Junior SING!: Beignet Style

What’s going down in New Orleans? No fine men secretly disguised as frogs, that’s for sure. Junior SING! made an attempt to create an incredibly busy plot, but their efforts somehow rewarded them with last place. Before we dive into the details, does anyone want a beignet? No? We didn't think so. We never trusted their baker anyways.

Junior SING! opens with a trio of friends who bought tickets to see the Mardi Gras parade, only to find out their vacation is going extremely south because someone is trying to ruin the event. Just saying, if you tried ruining my vacation, you’d be the next frog begging for help. They meet a wild and outgoing baker along the way, who just so happens to sell beignets and has the ability to make himself and his food appear in any location in under a few seconds, even if that means breaking out of jail. Seriously, can we get tips from that guy? We’d love to be on time for first period. The perpetrator of the chaos and ruin turns out to be a psychic, the assistance of whom the friends are asking for while they try to save the show. Her motive? Her psychic business is failing and she needs the public to rely on her, which she does by making her predictions come true. And no, her first thought wasn’t: “Let me promise a little girl a puppy and then give her one!” It was: “Let me poison dancers, ruin someone’s lunch (no one comes between me and food), and try to commit arson.” I mean, it gave her attention!

The script was slightly questionable. As the Humor department, I think we’re qualified to say that the humor left some to be desired. So many filler scenes were included, and many lines felt like ragebait as their one hour drew to a close. For instance, the lunch scene. Besides ruining someone’s food, we have a spinoff of Heated Rivalry with two singers facing off against each other and their respective musical numbers. And greatest of all—we don’t see the destruction of Mardi Gras go much farther than one of the main characters getting food poisoning. So what was the scene supposed to be? Honestly, it felt like a throwaway and confused the beignets out of most of the audience, ourselves included.

Now, despite some dubious aspects, we saw some excellent acting and beautiful music, both in terms of vocals and band. We’re only surprised that Junior band didn’t receive a solid 10 on each day from each judge. Moreover, the facial expressions and reactions were a pleasure to watch, so congratulations to Juniors on that front! The same can’t be said for the dancing, however; the choreography was clean but lacked the energy that seemed to be emanating from a sole individual who carried their respective crews. 

The Trump impressions made by the appointed mayor of New Orleans (Jaydon Mei), who made casual appearances throughout the show, were what really stuck in people’s minds. The accent and hand gestures were spot on and the jokes definitely hit with the audience. Mei’s acting may have carried the entire production on its back.

As for the subtle digs on other competitors… they didn’t work out so much now that the Juniors claimed last place. They tried dissing SophFrosh when Junior Slate danced to Soda Pop and slid the comment: “If we wanted to watch K-Pop Demon Hunters, we would’ve gone to see SophFrosh.” Sure, guys, and if we wanted to watch The Princess and The Frog, we would’ve seen all three Junior SING! shows. 

To make up for performance, members of Junior SING! decided to use bribery as a last resort, handing out beaded necklaces to the audience as they sang their spirit song. While the necklaces were cute, the production still left us with feelings of vague amusement and mainly confusion. As for the overall musical, amazing execution, visuals, and sound production. Maybe Class of ‘27 will knock it out of the park next year! Now if you excuse us, we have to go eat dinner. Beignets sound pretty good right about now…