Every year Allderdice’s theater department puts on a spring musical which is always a huge hit among students, staff, and parents. This year the department showcased On The Town, an upbeat comedy set in 1944 New York City.
This wartime musical follows three excited sailors, Gabey (Liam Gedris), Chip (Jordan Block), and Ozzie (Akiva Weinkle), as they experience New York City for the first time while on shore leave. While on a subway ride, Gabey spots a girl’s picture on a poster of the monthly “Miss Turnstiles” and is determined to meet her. Chip and Ozzie attempt to track down Gabey’s dream girl, Ivy Smith (Nera Akiva) in 24 hours and stumble across their own love interests in the process, Claire Keesey (Hannah Adelson) and Hildy Esterhazy (Hannah Horowitz). The sailors only have one day in New York and try to experience all the best parts, the museums, historical sites, and of course the parties.
Allderdice’s theater director, Ms. Madden-Harrold says “On the Town was a surprising, and unfamiliar, choice for the students who auditioned, but they had a great time with the silly comedy from Broadway’s golden age.” Working on the show was a complicated task and required the hard work of the actors, stage crew, and everyone who contributed. “The spring musical is always an enormous undertaking. Fortunately, we have some very skilled parent volunteers and committed students. Our crew worked intensely after school and on the weekends to build a very ambitious set, and of course, our student orchestra did an excellent job tackling a Leonard Bernstein score.” Though many of the actors were initially unsure about this lesser-known musical, after performing On The Town and having a great time doing so many quickly came around. Akiva Weinkle said, “I thought at first it was a very interesting choice but I think the musical came together very nicely in the end. It was fun to do a show that I had never heard of before.”
One of the highlights of the show was the musical number, “Carried Away.” This was a duet performed by Hannah Adelson and Akiva Weinkle. Hannah Adelson, who played Claire, stated that the song “Carried Away” was very vocally intense and difficult to memorize but she managed to remember everything through the choreography. The song portrayed the two characters’ tendency to get “carried away” in a fun song alongside intricate choreography.
To go along with the amazing musical performances on stage, was the notable accompaniment of the Allderdice pit. This year the pit had quite a variety of instruments for the musical including bass, tympani, keyboards, and more. The music reneged from peppy and exciting to gloomy and melancholy, which was amazingly all pulled off by the pit orchestra. Evie Passero, who played oboe and English horn on the keyboard, says “You Got Me in the Second Act was my favorite song to play. It was very upbeat and had an energetic tone.” “Overall, it was a very exciting experience. I had an opportunity to appreciate what musical theater has to offer and it was really nice to watch.”
One of the most impressive parts of the show was the set design. Not only did the stage crew manage to create multiple different backgrounds and set pieces for each scene, but each background was meticulously crafted to mimic specific parts of the city including Times Square, Coney Island, a subway, the New York City skyline, and much more. Notably, the carnival and Times Square scenes were some of the best as they both contained numerous moving lights and precisely painted signs and backdrop pieces. The stage crew enlisted the help of a parent who has a degree in theater tech and assisted in designing the backdrops and props. This musical was a huge undertaking for the stage crew. Set design director Mr. Schaltenbrand explained how complicated this year’s set design was, “It was far more than any other musical I’ve been involved in, and this is my 12th one.” “They printed out design blueprints for us that were literally 85 pages!” To design the set, they used some saved props from previous shows, but they still had to buy numerous pieces making this showcase one of Allderdice’s the most expensive.
Amazingly crafted props, fabulous choreography, and excellent directing all made up this unique production. The cast and crew brought to life a wonderful performance of this classic musical comedy.
