After a yearlong delay due to Covid, Greenwich High School’s theater department is eagerly anticipating their production of Bye Bye Birdie – outdoors!
Performers will enter and exit the “stage” for their scenes via multiple entrances to the black box theater and the theater wing. Musicians will be set up under an adjacent tent. The audience will bring their own lawn chairs to place inside the designated viewing area.
Showtimes are May 21 and 22 at 7:30pm and May 22 at 3:00pm Tickets are $10.00. Click here to order.
“A lot of other schools were fully remote this whole year, and they didn’t get to do any kind of theater. I feel so grateful and so lucky to have gotten to do multiple shows this year. And getting to the musical is so cool – with lights, mics, costumes and sets.”
Brooke Hadden, GHS junior who plays the part of “Kim” in Bye Bye Birdie
Charlie Adorney, who plays the part of Albert Peterson, a songwriter who manages the career of Conrad Birdie, and Joelle Singer Jensen, who plays his long suffering girlfriend, Rosie Alvarez, explained that Bye Bye Birdie was cast last year, but the entire effort was canceled due to the pandemic.
They recalled remaining hopeful for a way to perform in 2020, but it was not to be. What a difference a year makes.
“It’s pretty surreal,”said Charlie, who, a junior who just returned to school 5 days a week a few weeks ago. “In a time that is so destructive, it’s nice to get back to what we love to do.”
“I got my second shot and now I feel like I’m ready to go back to normal,” he added.
“It’s exhilarating,” Joelle said. “It’s so much fun to do a musical with all the people we were supposed to last year. It feels like coming home again – finally, to return to theater.”
Brooke Hadden, who plays the part of Kim, the fan from Sweet Apple Ohio chosen at random to get Birdie’s last kiss before he heads to war, said she had rehearsed her lines throughout the pandemic “just in case.”
“It was nice to get to do this. We get to see all our friends again,” Brooke said. “Even though it’s not what it would have been, it’s still really fun.”
Last fall the theater department performed Shapespeare’s Twelfth Night in the grass under trees that were lit up with different colors and the audience was arranged across the parking lot. Recently Magic Circle, which are student written, acted and directed short plays, was also set outdoors.
“It’s been really nice to do school in person the past few weeks,” Brooke said. “The whole year it was half and half in person and online. Now the juniors and seniors are back fully. It’s really nice.”
“I think people are really happy to get to be back outside and be close to other people again,” she added. “People are really excited.”
“A lot of other schools were fully remote this whole year, and they didn’t get to do any kind of theater,” she added. “I feel so grateful and so lucky to have gotten to do multiple shows this year. And getting to the musical is so cool with lights, mics, costumes and sets.”
The story of Bye Bye Birdie was inspired by the phenomenon of Elvis Presley being drafted into the US Army in 1957.
When fans of 50s music icon Conrad Birdie hear that he has been drafted into the Army, they are inconsolable. His managers, Albert Peterson and Rosie Alvarez, are equally stymied as Conrad is Almaelou’s only client. But Rosie has an idea: select a lucky member of the Conrad Birdie Fan Club to receive “One Last Kiss” from none other than Conrad.
Kim McAfee of Sweet Apple, OH is the fortunate female, but there is one problem: she and boyfriend Hugo have just gotten “pinned.”
The quiet little town of Sweet Apple is turned upside down by the star’s visit and things may never be the same! Full of snappy rock-and-roll tunes and comic banter, “Bye Bye Birdie” is a family fun crowd-pleaser.
Showtimes are May 21 and 22 at 7:30pm and May 22 at 3:00pm Tickets are $10.00. Click here to order.
Director: Patty Cirigliano
Musical director: Matthew Tracey
Technical director: Scott Borowka
Choreographer: Davyd Suber Jr.
Cast List
Rosie: Joelle Singer Jensen. Understudy: Alexis Killeen
Kim: Brooke Hadden. Understudy: Colleen Salvate
Ursula: Sophie Chaves
Mrs. Peterson: Maggie Pollistina. Understudy: Katie Jensen (Fri)
Mrs. MacAffee: Maggie Ullrich. Understudy: Kate Marchetti
Albert: Charlie Adorney. Understudy: Jack Glass
Conrad Birdie: Ralph Bologna. Understudy: Christopher Messis
Mr. MacAfee: Josh Winston
Randolph: Erin Salvate. Understudy: Michelle Ferrone
Hugo: Jack Wallis
Deborah Sue: Gabriella Vilas Boas
Nancy: Julia Bayoumi
Margie: Alexis Killeen
Alice: Michelle Ferrone
Helen: Colleen Salvate
Penelope: Kate Marchetti
Suzie: Emma Goddard
Harvey Johnson/Quartet/Policeman: Ben Walker
Mary (Policeman line 2/Kids Ensemble): Abigail White
Kelly (sign girl/Kids Ensemble): Montgomery Lamb
Featured Dancers/Kids Ensemble
Lee (featured dancer, one girl, 4th voice): Lucie Bai
Ethel (Girls Voice, man’s voice 2): Alex Shaw
Cindy (Sad Girl): Ava Nicoletti
Kids and Adults
Ed Sullivan/Fred/Quartet: Christopher Messis
Maude/Karl/Man’s Voice Line 2/Quartet: Jack Glass
Adults
Mrs. Merkle: Jane Freyer
GlorisRasputin: Katie Jensen. Kate Marchetti (Fri)
Mayor/Quartet: Victor Stroie
Mayor’s Wife (another voice): Sophia Priatka
Mrs. Johnson/Reporter3: Natasha Quirk
Reporter 1/adult ensemble/trainman: Kade Slusarz
Reporter 2/adult ensemble/Traveller: Alyssa Inness
Mr. Johnson: Grace Kaleta
Dance Captains
Alexis Killeen, Ava Nicoletti
Check out photos from past spring musicals:
Beauty and the Beast – 2019.
Hairspray – 2018.
Annie – 2017.
Anything Goes – 2016. This was the first performance in the new performing arts center.
