Written by: Jackson Keyes / Staff writer and Peyton Miller / Staff writer
It’s that time of year again for NPHS, with the school musical kicking off the fall season for the school. This year, the school picked a musical that will excite many hardcore Disney fans, or just casual fans of the arts. This year NPHS is proudly performing the beloved classic tale of “Cinderella” which is running Oct. 2-4 in the NPHS auditorium. Oct 2 at 7 pm, and Oct 3-4 at 3 pm.
Musical director Michael Dean is excited about this year’s musical and what they get to show the community.
“I think the most exciting thing is just to showcase our students’ talent, we got kids who are doing great things in our community or student body who may not see and giving them an opportunity to showcase a talent that many people may not have seen,” Dean said.
Senior Lucas Holmes who plays the Prince is also excited to be a part of this year’s school musical.
“I’m really excited to just hang out with my friends and just be able to sing and express my passions on stage,” Holmes said.
Co-lead senior Mya Ebert, who plays the titular Cinderella, said this version will be different from the other versions people have seen.
“In this version, she’s very spunky, more than elegant. In the original Disney movie, she was very elegant, but in this version she makes more jokes, she kind of has more fun, one of the step-sisters is very kind, so that’s different from the original story,” Ebert said.
Dean also says that while this version is different, it’s still the same Cinderella story at its core.
“There are actually three different musical versions of this, they’re all pretty similar because they all go back to the originally fairy tale version, but this one is the modernized version of the original Rogers and Hammerstein, in the 2000s they kinda revamped it, there’s a couple of new musical numbers versus the original, but the heart and soul are still the same,” Dean said.
Dean decided this year to pick a traditional and classic play for the musical.
“I wanted to find something that would be easy for the community to get excited about. Last year’s show was a really fun show, but it was an unknown show. Attendance was what it was, we broke even from a profitability stand point, but this is one where people are not going to feel like they’re taking a risk when walking through the door, like am I going to like this or not?’”
Both Holmes and Ebert said that there are some difficulties in stepping into their iconic roles for the musical.
“I’m not gonna lie it has, this is my first musical, I’ve never been much of an actor, so this is new for me,” said Holmes. “
“Kind of, it’s very hard to get into the princess mindset, especially for me. I have to talk in a higher voice and be more smiley. It’s more of a challenge,” said Ebert.
The cast and crew encourage anyone who wants to see the musical to come out and give thanks to everyone who helped them.
“I’m very thankful for all the work the assistant director Kylee Busslmen from Brandywine Elementary, who’s a choir teacher there. We’re very thankful for her, she’s put a lot of time into this and the cast really likes her a lot,” said Ebert.
