I had the pleasure of attending the North Hills High School Production of “Mama Mia”. I try to attend every year and last year after winning 7 Gene Kelly Awards, I said this could not get any better. Well, I stand corrected … this year’s project of “Mama Mia” totally blew me away. I sat in amazement of all the young talent on that stage … singing, dancing, acting, spirit, working together as a unit, professionalism, comradery and heart… that about sums it up! As many of you know, I was one of those kids on stage at an early age, in fact, I/we had our first record at the age of 15, I helped and mentored many young artists during my career, but it would hard for me to pick a favorite from this crew. The vocals are incredible, the dancing is superb, the sets are picture perfect, the orchestra is amazing, the set changes worked like a well-oiled machine, the direction and leadership is near perfect. With that said … do I think that they are destined for maybe 8 Gene Kelly awards this year? No … I think maybe 9! Let me pick this apart to be even more precise. As a singer I listened and watched closely … looking for some glitches that I could critique (I am only human) but to my surprise I found none. Not only was their pitch and dynamics incredible but their facial expressions complimented their performance … BRAVO! I also did some dancing in my day and am usually very critical of uniform dancing … one can usually find a few in the troupe that lagged a bit behind … not in this production. I could feel the pride in their art of dancing and getting it right … BRAVO! As a musician I was so impressed by the direction and quality of the Orchestra pit … it was hard to believe that these young artists could pull of arrangements and dynamics as well as they did … near perfection … again … BRAVO! As a seasoned veteran to our craft, I am usually a bit negative on today’s music, talent and presentation … this performance gave me the confidence that our young up and coming performers will continue to carry the torch… BRAVO! What a future these young performers have … Young, Gifted and Talented … BRAVO!