Now that we’ve focused on 4th and 5 for the last 24 hours, can we talk about that halftime show?

The Blue Band and Penn State’s College of Arts & Architecture hyped the show all week: It was the “halftime show of the century,” a collaboration between the Blue Band and students in Penn State’s musical theatre program.

Only day until SHOWTIME and this is one performance you’re not going to want to miss #BroadwayShow #NextLevel #JerseyBoys pic.twitter.com/NUBfymwhEp

— Penn State Blue Band (@PSUBlueBand) September 28, 2018

Don’t get me wrong here: I love the Blue Band, and I love musical theatre. This show had all the fixings of an all-time favorite…until it didn’t.

One of the biggest problems, in my opinion, was how straight up loud it was in Beaver Stadium. With nearly 111,000 people all talking to their friends, walking around, ordering concessions, and flushing the toilets, you couldn’t even hear the Blue Band over the roar of the crowd.

However, you could really hear the microphones. It was like the musical theatre students were singing a cappella directly in your ear, and not particularly well.

The show started out with a rendition from Jersey Boys, complete with the signature red jackets. The notes just weren’t there on this one. I think part of it could’ve been how out of breath the performers were after literally running the stage to the center of the field.

After Jersey Boys, the performance moved into a rendition of “My Shot” from Hamilton. This is not an easy song to sing — even for musical theatre students, apparently. And it showed.

The only saving grace of the show was a few encouraging moments in the performance of the final musical selection, from Hair. But by that point, fans were just glad it was almost over.

Remember that this show was approved to go on in front of a record-setting crowd at Beaver Stadium. The Blue Band said earlier this week it would post a video of the full show on its YouTube channel after gameday. We’ll update this post to include the video when it goes live, so you can see (and hear) for yourself how bad it truly was.

In the meantime, please enjoy this video of the Blue Band’s ever-glorious pregame show to restore your faith:

Very thankful to the @PSUBlueBand for letting us bring you this perspective of their pregame entrance last night in that insane atmosphere. There’s nothing else like it in the country… pic.twitter.com/gquG37CvDX

— CollegeMarching.com (@CollegeMarching) September 30, 2018

Update: Here’s the official Blue Band video of the halftime show.