Archive: Arts & Entertainment

It's difficult enough to direct a high school musical.  It's nearly impossible to direct a good high school production.  And the odds of producing a good show diminish still further when you challenge students to perform way beyond their abilities.  That is why it is all the more remarkable that Cindy Howell has had a string of hits at Lansing High School.  Howell challenges her students to do better and better, and they rise to the bait.  "I sat with the kids and said if you guys want to do a really big show like you keep talking about, then I got to see more than I'm seeing," she says.


Evidently she saw it, because this year Lansing High School is tackling '42nd Street,' the 1980 Broadway musical that was loosely based on the 1933 Busby Berkeley movie of the same name.  The plot is classic:  Julian Marsh is a Broadway producer mounting 'Pretty Lady,' a musical he hopes will re-launch his career after the Great Depression.  Peggy Sawyer is a fresh-faced understudy from Allentown, Pennsylvania who goes on for the star at the last minute and emerges a star herself.  "The first time I saw it in New York I thought it was too much dancing for us," Howell recalls.  "I never thought we could do it because it is too much dancing.  But you get the right core of people together and you can do it."


Former Lansing student Michelle Whitty performed in the international tour of the show last year.   "Tyler Hallot and her mom, Ann Short, and I had seen it quite a few times watching her in it," Howell says.  "We decided to try and do this show if we could.  We knew Sara Fazio could choreograph it.  We were concerned about costumes, but Tracy Levine and Bobby Wasenko have done a fabulous job of costumes."

Howell arranged for Whitty, who had been in another major tap dance show in Lansing, 'Crazy For You,'  to hold a tap dance workshop last summer.  For $50 each, students met with Whitty three times a week for an intensive course.  More than 20 kids signed up.  'Crazy For You' had proven that she could pull off a show of this magnitude even though few of the kids had previous tap dancing experience.  "If you plan it and you have the right group of kids," she says.  "I pick the shows every year because of the kids that I have.  Depending upon what group of kids you have depends on what you can do."


Of course the choreographer is a major element in a show like 42nd Street.  Sarah Fazio, a professional choreographer that works out of New York City, is back again this year.  Howell says she is working with the cast more than she usually does, commuting back and forth between Lansing and professional jobs.  The big push on the dancing was over the school break, when students rehearsed day and night for an entire week.

Howell says that the stage musical is nothing like the movie.  "The movie is awful," she exclaims.  "This is nothing like the movie."  But many of the classic songs from the movie including the title number and "Lullaby of Broadway" migrated from the Ruby Keeler classic to the Broadway stage.  Howell says two Freshmen stand out in lead roles.  "They are absolutely wonderful," she says.  "Adam Beckwith is playing Julian Marsh, and Nicolo Gentile is our main dancer because he did so well in dancing last summer."


Audiences will 'hear the beat of dancing feet' in four performances on March 7th through 10th.  Howell notes that there are 42 kids in the cast, a bit of trivia that bodes well for the production.  But she says there are major challenges between now and opening night.  At this point she says the dancing is under control, and the set is the major remaining challenge.  Students on the technical crew began in earnest Monday, painting around rehearsals.  

Howell says that the scene changes are key to moving the show along.  "People don't want to sit and watch the curtain close and wait five minutes while the set changes," she says.  "That's very typical of a lot of high school shows, and that's one of the things that I just don't want to happen if we can avoid it."


She notes that the high school she attended as a teenager is also doing 42nd Street, charging double the $5 that Lansing audiences will pay.  And despite a history of sold out musicals she worries about filling the auditorium.  "I just hope people come and see the show," she says.  "Lansing is getting a really good deal here, so I hope they come."

----
v3i9