Elderly Performer's Broadway Show

By Yiler Huang

Recently, we watched a musical stage show started by Hondao Elderly Care Organization. The show was a musical stage show. The special thing about it was that the musical performers were all elderly people. They played instruments and danced in the show, and there was a storyline. In which the characters were looking for the elixir of life. During scene transitions, performances by elderly people would be given.

In society nowadays, elderly people don’t get many chances to perform at a big venue like the Taipei Arena. This is because of the age limitations of performing arts. When people get old, they can’t dance, sing, or play instruments as well as young people. However, the Hondao Elderly Care Organization is giving these elderly people a chance to show that people could still perform even though they are no longer at their prime. They might not be as good as younger performers, but seeing these elderly performers so happy performing is a very encouraging sight.

Throughout the show, the character roles were given to the younger performers. Like roles that require acting, remembering lines, and the interactions between other actors. There were also some physical differences between younger performers and elderly performers. For example, some of the scenes in the show required the actor to pretend that they were falling or getting hurt. It would be very dangerous for old people to handle this kind of job. There were also some parts of dancing that elderly people might not be able to do. For example, there was some choreography that required both dancers to remember each other’s moves so they don’t get hurt or fall. It would also be dangerous if they were letting elderly people do that. Younger performers are able to do more things without worrying about getting injured. The older people get, the less flexible they are and injuries become more dangerous. They might also lose muscle mass, so they couldn’t do some dance moves that require bigger and more dramatic movements. A fall for a younger dancer might just hurt them a little bit, but they may continue performing. But a fall for the elderly could possibly break their bones or disable them for the rest of their lives. Realistically, there is a limitation to old age.

However, I still think that they could use some elderly people in the acting portion of the musical show. This is because the main purpose for this show is to let old people have the chance to perform and do what they like. Yet, in the story, there was only one elderly person who was a narrator that had only ten lines. I felt like they could have created some more elderly characters for the story. The lack of elderly characters created a disconnect between the story and the performance. This made me feel that the show was two different shows mashed together.

While it was nice to see elderly people doing what they wanted to do. However, I felt like they could let elderly people participate in the show more, and not just as backgrounds in the story. The music that was picked in the musical part of the show barely related to the story, this made the show and its plot forgettable. This is because the audiences were receiving two kinds of information at the same time. One was the plot, and another one was the unrelated musical performance. This caused the audiences to switch between two different kinds of things constantly, and it was distracting and hard for people to focus on the show as a whole. Overall, I think the purpose of this musical was good, and they did reach the goal of letting old people do what they like to do. However, they did not consider the experience of the audience watching.