What goes into the making of a musical theater production? The process, from audition to curtain call, is presented in verse and illustrations about the people involved, from director to actor to stage crew, but also the inanimate objects that the theater depends on: The script, the rehearsal piano, the stage, the costumes, the lights, the musical instruments in the orchestra (violins, brass,  woodwinds, percussion) and the curtain each gets their say in “Limelight: Curtain Up on Poetry Comics” (Charlesbridge Moves, 144 pages) with poems by Renee M. Latulippe and illustrations by Chuck Gonzales.  

The book is intended for middle school readers who are involved in school shows, but the process doesn’t much differ whoever is putting together a musical, and wherever it’s staged. And the glossary of theatrical terms at the end is useful for anybody (Do you know what a “batten” is? Did you know the origin of “limelight” is that “historically, theaters lit the stage with an intense white light obtained by heating lime”?)  The book is instructive not just about theater but about poetry: An appendix identifies and describes the poetic forms used, whether list poem, epistle, echo verse, “variation of a pregunta.”

Not all the chapters work for me. Some of the verse is too stilted, some of the stories too contrived or whimsical for my taste: The costumes are on trial?  “Seat 108A” hopes that no theatergoer has their number, so that it can see the show unencumbered? (A seat is meant to be sat on!)  The illustrations generally come off as kids’ comic book when the content calls for teenagers’ graphic novel, and the production often depicted seems to be a revival of Hair or Pippen, judging from the costumes and sets.

But there are enough knowing panels that invite us in.

My favorite poem is “The director in rehearsal” which reads like a scene:

Let’s take it from the top.

Stop.

What does that line mean?
Why’s it in the scene?
You want to be effective.
Embody your objective

Let’s take it from the top.

Stop.
Smile when you enter
Cross down right of center.
Give your movement attitude
To show the moment’s magnitude.

Let’s take it from the top.

Stop.
That element of surprise-
I want to see it in your eyes
You’re ‘acting’ there – believe it!
That’s your moment – seize it!

Let’s take it from the top.

Stop.
We’re right there on the verge
We’re seeing this scene emerge.
Good work.

Let’s take it from the top.