On Friday, March 20 and Saturday, March 21, the Youth Performing Arts School (YPAS) put on “The Variety Show.” Vocal and musical theater majors from all grades worked together to perform a range of different songs, showcasing their skills in singing, dancing and acting. 112 students performed in the show and 46 of them sang a solo.
Jacob Cook (Vocal Music) led the show, and it featured music by pianist Benjamin Carter to accompany the students’ singing.
Songs from musicals such as “The Greatest Showman,” “Into the Woods,” “Spring Awakening,” “Newsies” and “Les Misérables,” were featured, along with songs such as “Cups (When I’m Gone),” “Hallelujah” and “In My Life.” This created an exciting lineup and gave students the opportunity to perform pieces outside of their typical repertoire.
“It’s the only time that I get to sing in choir where it’s not classical music, so I try and take full advantage of that and do as much as I can,” Tony Aloise (12, YPAS) said.
Singing modern music pieces allowed students to focus not only on vocal technique, but stage presence and choreography.
“It’s been cool seeing the contrast between classical pieces and modern pieces and being able to have more fun freedom doing choreography on stage. It’s been a new take of choir that’s different from anything we’ve done the whole year,” John Johnson (9, YPAS) said.
The show opened with all 112 performers singing “The Greatest Show” from “The Greatest Showman.” During the song, students walked down through the aisles and sang in front of the stage, kicking off the production with an energetic number.
For big numbers, such as this, students rehearsed separately. Then, in the week leading up to the show, they were brought all together to stage the numbers.
“The week of the performance is the first time everybody’s together, so putting it together kind of feels challenging at times,” Johnson said.
The program was organized in a way that highlighted different groups within YPAS. The predominantly male Tenor-Bass Choir sang a medley of songs from the musical “Newsies” and included an ensemble of tap dancers.
The predominantly female Soprano-Alto Choir performed “Mama Who Bore Me,” from the musical “Spring Awakening” and “Cups(When I’m Gone).” During “Cups,” students sang acapella and performed the well-known cup choreography while singing.
The Vocal Class of 2026 sang “In My Life,” by The Beatles, and the Freshmen Vocal Development class sang “Opening Up,” from the musical “Waitress.”
“I liked ‘Opening Up’ and it was just fun because it was all of my freshman class and it was our first Variety Show, so working on that and showing the upperclassmen was kind of cool,” Johnson said.
Students were also challenged with the task of dancing. With most of the performers having been vocal majors, only a handful of the musical theatre majors had prior dance experience.
“Balancing it between keeping up the breath control and making sure the music sounds good, along with memorizing the dance moves, it’s definitely a challenge,” Aloise said.
Combining dance and vocal talent was integral to the success of the show and made everything come together.
“They both [singing and dancing] really helped each other because a lot of the choreography went along with the lyrics. And so once we learned our music, it helped me focus on the dancing more and it just made the vocal energy better,” Johnson said.
Challenges like these allowed students to learn and grow as performers.
“It [dancing] is something that we have to get over, and it’s really interesting to see how much we grow,” Aloise said. “It doesn’t sound anything like how we started.”
The show concluded with a medley of songs from the musical “Les Misérables,” performed by the full company, earning a standing ovation from the audience.
The Variety Show has been a memorable experience for the performers, offering a wonderful opportunity for the YPAS vocal community to unite and showcase their talents to a broader audience.
“I like being able to stay for rehearsals where I can interact with all the people in the choirs that I don’t really have classes with,” Johnson said. “And, I like performing interesting and fun pieces, and just being able to see everybody’s reaction when we finally get to present it.”
