I more or less agree, but....
Trotting Yo Yo and Friends out, to sit and mime through a performance that was being delivered through a PA system, is sort of "stagey" and more about showing off who was doing the performance than it was about the performance itself.
In doing so, they were mimicking a large part of the "art" music (and the "arts" at large) world. When considering local symphonic performances, there is a tendency to highlight the "stars" who may be performing, the better to hype the interest in the performance.
The worst case of this was a traveling tour company of Porgy And Bess that rolled through Saint Louis back in the 1980's. This "opera/musical", as you may know, has an almost exclusively black cast, and this company was no exception, having only two white actors involved, the police lieutenant and the coroner.
All of the leads and the company at large were top drawer vocal and acting talent, but they only drew polite applause through the first half of the show. So, who got the first standing ovation, two thirds of the way through the whole show?
None other than Corporal Agarn, the inimitable Larry Storch of F Troop fame, who played the (non) pivotal role of the Coroner. He didn't sing a note (none of the white actors ever do), and only had three or four lines.
Yet, he got the attention - in his case, simply because of his celebrity. Indeed, in the television promotion of the show prior to its arrival in Saint Louis, you would have thought that the role of Sportin' Life was being played by Storch, so prominent was he featured in the copy and visuals.
Just how the huge majority of the cast, who could sing circles around Larry's speaking voice, much less his singing one, felt about all of this was not recorded. If they were typical of performers, they were probably glad that he drew the crowds that he did.
(And, none of this is to take anything away from Mr. Storch's talents as a comedian. I've met the man, and he was both gracious and very analytic of just how comedy works - not something you would have expected from someone whose comedic skills were usually of the physical, slapstick kind.)
The only problem with the performance at the Capitol is that they didn't need "star power" to draw the crowd - it was guaranteed. No need to expose the horn, the cast iron piano frame and the cigar boxes to the cold - they were going to pipe in the music in any event.
But, just like the poem, and the prayers, and the procession of aged presidents and vice presidents, it's all there for the pageantry of it all. Give any event organizer an inch of slack, and the next thing you know they'll be staging Aida as a backdrop to whatever they are trying to do. They just can't help themselves.
I've been roped into a couple such affairs in the past. One was the dedication of the second Busch Stadium in Saint Louis. My high school band was chosen to perform (a premier performance) the Saint Louis Bicentennial March. In order to do this, we were herded into the bleacher section of the stadium at 10:00 AM, fed a box lunch at 2:00 PM, and then sat in wool uniforms in spring heat for five hours, waiting for our magic moment.
Aside from being pelted from above by the Soldan High School choir with the contents of their box lunches, we were rationed both in drinks of water and in restroom visits. By the end of the evening at 9:30 PM or so, there were many among us who were considering some sort of revolution. All this for a piece of music that probably has never been heard since, and which was widely ignored by the masses assembled.
Another such pointless event was one where the very aged Admiral Stockdale (vice presidential candidate with Ross Perot) was dragged out at a Veteran's Day "celebration" in 40° F temperatures here in Houston and made to sit in the VIP section for about an hour while the event organizers pursued their program of allowing local politicians to speak about how much they honored our veterans. All the while, the aged and physically ill admiral was sitting there, shaking like a leaf.
But, I'm just an old crank who doesn't see any reason why activities inappropriate for a given occasion are proceeded with regardless. I feel the same way about NFL cheerleaders, the stupid berets that the Army has taken to wearing in recent years, and the pointless political activities that seem to be part of Texas life (we have a lot of elections down here - it seems like there is one every other month).
Now excuse me - I have to go chase some neighborhood children off of my lawn...
