Monday, April 22, 2013

We saw IT

In our search for new entertainment while in Branson we picked up tickets to see a production called IT at the Hughes Brothers Theatre.

This group started out as five brothers who were given music lessons to keep them out of trouble and soon joined their parents on stage.  Eventually the parents dropped out and left them to continue on their own.

Apparently they felt the need to increase the size of the act and accomplished this by marrying talented wives (two of which are sisters) and then they started having families...of Mormon proportions.

There are now over 50 people in this act and they are the Worlds Largest Performing Family.  Let's take a look at this.

The oldest son, Marty, has 13 children   His wife was the only family member not performing that day as she is expecting the 14th child any day now.  The ages of the kids are 19, 17, 16, 14, 13, 11, 10, 9, 7, 6. 4, 3, 1 and soon to be announced.

Jason's family includes their kids aged 17, 14, 12, 10, 8, 4, 2 and another coming soon.  Their oldest son, Aaron, is a marvel in his own right and my personal favorite.  He sings, dances, and plays several instruments.

Adam has the smallest family with his wife and son, Liam, who is 9 months old.  But they're young and just starting.

Ryan's family includes kids aging 13, 11, 8, 6, 4, and 10 month old twins.

Andy's family has four children aged 10, 7, 4 and 2.

The father was in the audience and the mother (from Sweden) was in one of the concession stands.  The other concession stand was run by the mother of the two sisters who married into this group.  I told her I don't know how they do it, Left Brain and I have a hard time getting two grand kids ready to leave and they have so many.  She smiled and said "the REAL show is behind the scenes!"  I can only imagine.  She also added that none of the kids is forced to do the show, but they all want to get into the action.

I was thinking that the caliber of school plays has to be off the chart in Branson, but most of the children that do perform professionally are home schooled, so that's probably not the case.

This is an older you tube, but it will give you a tiny sample of their talent.



It's a bit overwhelming when they all come on stage at the same time, everyone helping to carry a baby or direct a toddler, but they make it all look organized.

At one of their shows a person with Disney approached them and said they had to do a documentary on this family phenomenon.  We purchsed the video to learn more about this amazing family and see how it all came to be and how they make it work. It was interesting to hear the background story of their struggles and the faith that kept them going.

Long Live the Queen of Small Families

2 comments:

  1. Thanks for the video, I enjoyed it. I never saw (or heard of) this family perform. They were fabulous. It takes a special family dynamic for such a large family to be able to be part of each others lives all day, every day. Now I'm off to play with my little guy. You have a fabulous day. Hugs, Edna B.

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