GLENDALE : Back-to-School Night Focuses on the Fathers

Mike Shaughnessy fell in love with the 1912 Western tune “Ragtime Cowboy Joe” when he heard it as a kid on the flip side of Alvin and the Chipmunks’ single, “Christmas, Don’t Be Late.”

On Wednesday, Shaughnessy and his fellow members of the Fathers Brothers barbershop quartet belted out the song in full four-part harmony at Verdugo Woodlands School’s back-to-school night, giving parents, teachers and a few students a preview of their next show at the school in June.

“It’s a longstanding tradition at our school,” said Shaughnessy, chairman of the annual “Fathers’ Follies” production, an all-dads event that features, in addition to the barbershop quartet, a live band, dance routines and skits, all interwoven in an original story line. “We do a completely new show every year.”

Moms pitch in with behind-the-scenes work such as set and costume design, but onstage, it’s fathers only.

But it is not exactly an all-macho show. Every year the dads perform in drag.

“It dates back to 1947,” Shaughnessy said. “That year, the dads at our school decided to play a little joke on their wives in the PTA. They did a skit in drag, and it’s evolved from that and today it’s a very elaborate production.”

“Ragtime Cowboy Joe” was chosen for Wednesday’s brief performance to highlight the theme of next year’s “Fathers’ Follies,” which will be set in Texas. As in past years, the story will be written and directed by Jill Benone, a faculty member of the Glendale Community College theater department, whose children attended Verdugo Woodlands. The event is staged in the college’s auditorium.

Principal Janice Hanada said Verdugo Woodlands is unique among Glendale schools in that the dads, not the moms, are the primary PTA fund-raisers. Proceeds from the musical have paid for new copy machines, the repair of ceiling fans and other needs not covered by the school’s budget, she said.

“We’re extremely lucky to have them, they put so much effort into the production,” said Hanada. “They spend hours planning and practicing, working with a choreographer and drama teacher.”

“The best thing is that it gets the dads involved in a way they typically wouldn’t be,” Shaughnessy added. “We get to know each other, and it’s a racket.”