Sit down, sit down, sit down, and watch the musical
LZHS puts on Guys and Dolls for the spring musical
Photo by and used with permission of LZHS Theatre
Guys and Dolls will be performed April 28-30 at 7pm and May 1 at 2pm. There will be no COVID restrictions.
Catering to all ‘guys and dolls,’ LZHS is putting on the spring musical this weekend in the PAC.
“Guys and Dolls is a classic Broadway musical. It’s set in the 50s in New York. It’s about gamblers and showgirls, and it’s a lot of characters that are really living on the edge. And it’s a love story [involving two couples, Sky and Sarah, and Nathan and Adelaide],” Katie McCormick, junior cast member, said.
While love stories are commonly marked as cliche, Guys and Dolls might not be what most expect. There are different couples with different stories, so the story-line is complex but has a fun nature to it overall, according to Chloe Ossmann, senior student director.
“[There are] a lot of twists and turns when it comes to the couples in the show because when you think everything’s gonna be okay, something happens and then it seems like everything’s gonna fall apart. So it’s a lot of push and pull between the couples,” Ossmann said.
Guys and Dolls will feature a variety of songs that Ossmann says “have a lot of energy, which [will] make the house very energetic.” The music will be live, played by the pit orchestra.
The cast and pit orchestra aren’t the only ones involved. Behind the scenes, stage crew, which is divided into multiple sectors covering props, sets, costumes, lighting, and sound, have been working to bring the stage to life, according to Natalia Hosfield, freshman crew member.
“[The props and sets] are gonna be a mix of like actual scenic work [that the actors can use] and projections,” Hosfield said. “There’s gonna be a newsstand, signs, sewers, and a few types of bars. We have some interesting props like breakaway glass bottles that get smashed, a prop gun, and a lot of other things.”
But what the audience sees on stage doesn’t happen overnight. The members of the musical have been working for nearly three months, according to Ossmann. Putting the musical together has involved music, dance, and acting rehearsals after school everyday of the week for several hours. As opening night approaches, they enter tech week, putting in additional time during rehearsals to get ready.
“Some days have been better than others. Nearing [opening night], when we’re adding in everything like the orchestra and costumes, it starts to become a lot more difficult because there’s things we hadn’t accounted for like ‘how long is this going to actually take for this person to change their costume?’ or, ‘how long does the set piece have to take to get on and off?’ So it’s a lot of minor things that [show] up. It’s a lot, but it’s a good kind of a lot,” Ossmann said.
While working on the musical hasn’t been easy, Hosfield says that they have made good memories in the process.
“[One of] my favorite memories was coming [to school] over spring break and just being with a very tiny group of people,” Hosfield said. “You’re just having fun. Like we played music when we were building so a lot of us will sometimes just break out into really funny dances or start singing.”
With members of the musical working hard and opening night just around the corner, McCormick hopes that people will come and enjoy themselves.
“In the best way to describe it, it’s just a Broadway classic. It’s a really fun story [and] I don’t think it’s gonna bore you at any point. There’s always something going on,” McCormick said. “And the characters are really lovable. They each have their own little story that’s going on so I think it’ll be a lot of fun for the audience, no matter who they are.”
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As a senior, this is Grace’s third year on the Bear Facts staff, acting as Spotlight Editor and secretary. In her free time, she enjoys running (sometimes),...