High School VS. Broadway

Wow, Les Miz? That's impressive. I too live in a small town and actually attend the high school. We put a musical on every fall...I've been in Guys and Dolls, Grease, Hello, Dolly!, and a regional production of Oklahoma!...basically the easiest things we could come up with. For next year we're looking at Seven Brides for Seven Brothers...maybe West Side Story (yay!) and I'm working on my director for the latter or for My Fair Lady. The regional thing has done the Music Man and Oklahoma, and this summer, Annie. (not my favorite). I would love to see the day that my high school does something as challenging as Les Mis...of, course I would even more so love to see the day that they do it and impress people like you! I'm very impressed just by what you've said...

Sounds like a good program. Grease was a huge hit for us...Dolly wasn't...but we blame that all on our Dolly Levi. She was honestly the only person for the part (she was Rizzo in Grease and Adelaide in GandD), but she is the biggest DIVA and everyone hates her. The sad part is, she's not good enough that people in the proffesional wolrd will be willing to put up with her terrible....ness... to have her talent. anyway, one of my drama teachers wants to do Fiddler next fall, and I would love that! One of my favorites! But, we're a school that focuses more on our state one-act play contest. I am currently playing Hamlet, so wish me luck! We have our district contest on Friday, and the past two years we've gotten alternate at this level two years running. My youngest drama teacher remembers being in high school here....district alternate four years straight. She thinks its a curse, so I hope we haven't fallen back into it! (just knocked on wood)

3 years ago, my high school did Brigadoon; one flat, a table, a chair or so, one set of costumes, and not hat much music. Cut to 3 years later; My Favorite Year (not really, just the name of the show). 2 or 3 sets of ensemble costumes, lead characters get costumes for every different day that passes in the show, 20 or so people playing in the "pit," FLY SPACE for our ENORMOUS sets, and fabulous talent. I was so surprised at the change in just 3 years, and was glad to be a part of this show. Some High Schools can just kick butt. Then again, this was never a big Broadway show that so many people know about, but don't just expect them all to be so terrible. :)

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Well, I live in NJ and close to the city. Our high school doesn't have much money and yet the musical was astounding. The girl who played Eponine has a lot of charisma, and she definitely looks older than a junior in high school. Her voice is amazing. I think that High School plays are definitely becoming more talented. My cousin played Gavroche so I went to see him. Otherwise, I probably wouldn't have gone. I'm glad I did.

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I have to say that I am pretty proud of my high school's drama program. In the 10 years we have competed in our states one-act competition we have made it to state finals 7 times. For that we have done shows including A Chorus Line, Schoolhouse Rock Live, Runaways, Little Shop, Tommy, Charlie Brown, Working, Chicago, and West Side. Last year when we did Chicago and we took second in the state of Michigan! As well as four years prior to that when Runaways took second. In my four years there we went three times with Charlie Brown, Working, and Chicago none of which took lower than 4th. This year they did a fabulous West Side Story and didn't make it but hey were beat out by an absolutley astounding production of WIT that eventually won the state competition. As far as musicals go we have done Annie Get Your Gun, Annie, Peter Pan, Once Upon A Mattress, How To Succeed....Well that's all I can think of. But we have an extremely talented program at my old high school and I'm so glad I was part of it.

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I think my school is pretty lucky. We're doing Evita this year, followed by last year's Kiss Me Kate. Before that shows included Guys and Dolls, Grease, and Cinderella. We do a fall play each year on a smaller scale, this year's was A Streetcar Named Desire and last year's was Othello. We also have independent theatre with no budget and student directors. It's a new program, and so far they've done Glass Menagerie, Who's afriad of Virginia Woolf, Suddenly Last Summer and Waiting For Godot.

We have really dedicated students, and a faculty that's usually willing to back us. Also, luckily, we were given a gift from the wife of a man who died on September 11th. Her husband used to always talk about his days of doing plays at our school, and she gave us a gift his memorial fund.

We're excited about Evita, but it's off to a rough start. I'm the production manager, and dancer by dancer they're quitting (which is understandable- the choreographer has spent the last month working on Don't Cry For Me Argentina, only to find that there's no actual dancing for that in the show.)Tech is excited about lights, but we're having a pro set brought in and only a few people on running crew are needed. We have a tremendous interest in tech, but we can't find places to put everyone! We always offer them jobs as ushers, but they never fall for it.

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For some quality high school theater come to Manhattan, New York. Laguardia High School for Music and Art and Performing Arts has an astounding theater program---I've seen their productions of Into The Woods, The Threepenny Opera, Godspell and Les Miserables, and was blown away each year. Their theater is incredible; it's actually where the Drama Desk Awards are annually hosted each year.

The Professional Performing Arts School, where I attend school, has a much less impressive theater; it's poorly built, and quite small, but the talent up on that small stage is really mind-boggling. Two years ago they did "Sweet Charity", last year was "A Chorus Line" and we just finished our short run of "Carnival" last night. The leads for each show are really Broadway material. Actually, many kids from these schools have already played Broadway, so you know you're in for a good show.

Don't even get me started on my high school's theatre program...it is disgusting.

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My school just finished with My Fair Lady, which was absolutely amazing. It had great costumes, and amazing dance sequences (mostly for the Alfie Doolittle songs). Students made up the orchestra, which was quite good. I'm really lucky to go to a school with such great performing arts- 14 shows a year and 2 theaters.

rclocalz: My school did Tommy this summer, and Les Miz last year as well!! It's in Massachusetts.

Amen to that.

rclocalz-No, I don't live in Tennessee. What a coincidence. :)

When my school did "Anything Goes" this year I was impressed, like you said High School plays are usually crap but I thought my school did this show pretty good. The only thing I didn't like was the girl that played "Hope".. she wasn't right for the role.

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