April high school musicals
The April high school musical line-up features both classic and freshly written music and choreography centered around universal themes: love and death, revenge, the lust for power, dissolution and despair.
All three of the April musicals at Catholic high schools take a step back in time—but not too far back. St. Ignatius College Preparatory presents Cabaret, set in 1931 Berlin on the eve of the Nazis’ rise to power. Archbishop Riordan High School performs West Side Story, the story of the star crossed lovers, Tony and Maria, doomed by gang rivalries between Puerto Ricans and working class whites in New York in the 1950s. Also in San Francisco, Mercy High School will recreate a high school classroom in Palo Alto, California that in 1967 turned into a miniature Fascist state when a high school teacher’s experiment to explain how Nazism and the Holocaust could occur went farther than he ever imagined. The drama department is presenting the musical The Wave based on the short story the teacher, San Francisco resident Ron Jones, wrote about the experience. The story was also turned into a TV drama by Norman Lear.
At Archbishop Riordan High School, drama director Valerie O’Riordan opted to stage West Side Story and Romeo and Juliet in the same year, noting West Side Story is a modern musical version of the Shakespearean tragedy. While the tragedy of miscommunication, revenge and unreasoning enmity between warring factions is told in both productions, O’Riordan says there is another side to the classics. “With both Romeo and Juliet and West Side Story, it’s about the impetuosity of youth and the prodigious power of love,” O’Riordan said.
For Cabaret, the spring musical at St. Ignatius College Preparatory, drama director Ted Curry double cast the production to expand the number of students who can participate.
Originally entitled Welcome to Berlin, Cabaret is based on John Van Druten’s play I Am a Camera, which in turn was adapted from the novel Goodbye Berlin, by Christopher Isherwood. Set in 1931 Berlin on the eve of the Nazis’ rise to power, it focuses on nightlife at the seedy Kit Kat Klub and revolves around the young English cabaret performer Sally Bowles and her relationship with young American writer Cliff Bradshaw. Curry says the production features the emcee who presides as master of ceremonies at the Kit Kat Klub, “and serves as a constant reminder that life is really a cabaret – we are always on stage.”
At Mercy San Francisco, the teacher who wrote The Wave, plays himself, with most of the cast high school students. Mercy music director Frederick Harris contributed musical scoring and arrangements. The Wave is part of Mercy’s annual Holocaust series. Freshman Audrey Dileo is playing Bomber, a key role, in The Wave’s story of five days that transformed a classroom. “I believe that doing The Wave as Mercy’s spring musical is a great idea,” says Dileo. “It teaches children as well as adults that we, as humans aren’t perfect.”
APRIL MUSICALS
Production: Cabaret
High School: St. Ignatius College Preparatory
Location: Bannan Theatre, 2001 37th Ave., San Francisco
When: April: 20, 21, 23, 24, 27, 28, 30, May 1, 7 p.m.
Tickets: $10
Info: siprep.org
Story: Set in 1931 Berlin on the eve of the Nazis’ rise to power, it focuses on nightlife at the seedy Kit Kat Klub and revolves around the young English cabaret performer Sally Bowles and her relationship with young American writer Cliff Bradshaw.
Production: The Wave
High School: Mercy San Francisco
Location: Mercy Theatre, 3250 19th Ave.
When: April 16, 7:30 p.m. Red Carpet; April 17, 23, 24, 7:30 p.m.
Tickets: Red Carpet, $16; $10 adults, $8 students
Info: mercyhs.org
Story: A new musical written by Ron Jones, grandfather of Breanna McNeil, Class of 2009.
Production: West Side Story
High School: Archbishop Riordan High School
Location: Lindland Theatre, Riordan, 175 Phelan Ave., across from City College
When: April 16,17, 23, 24, 8 p.m.; April 25, 2 p.m.
Tickets: $10 adults, $4 children, $7 students/seniors.
Info: riordanhs.org, (415) 587-5866
Story: A timeless and tragic classic, filled with violence, hatred and forbidden love, told through spirited song and dance.
By Valerie Schmalz
From April 2, 2010 issue of Catholic San Francisco.
