SOUTH PORTLAND, Maine — Who doesn't love belting out their favorite songs in the car? A mother and son in South Portland decided to take their love of singing in the car to the next level, and thousands have enjoyed watching.
Nick Sutton loves all things theater. The characters, the music, the costumes. It's why he practices on his piano at home and during his weekly singing lessons. It's during car rides with his mom, Kristin, when the 15-year-old really gets into his favorite show tunes.
"We had been singing show tunes in the car for years," Sutton said. "And so we decided why not round up the chickens and the props and the wigs and the hats and go for a ride and see what happens."
It took about two weeks for them to shoot the different performances on a phone. Splicing them up and editing together a video montage to post on Facebook. Kristin thought that they might reach 1,000 views, but the numbers climbed well over that in less than 24 hours.
"The next morning I woke up and it was at 9,000 views the day after I posted it and I was like, oh, OK," said Kristen, with a surprised look on her face.
The views, shares and comments kept on growing. Their Facebook video, featuring nine different characters played by Sutton, has been viewed more than 36,000 times.
"The most fun about it was seeing how far we could go," Sutton said. "Seeing how far we could push the limit of how many things can we fit in the car, can we balance a disco ball in the back seat, will the chicken try to jump out of the car."
Viewers especially love the cameos made by the family's pet, Ronette the dove and Eliza the chicken. A local mortgage broker liked the video so much, that they offered to send Sutton to Broadway Summer Camp in New York City for a week.
"He got asked to do a cabaret show and then a woman messaged me, a state representative from the state house called and said they would like to have him come up and sing the national anthem at the start of the session," Kristen said.
The mother and son duo plan on having a second video posted on Facebook by Summer.