St. Joseph-Ogden Drama Director Chandler Dalton thinks the audience of the Musical Theatre Cabaret will be stunned.
“The community will be pretty shocked with the amount of talent coming to the stage on Sunday,” Dalton said.
The event is taking place at the high school at 2 p.m. on Sunday. Admission is free.
Dalton said the Musical Theatre Cabaret is more theatre oriented than a talent show, which SJO did for many years prior. In a Musical Theatre Cabaret students have to perform something from a musical. Dalton said this gives the students a chance to perform songs from shows that they beg to perform every year including Hamilton, Wicked or Phantom of the Opera.
Those shows aren’t available to high school drama programs either due to cost or due to the fact that licensing is not available.
“When I told the kids we were changing the talent show to a musical theatre cabaret they got really excited,” Dalton said.
Dalton said it was difficult to find students who wanted to participate in the yearly talent show, in fact they barely had enough acts last year to do a show.
“By changing the name and the format to only musicals the kids got really excited about it,” Dalton said.
The Drama Club held open gyms on Fridays in September and October to give students a chance to find a song that fit them and to give them time to rehearse it before auditions.
There are 16 kids participating in the Musical Theatre Cabaret for a total of 20 acts.
“The Musical Theatre Cabaret is a good chance for the community to see some of the talented performers at SJO,” Dalton said.
Dalton said there are one or two acts that aren’t theater oriented but she made an exception because the kids normally do not participate in Drama Club and she wanted to include them.
Dalton said she hopes the community will support the production.
“It’s free admission so they just have to show up and enjoy the show,” she said.
