0
0
The musical put on by the drama department at NS is a popular event among students and parents, and this year there are two musicals to look forward to, starting with “Goosebumps, Phantom of the Auditorium.”
“I grew up reading Goosebumps and as I was learning more about this show I really wanted to do it,” drama teacher Alex Barlow said. “Another reason I wanted to do it is because we would be the Utah Premier, meaning we are the first ones in Utah to do this musical, since it is a newer production.”
A common misconception among people is that the musical is an adaptation of the TV series. The musical itself is based off of the book written by R. L. Stine, which was published in 1994. The story of the musical takes place in modern times and the musical itself was made recently, in 2021.
“It essentially is just a play within a play”, said Barlow “because it is about a few middle school age kids putting on a play and how there is a legend that says that it is haunted.”
The cast is small which has proven difficult to be able to find places for all the cast members. Another difficulty is that the cast normally has more time to be able to prepare for the Fall show, going well into November. The show itself takes place in a small amount of time and has unique performance style, such as incorporating shadows and jump-scares.
Drama Sterling Scholar Haven Caldwell explains the story behind the musical; Brooke and Zeke are two middle schoolers excited to be in the production “The Phantom”, and are not scared by the legend saying that the play is cursed, until strange and spooky messages appear and a masked menace starts disrupting the musical rehearsals, the two start to wonder. What if there really is a ghost haunting their school, trying to stop the show?
Preparations as far as the set go involve a stage on the stage where the musical itself takes place. Here, the characters inside the musical practice their various roles and then strange things start to happen, supposedly because of the curse that the legend of the musical expounds. The set also involves special screens used to create shadows for a unique effect for the performance.
“It is definitely very different from what we have done in the past,” Drama Club President Connor Power said. “We’ve done lots of Disney shows and it is a different kind of musical where everyone can relate to it because it’s about a middle school experience but in a fun and spooky way.”
In addition to this spin on a popular series, the second musical that the drama department at NS will be performing is “Guys and Dolls”. This musical takes place when newsboy hats were in style and drop-waist dresses were commonly worn along with fur coats and heels.
“Guys and Dolls takes place in the 1920’s-1930’s era or the roaring twenties,” said Barlow, “It is a romantic comedy centered around two couples, one of the couples are complete opposites, one being a gambler and the other coming from a super religious background. The other couple has been engaged for fourteen years and the girl has been pushing the guy to finally get married.”
Goosebumps will be shown just in time for Halloween with Guys and Dolls being performed in the middle of February.
“Hopefully Goosebumps will be a fun Halloween activity for everyone,” said Barlow. “You’ll just have to come and see it for yourself!”
