A dozen acts, along with nearly as many improvised between-act skits, made for an entertaining evening at the Script and Cue’s 2018 Winter Cabaret, Thursday, Jan. 25, on the stage of the Watchung Hills Regional High School (WHRHS) Performing Arts Center (PAC), 108 Stirling Road, Warren, New Jersey.
An intimate audience gathered around cabaret tables and in portable chairs arranged cross-stage style on the broad PAC stage. Nearly all the stage curtaining was raised to create a coffee house style exposed-brick performance space backdrop. Blue tint mood lighting bathed the atmosphere.
Performers, mostly singers with simple self-accompaniment acoustic guitars, keyboards, or recorded music, honed their skills in front of a live audience. Everyone seemed to recognizing that this was a living-learning live-audience workshop for the performers. It was also an evening for fun, encouraged, and applauded entertainment.
A healthy dose of “in-between act” performances included yeoman turns by familiar Script and Cue hosts and student leaders, Sam Sinnott, Francesca Infante-Meehan, Emma Leary, Anhal Dhir and Kayla Martins, among others. Many performed in multiple minute-or-less skits.
One of the highlights at the Winter Cabaret were appearances by some of the male student cast members of the upcoming 2018 WHRHS Spring Musical, “Guys and Dolls.” Mark your calendar, Guys and Dolls will be performed Thursday, Friday and Saturday, March 22, 23, and 24, 2018 in the WHRHS PAC.
At the Winter Cabaret, six of Guys and Dolls’ signature male “heavies,” Sam Sinnott, Ben Allgor, Will Johnson, Jack Melillo, Will Broder and Lucas Mammone, left their Nathan Detroit-style gangster zoot-suits in the wardrobe department in favor of stripped-down improv-style black slacks/white shirt-nearly-mime outfits to sing the spirited song of sweet revenge from the Broadway musical/movie, “Chicago.”
With tongue planted firmly in cheek, the actor/singers worked off nearly everyone’s vivid memory of the song, “He Had It Coming,” being belted out most convincingly in the movie by such notable enraged females as Queen Latifah, Catherine Zeta-Jones, and Renee Zellweger, among others. The guys at the Winter Cabaret delivered a hilarious portrayal of just enough over-the-top “wronged hurt” by a sextet of enraged males. If this skit was any indication, the “Guys” roles in the upcoming WHRHS Spring Musical, “Guys and Dolls,” are in the hands of an ensemble of actors already adept at entertaining an audience as a well-oiled team.
The array of acts at the Cabaret included:
Jack Melillo singing “Landslide,” and accompanying himself on guitar;
Kaelin Churchill singing, “Thinking Out Loud,” accompanied on guitar by her dad, Ray;
Dana Wasserman singing, “Can’t Take My Eyes Off You,” and accompanying herself on ukelele;
Olivia Kider and Melissa Miketen singing, “Flight,” by popular Broadway leading lady, Sutton Foster;
Becca Baitel reading one of her own original poems;
The student band, Moonwake, singing two songs, “Rosie,” featuring singer Nicole Bell, and “Smooth”; other members of Moonwake are, Will Broder, Eddie Cai, Ben Kosakowski, and Lucas Mammone;
Madeline Leong, singing, “I’m Breaking Down,” from the Broadway musical, “Falsettos”’
Maddie Johnson singing “I Will Follow You into the Dark,” by the recording artists, Death Cab for Cutie, accompanied on keyboards by her brother, senior Will Johnson;
Summer Stuart singing, “I’m Here,” from the Broadway musical, “The Color Purple”;
Elizabeth Chapleski, Joey Pascale and Maddie Leong singing, “Learn to Do It,” from the Broadway musical, “Anastasia”;
Giovanna DiSanto singing, “Out Here on My Own,” from “Fame,” and
Justin Horowitz singing, “On the Street Where You Live,” originally from the Broadway musical, “My Fair Lady.”
Sound and lighting at the Winter Cabaret was provided by Nick Dinizio, Chris Valent and Rick Clark. Stage Managers were Mark Caamano and Emily Snead. Script and Cue Business manager is WHRHS Business teacher Dianne Krutz, and the Script and Cue Advisor is WHRHS Drama Teacher Doug Eaton.
WHRHS approaches all events such as the Winter Cabaret, as opportunities to encourage heavy student involvement in organizing and leading the event. Virtually every school event, including the Winter Cabaret, is seen as multi-discipline living learning experiences that include ancillary tasks such as catering, graphic design, social media usage, supportive financial and business tasks, understanding learning in context, and more.
This supports one of the stated goals of the 2015-2020 Strategic Goals: The WHRHS District will provide the resources, technology, and organizational change to achieve, among other goals: “To integrate creative, innovative, and interdisciplinary learning throughout the district to empower and inspire students to succeed in a changing global community.”
(above) Junior Becca Baitel of Watchung read an original poem at the Winter Cabaret.
(above, left to right) “He had It Coming.” Bearing wronged tough-guy scowls, are, Jack Melillo, Will Johnson, Ben Allgor, Sam Siott, Will Broder and Lucas Mammone.
(above, left to right) “Guys and Chairs.” Will Johnson, Ben Allgor, Lucas Mammone, San Sinnott, Will Broder, and Jack Melillo made their entrances using chairs as dance props at the Winter Cabaret.
(above, left to right) Student organizers Emma Leary and Francesca Infante-Meehan, entertained the audience with some between-act humor at the Winter Cabaret.
