Song and dance stop for nothing in Los Altos High School’s upcoming musical “Singin’ in the Rain.” Not when a cast member dives through a door, launches himself onto a couch and jumps right back up and not when slapsticks and stunts bring the fan-favorite number “Make ‘em Laugh” to life. Scheduled to run Thursday, Feb. 5 through Saturday, Feb. 7, audiences will stand testimony to “the show must go on” in LAHS’s rendition of the classic comedy.
“The kids just nailed it,” acting teacher Lisa Battle said. “The choreography, and the way the cast performs it, they honored all of the dance numbers [from the original movie] really well.”
Known for its catchy songs and choreography, “Singin’ in the Rain” is set in 1920s Hollywood, and follows film star Don Lockwood and his co-stars as they navigate the introduction of sound in film. Since October, more than 75 performing art students — actors, dancers and instrumentalists — have spent months preparing to live up to the familiar 1952 film.
Naturally, putting together a two and a half hour show takes time — time that the cast has cherished, using time together during rehearsals to bond.
“The community that the musical brings together is really nice,” featured dancer senior Alexa Mohan said. “There’s the dance, the vocal, the pit and the acting department. It’s cool to work with different people and overlap.”
With only four lead roles — Don Lockwood, Kathy Selden, Cosmo Brown and Lina Lamont — choir director Lauren Diez said the leads were double-casted to take advantage of the talented audition pool and create insurance against possible illness.
The “Lucky” cast performs Thursday and Saturday night, featuring junior Mateo Serrano Mauricio, senior Haley Volkert, junior Sam Hiltgen and senior Nora Saraci-Alonso; the “Star” cast performs Friday and Saturday matinee, featuring seniors Luke Suffoletto, Kira Polen, Avni Rajagopal and Hannah Cohen. Students cast in roles outside of the main four will perform in all shows. The strategy has proved efficient, said Mateo, who plays “Lucky” Don Lockwood.
“I missed a week of rehearsal, and I had to watch over the videos and learn it on my own, which was hard,” Mateo said. “The other Don, Luke, helped me a lot with that.”
Despite the effectiveness of double casting, the rehearsal schedule was time-consuming for everyone involved. In dance teacher April Oliver’s words, the musical “takes over your life for a month.” Since returning from winter break, the cast rehearsed for up to three hours daily after school and five to six hours on Saturdays.
Despite long rehearsals, many actors had to independently work on their parts.
Haley described her role as the “quintessential triple threat”: an equal combination of memorizing lines, perfecting choreography and singing.
She acknowledges that the heavy workload, in part, comes from memorizing Oliver’s choreography, which was modified from the film’s original dances to better suit the LAHS cast while maintaining 1920s-style jazz movements.
The collaborators of “Singin’ in the Rain” will spend this week doing tech, piecing everything together before opening night Thursday.
For directors and students, the months of effort are all worth it. Oliver recounted a moment early in the process when she felt overwhelmed by the production. She said an interaction with a parent helped her push through.
“I spoke with one of the mothers of a performer about how exciting [the musical] was for her daughter,” Oliver said. “It reminded me of when I was in musicals as a high schooler, and how transformative an experience like this can be.”
Tickets to see the ‘Lucky’ students ‘Star’ in the show are $20 (general admission) and $10 (students and children), available online and at the door.
