The lights go up. Students wearing 1920s dress lurk in the shadows, waiting for their cue. The orchestra plays softly in the background. After five weeks of hard work and practice, the Upper School spring musical “Chicago” begins.

This year’s musical “Chicago” is adapted from a play of the same name written in 1926 by journalist Maurine Dallas Watkins. The plot revolves around actual crimes she covered. The musical was written in 1974. Four performances of “Chicago” took place on March 13 at 5 p.m., March 14 and 15, at 7 p.m., and March 16 at 1 p.m, all in the Diane and David B. Heller Auditorium.

Set in Chicago during the Roaring Twenties, “Chicago” follows the stories of Velma Kelly, a vaudeville actress turned criminal, and Roxie Hart, an aspiring jazz singer who has killed her illicit lover. The play follows their attempts to escape jail time and live out their dreams as jazz singers and vaudeville actresses.

The decision for “Chicago” to be the spring musical was made by Upper School television and theatre arts department head Leslie Holland–Pryor, the director of the production. Holland–Pryor wanted to perform “Chicago” ever since she started at Parker nearly twenty years ago. But up until now, it the music and script were unavailable for use due to copyright restrictions.

According to Holland–Pryor, “Chicago” has complex choreography, which she believed would be too difficult for students until this year, when Flo Walker-Harris was hired as the new dance teacher. “I didn’t think I had the talent in the student body, and Ms. Walker-Harris changed all that,” Holland Pryor said. “This was the best experience I’ve had to date.”

Because “Chicago” deals with mature topics, such as infidelity, crime, and murder it was recommended to the Parker community that only students in eighth grade and up attend. This decision and message was relayed by Holland–Pryor for a number of reasons. “I am always mindful of how overall sexualized young women are,” Holland-Pryor said. “I want to delay that exposure as long as I can.”

This year’s musical also featured sophomores in two of the three lead roles. Sophomore Bella Charfoos played the role of Roxie Hart, and sophomore Spencer O’Brien had the part of Billy Flynn, a slick and famous lawyer who agrees to help Roxie Hart out of her trouble.

Holland Pryor noted the especially talented freshman and sophomores in this year’s musical, which she attributes in part to Senior Kindergarten teacher and director of the middle school musical Dana O’Brien, who introduces students to musical theatre at a younger age.

Cast members of musical and students on the tech crew began preparing for the musical in early February. Sophomore Grayson Z. Kamin Schementi played two ensemble member roles as well as Juror Number 1. Schementi enjoyed the process of the show, despite it being a large commitment.

“It was a bit of a grind,” Schementi said. “We had five weeks to get the entire show into shape, and it was a bit of a more difficult show…We did from three to six for the first two weeks, and then we started going three to seven, and then three to eight, and then three to nine. It was a lot of hours.” As the performance date approaches, rehearsal times extend.

This significant time requirement is not lost on Holland Pryor. “I have the awareness of what they’re managing,” she said. “I never force them to compromise their academic studies.” If students in the cast of the musical have a high workload, Holland–Pryor allows them to miss a rehearsal day.

Freshman Julie Test is a member of the Stagecraft class, which serves as the technical crew behind the musical. Test joined the stagecraft class in part because she had a good experience building the set for the middle school musical. “I think it’s fun to get involved in that,” Test said. “If you don’t want to be on stage, you can still be a part of working on that stuff, and being with people because you get close with them.”

In addition to the commitment required from the cast and tech crew, the orchestra members playing the music for “Chicago” invested a significant amount of time. Senior Hans Burlin was one of two student musicians invited to play in the orchestra because of their high skill level and extracurricular involvement with music. “I was talking to Ms. Hickey, the brass teacher, about how I can get more involved playing trombone so she offered to have me play in the pit as a trombone Part Two.” Burlin said. “It was a win–win because I got to play in the pit, which was really fun and really difficult, and also, she didn’t have to hire anyone.”

Because of a few missed rehearsal days due to the polar vortex, and the outside choreographer’s schedule, the cast of the musical was excused from a few Gender Week workshops. Holland Pryor says it was a productive time for them to practice, and was well worth it, but she did not force students to stay. Some students decided they wanted to miss the rehearsal and go to a workshop.
Chicago’s four performances brought many people from the Parker community, and outside of it, into the auditorium for two hours to see the product of hard work and practice.

Junior Yaffe Green went to see the musical’s Thursday performance. “I thought the musical had a lot of talented people both the leads were very good singers, and so was the ensemble, Green said.

While Holland Pryor will be moving from the Upper School to the Lower School and taking a new stage as a drama teacher for the coming school year, many see a bright future for the high school musicals at Parker. “This year was one of the coolest and one of the most unique experiences that I’ve had in musical theatre,” Schementi said. “I think this trend is going to continue, and you are going to see a lot of really good and well-rehearsed musicals.”