Disney's prefab Cheetahs hit their marks

BY MAC RANDALL | Special to Newsday

October 23, 2006

Kiely Williams, left, Adrienne Ballon and Sabrina Bryan at Nassau Colisseum (Photo by John Griffin)

If you don't know who the Cheetah Girls are, you probably don't have kids. Here's a quick primer for the uninitiated: It all started with a line of children's books by Deborah Gregory about a group of teenage girl singers trying to win fame and fortune. The books inspired first one, then two Disney movies, each with its own original soundtrack album, of course.

Now, in a classic example of brand marketing, three of the four singer/actresses who played the Cheetah Girls in the movies are on tour to perform songs from those albums. (The one absentee, Raven Symone, also star of the Disney Channel show "That's So Raven," is presumably more interested in establishing a solo career.)

Older readers will be reminded at this point of several similar "prefab" musical acts, most obviously Josie and the Pussycats, but also the Spice Girls and - going way, way back - the Monkees. But the demographic Disney's targeting doesn't know about such ancient show-biz history.

An unscientific survey of the largely preteen and female crowd at Friday's show suggests that this was the first concert experience for a sizable percentage of the audience. And as introductions to pop music go, you could do a lot worse.

All three Cheetahs - Adrienne Bailon, Kiely Williams and Sabrina Bryan - are polished performers, and Bailon is a decent vocalist as well, in the Christina Aguilera too-many-notes style.

Their songs are catchy and well-constructed. At least a couple of them, "Cinderella" and "Step Up," would sound right at home on a Destiny's Child album. And one unreleased tune, "Falling for You," scheduled to appear on a new CD in 2007, was reminiscent of Janet Jackson's fluffier moments.

The messages in the songs are laudable, too: Dreams can come true if you work hard; love and friendship are essential parts of life; racial unity is a good thing. The bouncy closing number, "Amigas Cheetahs," presented the Cheetahs' case succinctly - "We can all be ourselves and still be one" - while managing not to seem preachy.

It would have been a pleasant surprise if at least one or two songs had also evidenced a slight trace of musical or lyrical originality, but that wasn't to be. Maybe these days it's too much to ask that pop aimed at kids should be interesting. But those of us who grew up on the music of "Sesame Street," "Schoolhouse Rock" and the Jackson 5 may have a hard time conceding that point.

More dispiriting was the absence of any musicians from the Coliseum stage. The three Cheetahs and four male dancers performed solely to prerecorded backing tracks. Yes, this is standard practice for many pop and hip-hop concerts. But given the widely bemoaned state of music education in American schools, is it smart practice at a concert meant for children?

When kids see musicians playing instruments, they see what it actually takes to make music and they can more easily envision doing it themselves. When, as at this show, the music is simply a mysterious presence in the air, a potential connection is lost, and that's not a good thing.

CHEETAH GIRLS. The young female characters in a popular series of Disney movies have metamorphosed into an actual band, sort of. Seen Friday at Nassau Coliseum.