“Singing in the Rain Jr.” is a musical adaptation of a classic movie “Singing in the Rain” where it tells a story about Don Lockwood, the male lead in a silent film led by Joshua Keim, a senior at Herbert Hoover High School.
“Don Lockwood is a very strong but also a very sensitive character. He is very romantic and sentimental and doesn’t quite care for surface-level looks,” Keim said.
Ava Selway, Carl Martinito, and Evelyn Ortiz lead three main leads in the musical, and Anna Marie Schmidt, the drama teacher at Hoover, is the director and choreographer for this musical.
Selway is a senior and is playing as “Lina Lamont,” a character that believes everything is amazing. She reads about herself in the gossip magazines, and she’s under the impression that she and Don Lockwood are madly in love.
“My character in a sentence is that everyone’s expectations of her defines the character but she is in fact human,” Selway said.
This musical is a shortened version of the story about Don Lockwood alongside his friend Cosmo brown and love interest Kathy Selden, and it tells us about their challenges and comedic mishaps while trying to adapt to the new era of sound in movies.
“The plot of this musical is all about the time in the 1920s when film went from just silent film to talkies and there are some dramas surrounding some Hollywood movie stars, comedy, dancing, singing, and maybe rain,” Schmidt explained when asked about the plot of the musical.
Lyudmirsky, a freshman, has the role of a chorus girl with three other chorus girls during the play.
“My character loves to dance and have fun,” Lyudmirsky said. “The rehearsal process has been going well. We have been learning a lot of dance and singing as well. A lot of students are working hard and hopefully, we will be finished in time.”
A few of the cast members were asked about the rehearsal process, and how it compares to the production process of a drama.
Students and people working on the production are well aware Hoover hasn’t put on a play in a while, and producing a musical was going to be a new experience.
“I didn’t have high expectations coming into this but I think all things considered we are doing an excellent job with our very limited schedule and I applaud the cast for being able to pull through without giving much instruction or guidance,” Selway said.
“The rehearsal process was a bit more laid back; pull yourself up with your boot-straps. They gave you music lessons and dance recitals but the rest was up to you,” Keim said.
Added Schmidt: “I think this musical will create a positive buzz about the theater apartment and show that we can do a whole ray of different types of shows, anything from really serious to something really big and flashy. I think people will be more interested after they watch the musical.”
