had gloried in our army games, but we didn't want to play for real.

This entry has nothing to do with gun control. If you were looking for something, sorry. This came about because of 3 little boys playing army in the backyard.

(If anyone thinks I was overcome by PC disease when I mentioned Native Americans, I wasn't. It was a joke. I have realized people sometimes don't know when I am joking.)

"Peter Pan" is a Marvel!

I wasn’t looking forward particularly to the Wednesday performance of “Peter Pan” at Syracuse Stage.  I’ve seen several productions over the years.  Some really good, some so-so, and of course, last year’s live TV production, so disastrous that I still feel sorry for everyone involved.  I think that clunker was the main reason I wasn’t excited about this week’s SS holiday special.  I am so glad we went!  This production is the best live theater I’ve seen in quite awhile, as good, I think as the touring companies of “Wicked” and “Jersey Boys,” which were the last two musicals we attended

If you want a guarantee that your elementary school child will develop a love for live theater then this is the show to start that love.  If you can, get tickets for this show before it closes on December 31.  It is magical, delightful, exciting, any “rave” adjective you might care to supply, so wonderful that I am going to try to hold myself to a single adjective per kudo.  It is meticulously directed.  Every stage picture a live illustration from this wonderful tale.  The choreography is a joy to watch.  One number involving drumsticks made me want to shout ‘bravo,” even though I’m not the “bravo” shouting type. The scene design takes advantage of the not terribly large stage, creating both style and function, beauty and practicality. And the costumes--lost boys, pirates, warrior, are properly tawdry yet bright at the same time.  And the animal costumes!  I didn’t remember a kangaroo, a lion or an ostrich in other productions I’ve seen.  I’m happy for the creative inspiration that added these delightful creatures who hop and lope on stage and through the auditorium.  The crocodile is great, too.

 The “professional” actors in the cast are as fine as you would expect.  Donald Corren as Mr. Darling/Captain Hook plays both the good father and the famed villain with equal aplomb,  Christine Toy Johnson as Mrs. Darling/grown-up Wendy is the quintessence of mother, and Kraig Swartz is a properly smarmy Smee.

But the expression “youth must be served,” which means to me that youth should be given its head, and allowed to be its excited and joyous self, seems to fit this show! It’s “Peter Pan” after all, about kids who don’t want to grow up.  Peter, Wendy, all the lost boys, most of the pirates, all the warriors, the animals, and the maid Liza, are still youths, SU Musical Theater students, mostly seniors.  Everywhere I looked during a scene featuring a bunch of these young actors, I would find involvement, concentration, attitudes that made me think that this performance felt as new to these young people as it did on opening night.  I especially need to mention three names, Troy Hussmann as Peter, Delph Borich as Wendy, and Ana Marceau as Tiger Lily.  Keep at it, kids!  You’re doing exactly what you were meant to do!

And for the kids in the audience, the show is exciting and colorful, and they’ll see actors of their own age playing Michael and John.  There weren’t a lot of really little ones in the audience on Wednesday, but those who were there shouted “I do,” when Peter asked the audience if it believed in fairies.  I shouted “I do,” too, and applauded with the rest of the audience to bring Tinkerbell back to life.  At that moment, I believed in everything this talented and finely trained ensemble wanted me to believe!!