After much anticipation and excitement, the long-awaited MSHS musical production Superman finally made its first appearance on Friday November 30 inside the Centre for the Arts Theatre.
As the start of the musical, audiences were first introduced to Superman’s quirky and comical landladies: Rita, Marg and Lil, played by Grade 10 student Catherine Spicer along with grade 8 students Anh Phuong Nguyen and Anna Spicer. They sang the first song of the night called “Land Ladies Blues” and danced around with brooms in their hand, kicking off the night with a Bluesy swing that brought a smile to everyone’s faces.
It was then revealed that the almighty Superman himself, played by Grade 9 student James Hoang, was in disguise as Ken Clarke, who received an interview at the UNIS Flame, where he met and fell in love with Flame reporter Linda Street, played by Grade 8 student Kimberley Knaggs. This scene was followed by one of the most notable performances of the night by Toby Norton from 7th Grade with the role of Bobby, a member of the Flame who was incidentally also secretly in love with Linda. He sang “I’m Just a Loser”, a song which expresses his sorrow for not being worthy of her. Although this was a very challenging track to sing with countless high notes to reach, Toby delivered an outstanding performance and surprised everyone with his charismatic stage presence and wonderful voice.
In the meantime, a group of infamous gangsters played by Grade 11 students Nina Palosaari, Jackson Woods, Jamie Trees, Josiah Bloemberg and Grade 8 student Susie Park, under the leadership of the evil villainess Olga played by Chi Mai in 11th grade, were roaming the UNIS grounds, plotting a scheme to destroy our hero! The scene ended with these baddies conducting their plan by kidnapping Linda, Superman’s love interest.
After a brief intermission, the second Act of the production opened up with nothing less than a bang as Olga preforms her evil baddy anthem “Bad Girl”. If the song’s intriguing melody was not enough to blow the audience away, Chi’s unique voice and wonderful vocal control surely did the job! Her portrayal of the villainess was also particularly impressive; extremely humorous and full of confidence. But as always, good always finds a way to defeat the bad: just as Olga disabled Superman’s powers with the Kryptonite and left him below a hanging ton of metal, Bobby came to the rescue and restored the hero’s superpower. The landladies also arrived at the scene in order to help defeat Olga and her gangster followers. Superman and Linda proclaimed their love to one another, and the entire cast came together for a final song, “Clap Your Hands for Superman”.
Tickets were sold out rapidly for both the opening night and the two following shows on December 1st. $2200 profit made all went to support the UNIS Community Service activity Thuy An Village. The spectacular performance owes its great success to the humorous storyline, catchy songs and the dynamic, talented cast of students from grades 6 to 12.
This fantastic musical production is the result of the hard work and commitment of all cast, crew and band members, all of whom have dedicated many months to practice and prepare for the special event. We are all extremely fortunate to have the opportunity of experiencing such a wonderful production and cannot wait to see our school’s second musical production of the year, Hercules!