Hi, Joanne!

What's the story, morning glory?

What's the tale, nightingale?

Tell me quick about Los Gatos High!

Hi, Patti!

Hi, Barbara!

What's the story, morning glory?

What's the word, humming bird?

Have you heard about opening night?

Did they open on time?

Did the curtains hang right?

How'd the orchestra sound?

Did the lights shine real bright?

The song "Telephone Hour" was the second number performed when Bye Bye Birdie opened last Thursday night at the newly renovated Los Gatos High School theater.

And with apologies to song writers Charles Strouse and Lee Adams, who wrote the music and lyrics to the popular musical, we felt it somehow appropriate to alter the words just enough to commemorate the occasion.

It was an event with just enough pomp and circumstance befitting the historic building--a reception at Kuleto's followed by a ceremonial ribbon-cutting on the brand-new stage, then the performance of a Broadway musical by a talented cast of high school actors.

But there was much more to Thursday's opening of Bye Bye Birdie than just another high school play. This event was the culmination of years of fundraising and hard work by Diana Pleasant, Joanne Rodgers and so many others who made this dream a reality. So forgive them if they gushed just a little as they made it official.

"We are thrilled and proud of the remodel of this special old theater," said Rodgers, president of the New Millennium Foundation, the major fundraising organization for the Theater Improvement Project. She then gave most of the credit for the project to Pleasant, chairwoman of the high school drama department.

"I would have just been a fire alarm and we wouldn't have had any firemen," said Pleasant, deflecting the credit back to Rodgers

Rodgers would have none of that. "Diana has had everything to do with this theater."

It was a mutual admiration moment, but for very good reason. Without Diana Pleasant and Joanna Rodgers, Los Gatos High School would likely have a very nice auditorium right now. Instead, the school, and the community, has a beautiful new theater.

The TIP fundraising effort is not quite complete. Money is still being raised to build a lobby, dressing rooms and other amenities that will make the theater the first-class facility organizers had hoped it would be.

But for now anyway, the theater is up and running. And it's Bye Bye Birdie, hello high school theater!