This year’s Upper St Clair High School musical has finally been announced. The musical is Disney’s Mary Poppins! This musical contains music by the Sherman brothers as well as George Stiles and Anthony Drewe. This musical is based on a similarly titled children’s book by P.L. Travers and a book by Julian Fellowes. The students are excited to perform another Disney musical that will hopefully do as well as last year’s Newsies. With Dr. Torquato as the director, again, the musical cast and crew are looking forward to the production.
Auditions for the musical were held the week of November 17th through the 26th with over 100 students. Many students received lead roles with 28 up for grabs. The two main roles were given to Ben Seewald and Kriti Gupta as Bert and Mary Poppins respectively.
Katie Casali, a Junior who will be playing the park keeper said “I think that the casting was done very well. I’m super excited to get started, this is one of the best shows that I think we are ever going to put on.” She believes that this is going to be an amazing experience because of the work that they are all willing to put into it.
Finn Stafford, a Sophomore who will be in the ensemble said: “I don’t think there is really any small role in this musical, it is very dance-heavy and even us ensemble members will have our work cut out for us. I mean, based on the efficiency of the audition process, this is going to go very smoothly.” So far the process seems to be a lot of fun for everyone involved.
Sohini Ghosh, a Junior who will be playing Miss Lark, when asked about how she feels about the musical said: “I really think that it is going to be fun, coming off of Newsies, there is really no option other than to be great. Occasionally, people skip seeing the Upper St Clair musicals and go straight to Lebo or South Park, but now they will all come to see us, so we need to make it amazing.” Musical students from other schools go around the area to watch each others’ shows and with the success of Newsies the USC musical has become a must see.
Students are all very excited to participate in the musical this year. Many great opportunities are being presented through this show. Students have said that the musicals create family and friends that you will keep for all of the years to come.