Albany High Spring Musical Sure to Be No Snooze

Last week, staff of the Theater Ensemble held the kickoff informational meeting on the school's spring musical, the Broadway Tony award-winning The Drowsy Chaperone.

The musical is actually a "musical within a comedy": Man in Chair, a nebbishy Manhattanite living alone in his apartment, brings the titular show, an imaginary 1928 musical, to life for us, and for himself... Whatever life's disappointments, he can hold onto a little slice of what the theatre once was.

“You know,” he says, “there was a time when people sat in darkened theatres and thought to themselves, 'What have George and Ira got for me tonight?' Or 'Can Cole Porter pull it off again?' Can you imagine?” 

The Theatre Ensemble is going to help us try. 

Some 50 students attended the Oct. 19 session, presented by Theater Ensemble director Andrea Hart, , and Theater and Art instructor Sarah Samonsky. The student hopefuls included both actors and technical crew. 

While theatrical efforts received district support through last year, the ensemble is , and students will be expected to contribute across all of the required work, including backstage, and publicizing the shows.

The Ensemble's first production, , opens Nov. 3 and runs Thursday, Friday and Saturday, through Nov. 12. 

That play, by Naomi Iizuka, is a stark drama: “Separated from his mother, a young refugee called Anon journeys through the United States, encountering a wide variety of people—some kind, some dangerous and cruel—as he searches for his family. From a sinister one-eyed butcher to beguiling barflies to a sweatshop, Anon must navigate through a chaotic, ever-changing landscape in an adaptation of Homer's 'Odyssey.'”

Director Hart is excited for the contrast it will offer with the lighter, often giddy Drowsy: “The two plays are almost as different as can be in style, tone, setting... I also think it will be great for audiences and really show our program’s range. ”

Auditions for The Drowsy Chaperone will be held Nov. 7-8. Students are required to be available both days, with callbacks on Nov. 14. The show will run Feb. 3-12.

Ms. Stocker and AHS will reprise their work from last year's to put together a live band for the show, which is rich in 1920s period music.

The show itself has romantic origins: the musical spoof was originally developed by actor/playwright Robert Martin and friends as a wedding gift for his fiancee, Janet Van de Graaff, and its central romantic couple bear their names. The show won five Tony awards in its 2006 Broadway run, and toured San Francisco in 2008.

The musical within the show resonates with AHS' new theatrical dressing, which evokes an era of flappers, swing and Roaring 20s elegance that Albany High students will work to bring to life on the stage as well.

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Everybody makes mistakes ... ! If there's something in this article you think should be corrected, or if something else is amiss, call editor Emilie Raguso at 510-459-8325 or email her at emilier@patch.com.