It is becoming a tradition that the WGHS Theater Department produce a Broadway Revue each year to highlight the talents of our department, and to allow the students to get on stage and sing from the Broadway canon of music. The students have definitely risen to the challenge each and every time we arrange one of these concerts.
This Spring we had an amazing group assembled and Teddy Woldow (Senior '24) stepped in as director to run the auditions, create the roster, help arrange the order of the songs, run rehearsals and call the show. This was Teddy's first concert, but having just student-directed the Winter Musical he was ready for the challenge.
The Spring Broadway Revue used the whole stage.
THE HOSTS
THE HOSTS
Earl (Kaya Wolf) was the MCEE for the evening and also brought out the talented Willow Sinclair to assist in the hosting. It all followed a popular trope from a musical called The Drowsy Chaperone.
Once they knew the songs that were being performed in the show a script was written and the scenes between the songs were rehearsed a bit. They used some cue cards on stage to keep'em on track, but the improvisation made the scene changes a lot of fun. Earl liked to play with his audience.
We set up a little living room for Earl and it included a couch, coffee table, lamp and record player. They also had quite a few props: soda bottles, tissued, and pillows.
We also made records with the cast album artwork for every Broadway show in the setlist. Earl would take out a record, put it on the player and the song would come to life on stage. Brilliant!
SOUND
We had our sound team from Little Shop back to run the boards for the show and they did a great job making the singers sound their best. Freya Adkisson ran the mic levels and Hank Yau ran the tracks we edited from Youtube instrumentals.
They made a great team!
The sound board was placed right in front of the stage so that the board ops could really stay on top of all of the cues and hear the show as the audience would. We also had to snake cables to the backstage so that we could use some of the lav mics on some singers that had to move a lot during their songs.
REHEARSALS
We usually schedule one dress rehearsal with the whole group, and we try to run the whole show once through. This allows us to test all of the light, sound and stage transitions. The cast and crew did great!
Lucy Middendorf running her song from the Little Princess
The dance classes stayed very busy preparing their number for the show. Not everyone from the classes ended up performing the routine, but many of then committed to the routine. The end results were stunning!
The Dance classes ran their number from "Chicago"
We had dance routines in several numbers that had to get some practice on the stage.
Jeni and Carl practicing their dance from "I Am Sixteen..."
Mrs. Dickens running the choreo with Teddy, Kaya and Willow.
The Mcees both joined the cast for this number and the audience loved it!
Jeni, Carl and Iona enjoying the view from the house at final dress.
This rehearsal brings the whole cast into the room and we get to bond a bit as a company.
Fieda Archinda came back for round two! Kaitlyn Patten sang a duet this time around
Lilly Hodel, Mimi Mueller, William Johnson and Lucy Middendorf waiting for their number to be called and offering support to the singers running their numbers on stage.
William practicing his song from Les Miz! THE CREW
The Theater department has been producing Broadway Revues for decades on this stage and it only happens with a dedicated support staff an crew. This show also had amazing students on the light board, at the follow spots and on stage for microphone and set piece transitions.
Lights design and board ops were Luca Thies, James Duckett, and Kade Leatherbarrow
Follow spots were ran by Conner Long, Austin Minute and Easton Woldow.
Teddy Woldow assisted back stage as well.
THE SHOW
The night of the show was high energy fun!
The audience was great and the cast and crew ran a wonderful event for the community.
We also ran it a second the following week for an invited AllWrite audience.
Daun Pawlicki kicked off the show like a professional and nailed her song from "Six". Her powerhouse vocals always is good way to set the tone for our concert. This is the second time she was asked to start the concert. This song was extremely challenging for a high school student to sing and she knocked it out of the park!
Janiah Davis sang a really bluesy song that the audience dug!
The picture on the left in the daytime performance and the one on the right is the evening performance were most of the cast wore black.
his Broadway baritone-belt!
Emmitt is one of our biggest Broadway Musical Fans!
Cami Smith wowed the crowd with "The Ballad of Jane Doe", showing off her amazing control as a singer; bringing together the sounds of musical theater and opera. Her range was tested with this song, forcing her go into the lowest notes of her chest voice to the highest notes in her head voice. All the time she plays the character as rather creepy ghost. Amazing work from a consummate performer.
Iona Ory sang "Tale as Old as Time" from Beauty and the Beast while playing the Uke!
This has become a highlight of these B-way concerts, getting to see Iona change up the vibe; getting the audience into the more folk sounds of Broadway.
The song was a perfect fit for their voices.
The duets always help break up the solo songs
and give the audience some harmonies to enjoy.
Lucy Middendorf has really shown her musical theater talents in the B-way revues this year.
Her performances are always high energy and beautifully sung! We can't wait to see what she does next in the Department.
Andi Ziegler and Parker Collier tease the upcoming Spring Musical
You're a Good Man Charlie Brown the Advance Theater Productions class is presenting in April.
They sang the duet from the show they had been rehearsing in class.
The B-way Revues have proven to be a great way to promote upcoming work in the department.
Eva Henry and Kaitlyn Patten also duet on a song and perform a hit from the musical Cinderella! It is always a thrill to watch someone on stage who hadn't been up there before. Eva had been working backstage for us her whole Senior year and we finally got to hear her on stage singing! Kaitlyn was a veteran in the department by this time and proved to be a great partner in the song. They both played fun characters in a "getting ready for the ball" scene,
and the blocking was spot on!
Parker Collier also sang a beautiful ballad song from the musical "A Band's Visit". He chose a song that highlighted his voice well and allowed him to tell a story with some emotional impact. To break up the tension, Kaya jumped into the song and mimed playing the flute during the flute solo and danced around Parker. It was a nice moment of comic relief that only Earl can provide.
Martha Poppen singing lead in front of Mrs Dicken's Dance Class doing their rendition of the opening of the show..."All That Jazz". Martha and her company of dancers did an amazing job on this number. The singing was superb, Martha made a great Velma Kelly, and the dancers provided a very traditional version of the stage picture when they performed the complex, Fosse-inspired choreo they learned in class.
It was the first time in a very long time we had a formally choreographed number in one of our concerts. Thanks Mrs. Dickens and the Dance class for working so hard to make this one right!
Jeni and Carl gave the audience a real throwback song!
Roger and Hammerstein's "The Sound of Music" was a show we produced many years ago,
and this is a feel good duet from the production with some dancing.
William Johnson delivered a spirited version of "Stars" and shined like a star himself.
It was a great song choice for him and he delivered it beautifully.
This is such an epic show and we will probably never produce it in the WG Theater Dept, and that is why we treasure these B-Way Revue concerts; the students get to pick songs from these big shows and we get to give the audience a taste of what makes these mega musicals so special.
The Finale
We always like to end the sow with a big number!
Fieda Achinda and Janiah Davis performed a wonderful rendition of "Defying Gravity" for the last song, and it was so much fun watching them play the two most famous witches on Broadway. This is also one of the shows we most likely will never produce but it is fun to sing a song and get a taste of the story. Does anyone still wear a hat?
EARL SAYS,
"GO SEE A SHOW!!!"
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