Hello, Dolly!, Highland Park High School’s laugh-out-loud fall musical, brought smiles to audiences and lasting joy to its cast and crew.
“After the show, there’s just this incredible feeling of, ‘I’m so happy that I spent every single minute doing this,’ because it’s just the best feeling in the world,” said Margaret Bickel, who played fun-loving Minnie Fay in the production from Oct. 15 to 18.
Highland Park drama students spent months making their performances seem effortless.
Hello, Dolly! even included one 9-minute, fast-paced dance that director Brittany Murphy both predicted would “be something that takes the house down” and said was the longest that she had ever seen in a musical.
Murphy said that she’ll remember the passion students poured into their work when she reflects on their performance.
“I just love them so much, and I think that they love what we do so much. It’s a really symbiotic relationship,” she remarked. “It’s very cool to see people care as much as you care.”
In addition to their assigned roles, the approximately 70 members of the cast and crew pitched in as needed, whether that meant painting cardboard bricks or perfecting hair and make-up.
“It helps so much when you are like a family,” said Brooks Buis, who played zany young man Barnaby Tucker. “It helps it run like a machine, but it’s so fun at the same time.”
This was the 33rd production for senior Sage Rockow, who played the title role of matchmaker Dolly Gallagher Levi. But the show was Rockow’s first as the sole lead — or, as her dad would say, “the quarterback of the musical.”
She said that being central to the performance helped build her confidence and solidified her decision to study musical theater.
“It just shows my hard work has finally paid off after all these years,” she said, “and that I deserve to be here.”
Director Murphy said she hoped students understood that the relationships they built would outlast the roles they had briefly played. After months of effort and countless hours of rehearsal, the show itself was “like a flash in a pan.”
“It’s there and then it’s gone. And that’s really beautiful, but it’s also the bittersweet part of theater,” Murphy said. “Even if you did the show again, it would never be exactly the same.”
Author
