Senior musical theatre major and stage manager Heather Bachand emphasized the longstanding tradition of storytelling through movement, a theme that resonated throughout the first night of the School of Theatre and Dance’s second student-led Musical Theatre Dance Cabaret.
The sold-out two-day performance on Thursday, Feb. 20 and Friday, Feb. 21, showcased diversity in various ways, from the songs and musical theatre shows chosen to the dance styles included and even the casting of students.
Wyatt Smith, senior musical theatre major and the co-director and producer of the show, said they are trying to highlight voices that are not usually featured in musical theater.
“It was all about seeing the people I see on the street every day and having their voices heard on stage,” Smith said. He explained that Broadway musicals usually have more white, straight and traditionally binary representation. “I’m just kind of sick and bored of that,” Smith said.
The Dance Center lobby was packed and the audience pushed into the theatre when doors opened at 7:15 p.m. on the first night, filling each of the 268 seats in the performance space. Anticipatory energy continued to build, until a bright pink screen illuminated all 35 dancers who took to the stage dressed in black.
Their opening number was upbeat and full of life, offering a perfect introduction to the passion that each of them carries for musical theatre and dance.
The first seven songs moved in chronological order through the decades, dropping the audience in the midst of the 1920s with a song from the new hit musical “The Great Gatsby,” and pulling them all the way into the 2010s while dancing to music from popular movie-musical “La La Land.”
This student-led show was produced entirely by students who took on various roles, including dancers, choreographers, directors, designers and stage managers.
Smith emphasized that this show is unique compared to the others that the school has organized previously because in most productions, there is a significant amount of input from people outside of the college regarding casting and directing.
“It’s kind of their vision with our people,” Smith said. “Whereas this is our people, our vision, presented in our place that we call home.”
Jadyn Hogue, a sophomore musical theatre major and co-director and producer of the show, said that all this student participation “adds a small touch to the fact that it’s so unique to what the students want.” Hogue added that because this show is based on the students, they were able to truly consider what expectations this group of creatives had in regards to the meaning behind this showcase.
“For it to be a soul-based student project and for it to have gotten as large as it has been, I think that’s a really phenomenal thing that’s so different from most things here,” Hogue said.
As the show continued into the present day, the audience whispered excitedly between numbers. Suddenly, a group of dancers dressed in pink and white and sparkles entered from the wings on both sides before meeting in the middle and then quickly exiting, leaving one student alone center stage.
Senior musical theatre major McGuigan Weatherspoon stood in front of the vibrant rainbow background, nervous for a moment before “channeling her inner Beyoncé” and stepping into the spotlight to start off the number.
“It honestly means a lot for me because I think I have built up anger recently with theatre and the way they treat the queer community,” Weatherspoon said
Weatherspoon said that she wasn’t interested in musical theatre during her first year at Columbia because she didn’t identify exclusively with male roles, which was all that was typically offered to her. It wasn’t until she started to transition last summer that she began to find her love for theatre again. Weatherspoon said that being part of this show was important to her because she could be the representation that she wishes she saw on stage.
“I think that’s something that you don’t see a lot in theatre,” Weatherspoon said. “For me, it’s always nice to see a trans person in theatre or someone who looks like me in theatre,” she said.
Weatherspoon added that it was a fun opportunity to work with underclassmen at Columbia and watch them find their identity and place in musical theatre.
Ashley Bell, a freshman musical theatre major, said that being part of a student-led production gave her a chance to learn from peers. Bell was part of several numbers, but opened the scene for “I Hope I Get It” from the musical “A Chorus Line.”
Within this piece, 22 dancers were spread across the stage acting out a dance audition scene, which gave the audience a glimpse into the range of challenges and emotions that these students face in their careers. The performers were given creative freedom to develop their own “characters” for this song, and noticeably had fun interacting with one another.
Bell said that this sense of collaboration allowed her to dive into the number with a renewed sense of confidence, and she reflected on what she has learned while being surrounded by other driven creatives.
“I’ve been watching them and observing what they do and what makes them successful dancers,” Bell said. “Just seeing how much energy they put into it has really helped me channel that as well because I’m a firm believer that in order to get better, you need to be around people who are better than you.”
Bell said that this show was important for bringing together the diverse community at Columbia through their shared love and appreciation for musical theatre and dance. It also gave students a chance to use their creative outlets to express themselves more freely than any main stage productions at Columbia could.
Along with directing, Smith also choreographed three numbers and said that he wanted to create a space for people to express their emotions specifically towards the political climate. The second to last number opened with an empty stage and a warning screen taking over the once bright backgrounds.
The audience grew quiet as a video played, beginning with clips of a speech from Reverend Mariann Budde that she delivered after the inauguration of President Donald Trump. Her speech was a plea to the president to have mercy on different minority groups in America. Smith’s video created the atmosphere needed for students to share their frustrations about the recent presidential election.
“Give them the space and opportunity to feel angry and feel like this place has fucked them over,” Smith said. “Give them the agency and opportunity to kind of claim back some of the power that I think was taken away from a lot of us.”
The crowd erupted as the song “FDT (Fuck Donald Trump)” by YG played, and the dancers took their places as the music transitioned to “American Idiot” by Green Day.
Dressed in red and blue street wear, the 15 dancers exuded a sense of rebellion in every move they made from acting out stage combat, to standing on chairs, and even creating a manual human glitch mid-song.
They told the story of their frustration with the world through every aspect of this number, which inevitably made their message louder than the music ever could.
The group stood in a line at the end of the song, sticking their middle fingers to the sky in a last act of resistance against Trump, and holding that pose into the silence.
For their final number, the dancers embraced this same energy of defiance in a different style.
As the song died down, a bright red background shone over the low-lit stage, casting light that created a silhouette of the dancers in their final positions while confetti canons shot red and silver pieces that sparkled in the air.
Final bows brought all the dancers back to the stage. Almost immediately, the crowd rose to their feet and gave a standing ovation to praise the student’s efforts.
Smith said it was rewarding to see their vision as a group come to life and to watch the musical theatre community at Columbia thrive.
“I hope the audience sees a glimpse into the future for what I want, and so many of my peers and people in the show, want the future of theatre to look like on stage.”
Copy edited by Trinity Balboa
