On January 15, the musical theatre program showed off their talents to friends and family in their first showcase of the year.
After working throughout the first semester on their songs and choreography, students auditioned and finally performed their numbers on stage in full makeup and costumes.
According to Nicole Thompson, the head of the drama program at PV High, the first showcase of the year “is a little more intimate,” with an emphasis on smaller group numbers.
Specifically, the showcase focused on classical Broadway, “which a lot of [the students] might not have been as familiar with.”
“I love exposing them to shows that they might not have known before,” Thompson said.
Senior Ryan Derambakhsh performed a duet with Kristie Creighton to the song “Let’s Call the Whole Thing Off” from “Shall We Dance” as well as the solo song “If I Loved You” from Carousel.
“[The showcase is] a really fun experience” and was “a time where everyone gets to show their stuff, show their performances, and everyone gets to shine,” Derambakhsh said.
The show started off with Brayan Baker and Lola De La Torre’s rendition of “You’re the Top” from the 1930’s musical “Anything Goes” and then continued on with songs from “Pippin” and “Sweeney Todd” as well as lesser-known classical musicals like “Fifty Million Frenchman,” “Wonderful Town,” and “Godspell.”
The closer—“Nothing Like a Dame” from “South Pacific”— was a comedic group musical number performed by Baker, John Candelaria, Derambakhsh, Joseph Ha, Noah Harkavy, Cody Spencer, and Logan Ward.
It was received with a lot of laughter and applause from the audience, as was Cinderella’s “Stepsister’s Lament,” performed by Eva Douglas and Samantha Pressey.
From comedic performances like these to bittersweet ballads like Susy Romero’s and Deramkabahsh’s, the showcase highlights the emotional range of the musical theatre program’s students.
The performers’ range in other skills was exhibited as well. Some students, especially those who performed as duos or groups, chose to show off their skills in dancing and physical comedy, while others used smaller movements and facial expressions to convey the message of their chosen piece.
Senior Romero, who performed “Kind of Woman” from “Pippin,” said that she enjoyed the showcase because it is an opportunity to “see some of the younger people or the newer people in the program perform and see what they have worked on.”
Because roles in the school plays and musicals often go to upperclassmen, the two musical theatre showcases that the program holds each year provide an opportunity for the younger students to show what they can do.
The musical theatre showcase is not only something to work towards and a chance to share the hard work that the musical theatre students did during the first semester. It is a chance for them to shine.