by Natalie Delcorps

The musical Hello, Dolly took center stage at the Batavia Fine Arts Centre last week with parents, grandparents, students, and people all over town coming to support the cast members.  Students from Batavia High School were involved in the cast, pit orchestra, stage crew, and production team. Students have been working on the musical since September and junior Emily Watts has enjoyed seeing how the show has evolved.

“My favorite memory was moving into the Black Box and watching how the cast, crew, and pit come together to form an amazing performance,” said Watts. “It’s so great to see how much our hard work pays off, and in the end we have a wonderful show!”

According to Mr. Cattero, “Hello, Dolly! is a comedy where Dolly Levi uses her tricks to get a man to fall in love with her and gets involved in other people’s love lives.” For the Batavia High School production, senior Molly Frederick is Dolly Levi. Dolly ends up wanting to get Horace Vandergelder, who is played by Cam Tucker, to be her new husband.  For this musical, I think the people who received the roles fit the character incredibly well.

“I thought Hello, Dolly was amazing, just like every other musical this school has put on,” said senior Danielle Butler, who has seen multiple productions from the theatre department at Batavia High School.

One thing I was impressed with in Hello, Dolly was the vocals. I absolutely loved the song, Ribbons Down my Back, with the character Irene Molloy played by Sarah Heylmun singing lead vocals. She had a solo song and it was beautiful. I was also astonished by all of the other talented singers. The song Hello, Dolly, which was the main tune, was upbeat and a perfect musical song to get everyone in a positive mood.

Instead of the pit orchestra being in the pit for the musical, the pit was moved to the black box. Personally, that was one thing I was disappointed about because I enjoy seeing Mr. McCain and the orchestra in action. Senior Anna Lukens had generally the same opinion about the orchestra.

“Something, I think, would help improve the performance would be having the orchestra/band in the pit because with Shrek: The Musical the music seemed more real and present,” Lukens said.

Hours of preparation is required in order for everything to fall into place. It takes weeks to get the lines, dance moves and transitions to go just right. Even though musicals take a lot of hard work, according to senior Amanda Rice, the pit orchestra still knows how to have fun.

“We always made each other laugh (even silently while the show was going on!). The musical as a whole takes so much time and effort,” said Amanda. “The practices alone are 5-8 hours a night during tech week and everyone works really hard. So it was so nice to laugh, have fun, and work hard at the same time. Since it’s my last year, I’m going to miss everyone I played with this year. It’s really sad thinking about how I can’t play in a production with my fellow musicians after this, but I hope to see them or even play with them after high school!”

Cast

Mrs. Dolly Gallagher Levi – Molly Frederick

Ernestina – Anna Masini

Ambrose Kemper – Aidan Descourouez

Horace Vandergelder – Cam Tucker

Ermengarde – Maren Flessen

Cornelius Hackl – Kyle Berry

Barnaby Tucker – Johnny Hohman

Minnie Fay – Cassady Chadwell

Irene Molloy – Sarah Heylmun

Mrs. Rose – Hailey Plata

Rudolph Reisenweber – Mikkel Knutson

Stanley – Ian Samsami

First Cook – Bobby Martinez

Second Cook – Ryan Taylor

Judge – Matt Skirmont

Policeman – Bram Borger-Johnson

Court Clerk – Meghan Rocha

Stablehand – Claire Morris

X-T – Himself