The Musical Theatre Society (MTS) opened its spring Broadway Cabaret on Wednesday evening in Swope Music Hall.
Songs were included from “Grease,” “Heathers” and more.
The event originally began as a fundraiser in order to reach the club’s main goal of performing a full musical, and has been continuing for five years with two cabarets per semester.
President of MTS Karleigh Santry said it’s really exciting that MTS has gotten to this point, and that the organization is working on putting on a musical for next year.
When asked how the theme of the show was chosen, Santry explained that several times, the organization or executive board members think of broad ideas with thorough discussion and collaboration between everyone.
The show’s Assisant director Samantha Christou said there isn’t always an exact theme to every cabaret.
“It’s just different varieties of songs from different musicals, and I think a lot of people like that because they aren’t expecting the same thing,” she said.
Santry explained that the process for putting on the cabaret shows are very tedious with a long audition process. Auditions began back in January, with rehearsals starting right after.
MTS member, Mallory Milberger, xssaid members mostly pick which songs they want to audition with based on how that song fits with their style of voice.
The directors and assistant directors of the show sit in on the two-day auditions, the first being scheduled and the second being open on a first come-first serve basis.
“After the second audition day, we sit down and decide who’s going where and come up with the final cast list,” Santry said.
Santry explained that once the cast is picked, there are many little things that go into preparing the show, such as securing a space for the show, to purchasing small props, to building bigger props.
“Behind the scenes is very time consuming for the directors, the assistants and the entire creative team,” Santry said.
“Some of the show had dancing with blocking involved and that usually goes with the bigger group numbers” Milberger said. “There (were) also female numbers, male numbers, big group numbers, and just a lot of variety.”
Christou stated that the directors tried to mix in older shows with newer shows while also adding many newer songs that people might not know and several older songs that people will be familiar with.
Santry said that this year in particular, there are many more freshmen than the society usually has participating in the show.
“They (were) very enthusiastic and excited about being involved which is so exciting for us to see, because those are the ones who will be running the club in the future,” Santry said.
Milberger said she hopes after people see the show that they understand how important musical theater is and it is a way to express yourself.
