“Movin Out” at Don Bosco’s on Friday 10 th February upgraded school shows to a high class entertainment. Professionalism left its fingerprints everywhere. The sound system loomed large and threw the voices and the music with pulsating clarity into the audience radiating into the open grounds. The lighting captured the shades of musical and emotional tonalities effectively. The LCD projector threw a complex collage of images of Indian achievement onto a screen in the grand finale:“We didn’t start the fire”. Computers controlled the sound score.

The whole show was presented on a grand scale, a brilliant adaptation of the Broadway dance musical conceived, directed and choreographed by the famous Twyla Tharp. The music was rearranged with numerous additions by Jeanne Coelho and electronically engineered by Quentin Coelho to fit a script pushing home the theme of moving out of the pressures of everyday living and that ugly, self-dominated, greed-ridden compulsion to climb the elusive social ladder.

Controlling anger, gaining confidence, love and acceptance, defining goals, not taking the easy way out through drugs and fantasies, being yourself without being afraid to be so, fanning the fire within to burn positively came alive through the four parallel stories of young guys and girls in a tightly-integrated series of Billy Joel songs.

The intertwining stories and the emotional progress of the central characters was presented by an RJ sitting at the topmost level of the set that rose from ground level into the main performing arena and climbed in a steep series of steps occupied by the choir to the overseeing level of the narrator. A specially built ramp enabled the show to kick start with a motorbike growling on to the stage and grumbling off at the end, symbolising removal of negative elements.

The mantle of complete surrender and energetic commitment to the project wrapped the entire cast with an irresistible zap. Everyone was transformed by the magic of taking on a challenge. The dancers trained by Jason and Sylvia echoed the mood shifts perfectly. The costumes displayed the meticulous care for detail.

The ever-present chorus were disciplined throughout and sang with gusto. The extras peopled the world of the central characters convincingly. The soloists, some of them singing for the first time, got their voices around the lyrics with deeply felt conviction and stepped into their characters with amazing ease. The lead girls were a knock out with their charm, grace and sheer naturalness. The RJ had all the qualities of a professional narrator. This is the first year girls have stepped into the world of the Don Bosco boys and they brought a special glamour and magic to the performance.

The influences of the director, Fr, Avin Carvalho, the numerous persons involved in bringing this production to life, the Don Bosco community have seeped into the blood of the entire cast and propelled them to achieve a magnificent expression of self in a compelling entertainment that left the audience silently spellbound.