Friday, April 4, 2014
The day I dropped in at Brewster High School, they were working on high-energy number called “Ugg-a-Wugg,” in which the native princess Tiger Lily joins forces with Peter Pan and…
SOURCE: The Journal News at 09:46AM[SHARE]After touring four musicals on Monday—and intending to get to four more Tuesday—I was felled by the flu. I’m now able to lift my head enough to try to post all the Running …
SOURCE: The Journal News at 09:00AM[SHARE]Thursday, April 3, 2014
There’s something exciting about opening night, but things at Ossining High School were a bit extra special tonight, as “Legally Blonde: The Musical” marks the opening of a…
SOURCE: The Journal News at 08:22PM[SHARE]Friday, March 28, 2014
This year, Ramapo and Spring Valley high schools, which are in the East Ramapo School district and sit three miles apart, present the same musical on consecutive weekends. In a cool arrangem…
SOURCE: The Journal News at 07:35AM[SHARE]When two schools are three miles apart, you might expect a rivalry when it comes to their high-school musicals But this year, East Ramapo School District’s two high schools — Ram…
SOURCE: The Journal News at 07:33AM[SHARE]Sometimes, you make a musical fit your cast. When director Edie Ann Reidy chose “Legally Blonde” as The Ursuline School’s spring musical, she knew that the piece’s he…
SOURCE: The Journal News at 06:43AM[SHARE]Producer Rob Jacoby measures the success of Alexander Hamilton High School’s theater program in one very tangible way. He doesn’t have to go out and drag kids off the practice fi…
SOURCE: The Journal News at 06:24AM[SHARE]I wish Studs Terkel had met the three teachers who have breathed life into the musicals at Hendrick Hudson High School for the past seven years. They might have made it into a loving tribute…
SOURCE: The Journal News at 05:56AM[SHARE]Thursday, March 27, 2014
Some kids you can pick out of a lineup as “theater kids.” They’ve got a twinkle in their eye. Or maybe all those bright lights have left a glow on their cheek. Whatever its…
SOURCE: The Journal News at 02:46PM[SHARE]“The Drowsy Chaperone” is chockfull of over-the-top and memorable characters, from a showstopping star to a “blue” man in a comfy chair, to a Latin lover and a couple…
SOURCE: The Journal News at 02:12PM[SHARE]Zach Reiter has played his share of roles at Tappan Zee High School. Last fall, the TZ senior played the title role in “Candide,” innocent and wide-eyed. Harold Hill is neither i…
SOURCE: The Journal News at 12:33PM[SHARE]The costumes are so bright in Westlake High School’s production of “Guys and Dolls” they seem to be electrified. For example, senior Jake Frisbie plays Nicely Nicely Johnso…
SOURCE: The Journal News at 11:08AM[SHARE]Thursday, March 20, 2014
The kids at Carmel have been working hard to ready “Legally Blonde: The Musical,” the story of a Malibu blonde who follows her love to Harvard Law, only to discover she’s s…
SOURCE: The Journal News at 07:19AM[SHARE]Bare stage? Check. Orchestra? Check. Kids who can dance and act their faces off? Check and check. Harrison has everything it needs for tonight’s opening of “A Chorus Line,”…
SOURCE: The Journal News at 06:22AM[SHARE]The folks in Suffern are probably tired of hearing me go on and on about Dan McCarter’s incredible pit orchestra. I seem to do it every year, but McCarter and his massive band are real…
SOURCE: The Journal News at 05:39AM[SHARE]Sometimes, I arrive at a rehearsal and the cast just doesn’t seem to be ready. Kids are talking when they should be listening. The director is pulling his hair out. The CD won’t …
SOURCE: The Journal News at 05:07AM[SHARE]Wednesday, March 19, 2014
Warmups can take many forms. Some pre-rehearsal warmups call for actors to shake things out, counting down from 5. Shake out your left arm, “5, 4, 3, 2, 1…” Shake out your …
SOURCE: The Journal News at 10:12AM[SHARE]The stage is set and director Julie Colangelo is putting the cast of “Bye Bye Birdie” through the paces of “The Telephone Hour” at Sleepy Hollow High School. It’…
SOURCE: The Journal News at 09:02AM[SHARE]Saturday, March 15, 2014
I cover a lot of high-school musicals and, sometimes, it’s easy to forget that those singing-dancing-acting kids are still just kids, with essays to write and stat homework to do. That…
SOURCE: The Journal News at 12:19AM[SHARE]Thursday, March 13, 2014
Tuckahoe Middle/High School director Cathy Gmoser has a lot on her hands these days, readying the wacky and irreverent “Hairspray” to the stage starting tonight. There’s a …
SOURCE: The Journal News at 10:36AM[SHARE]Carrie Underwood may be the latest star to play Fraulein Maria in “The Sound of Music,” but Edgemont senior Dina Resnick is modeling her portrayal of the nun-governess-mother on …
SOURCE: The Journal News at 09:48AM[SHARE]What happens after “they lived happily ever after” is the subject of Stephen Sondheim’s “Into the Woods,” which hits the stage this weekend at Somers High Schoo…
SOURCE: The Journal News at 08:11AM[SHARE]Last year’s tappy “Crazy for You” has given way to this year’s tappy “Anything Goes” at Haldane High School, and there’s a very good reason for that…
SOURCE: The Journal News at 07:20AM[SHARE]Fox Lane High School this week stages “Smile,” a rarely performed musical written by Howard Ashman (“Little Shop of Horrors”) and Marvin Hamlisch (“A Chorus Lin…
SOURCE: The Journal News at 06:28AM[SHARE]Wednesday, March 12, 2014
They weren’t in costume or colorful feline face makeup yet, but I caught the company of “Cats” at North Rockland High School at a key moment in the musical’s journey.…
SOURCE: The Journal News at 09:14AM[SHARE]Jacob Kuhn jokes that it’s a good thing he was cast as “Man in Chair,” the theater-loving narrator of “The Drowsy Chaperone,” on stage at Clarkstown High School…
SOURCE: The Journal News at 08:27AM[SHARE]Go to enough rehearsals and you’ll see patterns emerge. Some directors yell and scream. Others want to be your best friend. After years of watching him work, I can reasonably conclude …
SOURCE: The Journal News at 07:47AM[SHARE]Jonathan Larson’s Pulitzer Prize-winning musical “Rent” has been met with controversy as it made its way from the professional stage to the amateur. Most recently, in Trumb…
SOURCE: The Journal News at 06:39AM[SHARE]Rehearsal can happen anywhere. Kids can run lines or work on dance steps in a classroom or even in a hallway. At Albertus Magnus High School, director Nadia Rizzo rehearsed “Beauty and…
SOURCE: The Journal News at 05:35AM[SHARE]Thursday, March 6, 2014
Nyack senior Michel Ntiri appreciates the chance to play the title role in “Aida” this weekend and next. The Elton John-Tim Rice musical tells the story of a Nubian princess who …
SOURCE: The Journal News at 02:18PM[SHARE]Things are about to get all rhymey at White Plains High School, as “Seussical the Musical” comes to the stage. The story—set to music and lyrics by Stephen Flaherty and Lyn…
SOURCE: The Journal News at 01:52PM[SHARE] 
