Broadway Youth

Standing side by side, five rows deep, 10 per line, they listen for the next command. Then comes the boom of music and the kids go wild.

Windows rattle. Walls vibrate. The floor squeaks. Curious grown-ups poke their heads inside--that’s when their mouths drop.

These kids aren’t getting down to the Backstreet Boys. They’re grooving to the lullabies of Broadway: “42nd Street,” “Fascinating Rhythm” and “Strike Up the Band.”

Musical theater is alive and kicking in the Southland--and with the least likely bunch of hoofers you’d ever imagine. This summer, dozens of 8- to 14-year-olds are spending their time learning the words to show tunes as well as the moves: “step, pivot, step, step, kick, Manhattan.”

It’s all part of the Music Theatre of Southern California’s performing and fine arts summer camp at Descanso Gardens in La Canada Flintridge.

Theater, mixed-media art, music, drawing and painting are among the many disciplines offered. But none has quite captured the kids’ fancy like the Broadway show tunes session (called Production), which introduces youngsters to musical theater and combines song, dance and acting.

For sure, flowers aren’t the only buds blooming at Descanso.

“This type of music and dancing has opened up their minds,” says dance diva and instructor Rikki Lugo, the group’s resident choreographer, as the kids wait for instruction on their next step.

Lugo, in a “Meet Me in St. Louis” oversized top and leggings, has her back to the pack of kids, who are decked out in T-shirts with skeletons and bugs on them and phrases that shout “Bad Girls of Paris!” and “Don’t Even Go There!” Their sneakers are grungy, some held together with a slither of shoelace that barely covers four eyelets. Some wear mismatched socks, others have none, and a few are in their socks, toes sticking out of holes.

All eyes are on Lugo’s choreography. All ears are on Renee Green, the camp’s voice teacher. And their imaginations are ignited by Don Eitner, the drama coach.

When they dance, they throw every muscle of their energetic bodies into every movement. They lean and strut. They bounce and shimmy. They Charleston and kick, ball chain, kick, ball chain. And for the grand finale, just like the June Taylor Dancers of yesteryear, they lock arms, side by side, and execute a line kick in perfect unison.

And all the while they’re belting out Tony-award-winning lyrics: “Come on along and listen to the lullaby of Broadway. . . .”

“They really get into it,” says Lugo, who instructs this class 90 minutes daily, five days a week, three weeks per summer camp session, two sessions per summer. “The music and dancing brings out the ham in them.”

And dreams of one day hoofing it on Broadway.

“I want to become a real professional dancer one day,” says Chelsea Fogel, 12.

“It gives me spirit, it makes me happy,” says Joey Manangi, also 12 and one of four boys in the class.

Emily Wynne-Hughes, 11, says the dance class has taught her discipline.

“Rikki is tough on us, but she’s also nice,” Emily says. “She knows we need the discipline, which is teaching me how to be a professional.”

Out of the mouths of babes . . . babes who’re Broadway bound.