the awesome/terrifying freedom

i gotta say i'm pretty impressed with the soundtrack to the upcoming hairspray movie (nikki blonski sings far better than winokur), which has reignited my obsession with listening to 'you can't stop the beat.'

and then i got sucked into a youtube hole, looking for clips, and finding the most dreadful high school show choir/drama camp renditions ever put down on digital media. they are so bad they're good. they're so bad i can't stop watching. you must share my pain/joy. these are just too glamtastrophic to be missed. some of them are truly horrifying, but others have an infectious energy behind them that supercedes the amateurishness.

this choreographer bravely allows the cast to do a little freeform movement in between rigid sections of step-touch, step-touch.


i actually really like this one from the sullivan high school singers. they are one of the only renditions to achieve actual performance energy without copying jerry mitchell's choreography.


this one is staggeringly good. also, there's staggering. i love how when they sing 'you can try stop my dancin' feet but i just cannot stand still,' they're, uh, standing still. my favorite parts: back handspring girl at the beginning, and the gay boy in the front who's just a little too good at some of those moves.


i think this one is from the basement of a church. it's hard to knock when they're having so much fun with mitchell's choreography.


jazz hands! .. jazz hands! ..jazz hands!


this one wants to be on america's funniest home videos, except it's missing the part at the end where the stage falls apart from under them. also gunning for the 'most people dancing in the smallest space' award. it's like the roxy on a saturday night.


these kids are lip-synching and doing the original staging, but they have such a great time, and i love the asian seaweed. no black kids at drama camp, so the most vaguely ethic person gets cast in the black role. love it.


kids. kids are cute.