High school musicals are a tradition in WNY and once again WNED Classical is celebrating them on the air! From Friday, February 21 through Sunday, February 23, we’ll air selections from musicals being produced at area high schools this year. Adjacent to each selection, we’ll hear a recorded comment from a local high school student who participates in the production. They’ll describe their experience and talk about what the musical means to them. Here are the schools we’ve heard from so far:
Cats at Amherst, 2/7-2/8
Disaster! at Buffalo Academy for the Visual and Performing Arts, 4/2-4/5
You’re a Good Man, Charlie Brown at Cardinal O’Hara, 3/14-3/16
The Hunchback of Notre Dame at Clarence, 3/13-3/15
Charlie and the Chocolate Factory at Depew, 3/14-3/15
Something Rotten! At Fredonia, 3/21-3/22 & 3/28-3/29
The SpongeBob Musical at Holland, 2/7-2/8
Something Rotten! at Lake Shore, 2/6-2/8
Mary Poppins at Lockport, 3/28-3/30
The Addams Family at Maryvale, 2/28-3/1
Godspell at Niagara Falls, 3/27-3/29
Jesus Christ Superstar at St. Joseph’s Collegiate Institute, 3/5-3/9
Once Upon a Mattress at Sweet Home, 3/14-3/16
The Little Mermaid at Springville-Griffith Institute, 3/14-3/16
My first high school musical was Oklahoma! I was “Mike,” and I had one line. “Gonna give you barley, carrots and pertaters.” I had never danced before, so memorizing dance steps was tricky. My solution was to memorize the steps to a steady beat. For instance, I memorized the hoedown dance like this, “…girls walk in and curtsy and walk back, boys walk in and bow and walk back...” If you say it to a steady beat, it really works! I don’t know if this is something real dancers do, but just like Hooked on Phonics, “it werked fer me!”
The next year, I got a bigger part – Pappy Yokum in Li’l Abner. I wanted the part of tall, muscular Abner, but that went to our school’s star basketball player just because he had looks, brains, and talent. The injustice of it!
Later in life, I directed a production of Oklahoma! at Depew Schools where I was a music teacher for many years. It was twenty-six years after I was in Oklahoma! myself. I included a little note in the Depew program thanking my old high school teacher, Mr. Keefe, for bringing musicals into my life. He became terminally ill several years ago. I sent him a copy of our Depew program with that special note about him. His wife told me after he passed that he was so touched that I thought to remember him. The truth is, we never forget the adults who bring musicals into our lives as young people. They’re heroes!
I directed other musicals at Depew including Bye, Bye Birdie, The Wiz, Beauty and the Beast, Annie, Hello, Dolly! and Anything Goes. Once, I directed a professional production for Buffalo United Artists (BUA) at the Franklin Street Theatre in Buffalo. It was Sondheim’s Marry Me A Little. What a talented group that was! We received a 4.5 out of 5-star review in The Buffalo News. I’m still proud of that!
Some of my colleagues at WNED Classical were also involved in high school musicals. Morning host Mark Swarts was in Mame, The Music Man, and The Pajama Game. He’ll never forget the first line he had on stage as Old Man Hassler in The Pajama Game. “Waste! Waste! Waste! Turn off those damn lights!” He got to curse on stage in 1977! Scandalous!
Afternoon host Stratton Rawson wrote:
There were no musical productions at Roy Ketchum High School in 1964-65. The fall play was “The Male Animal” and the spring play was “Tea House of the August Moon.” I acted in both. It was, at least, for me very lucky because I can neither dance nor sing, which accounts for my outsized admiration for anyone who can!
WNED Classical Audio Specialist Rachel Keirn-Fairchild wrote:
I was in the pit orchestra in 7th grade and through high school. I absolutely loved it. I played for Bye Bye Birdie, South Pacific, The Wizard of Oz, Footloose, and Mame. I loved the pit orchestra so much. I also volunteered as the piano page turner for our local community theater’s productions of Les Misérables and Follies. As a professional clarinetist, I’ve played for Into the Woods. My time with high school musicals sparked a life-long love of musical theater that I wouldn’t trade it for anything.
Weekend host Marc Smith wrote:
I was The Wizard of Oz in St. Benedict’s (Amherst) production of The Wizard of Oz. I wanted to be the Tin Man, but later realized that The Wizard could be cool too. To this day, I still miss the theater. There’s nothing like it. If you know, you know.
And a lot of us do know, Marc! We’re the lucky ones, aren’t we? Please join us on the air 2/21-2/23 as WNED Classical salutes WNY’s high school musicals and the students, teachers, parents, administrators, and communities who keep this WNY tradition alive! That’s 94.5 FM in Buffalo, 89.7 FM in Jamestown, on the free WNED Classical app, or anywhere in the world at www.WNED.org/classical.
