High school to perform ‘Bye Bye Birdie’

Next week, Lansing High School’s Musical Theater Club will perform “Bye Bye Birdie,” its first full musical performance since the pandemic hit the county. After two long years, cast and crew alike are excited for the chance to go all out with one of the school’s biggest musicals yet.

“Bye Bye Birdie” tells the story of Conrad Birdie, an Elvis Presley-like rock star who is drafted into the U.S. Army, devastating his devout fans and struggling songwriter Albert Peterson. Peterson’s secretary, Rose “Rosie” Alvarez, comes up with a last-ditch publicity stunt to have Birdie record and perform a song before going overseas. What unfolds involves a wide cast of unique and fun characters, all played by Lansing High School students.

“Bye Bye Birdie” runs March 9 and 10 at 6:30 p.m. and March 11 and 12 at 7 p.m. in Lansing Middle School’s auditorium, located at 6 Ludlowville Rd. Tickets are $5 for the March 9 show and $10 for the shows from March 10 through 12. Tickets can be purchased in advance at ltapa.ticketleap.com from now through March 8. Starting March 9, all tickets must be purchased at the door. As of the time of this publication, masks are still required to be worn at all times.

The upcoming show is a welcome return to normalcy after two years filled with lots of uncertainty for the Theater Club. As Cindy Howell, producer and director of the show, explained, the pandemic cut the high school’s spring 2020 schedule short, forcing the club to cancel its final performance.

“When we couldn’t do our final performance, we lost a whole lot of money,” Howell said.

Fortunately, the Lansing Theater and Performing Arts Booster Club (LTAPA) helped financially support the Theater Club through the pandemic, Howell said, but it was still a saddening turn of events.

Last year, rather than a full musical, the Theater Club performed a musical showcase, where students performed several songs from different musicals. While the middle school was able to perform “Into the Woods” that year, it wasn’t until this year that musicals returned to the high school.

Music Director Katie Howell said that all of the students involved in this year’s show are ecstatic that musicals are back.

“The students really count on it, those who are involved,” she said. “Everybody likes to do something. … That’s one of the things you hope for high school students is that they can find a place for themselves and something they enjoy doing. And these students definitely last year missed [it], even those who were involved in the showcase, which was fantastic. It was a lot of fun. It’s not quite the same because you’re not putting a story together; it’s just a bunch of songs.”

The long hiatus was a big factor in determining what show to pick for the club’s return to form, Katie said. Show Choreographer Priscilla Hummel added that “Bye Bye Birdie” sets the perfect tone for coming out of the pandemic.

“‘Bye Bye Birdie’ is just such a bold and exciting and dancing-in-your-seat kind of a show,” she said. “It’s just exciting because this is such a high-energy show. So, it’s great for the kids that are in it because they’re really getting to push themselves and dive in and play on that scale of exaggeration that we often see in these classic era of musicals. And then, it’s great for the community because they’re getting to see the jubilant livelihood on stage and the celebration of music and dance and storytelling and get to partake in that with them.”

For the students, that high energy is a welcome change of pace. Walter Read, who is playing the titular Birdie, said he loves his role and is looking forward to putting on his best Elvis impression.

“My character, Conrad Birdie, is very much a stereotypical Elvis-type character — not that much depth, but still very fun and interesting to play because he’s just kind of there and everything revolves around him,” Read said. “It’s a very, very fun musical, excellent cast. I love my classmates, and it’s just an all-around great time and experience.”

Aubryn Neubert, who stars as Alvarez, also spoke highly of her experience with the entire cast and crew.

“We did ‘Little Mermaid’ in fifth grade, and ever since, I’ve been in them,” she said. “And it’s been so much fun to have a crew that you become so close with and a group of friends that you stay friends for all these years. You do the shows together and you hang out, and it’s really just a great community to be a part of.”

This year, the show has many new elements to look forward to. While Cindy has long been involved in the Theater Club, this is Katie’s first year as music director. On the student side, two sets of twins are involved in the show — sisters and cast members Andra and Zora Benson and their brothers, cast member Asher and crew member Zane. Andra, who’s cast as Mrs. Doris MacAfee, said she’s glad to be performing with her sister, cast as Mrs. Mae Peterson.

“I think a really special part of being able to do it with your twin is that you get to be closer and you get to hang out more,” Andra said. “And sometimes — and I do not like to share things, admittedly, because we share everything — but I think doing the musical has always been one thing that we really enjoy doing with each other.”

Another notable casting is Katie’s son, Max Howell, who stars as Mr. Harry MacAfee.

“My character is a very angry, old dad, very typical from the ’50s, and he’s pretty angry all the time,” he said. “It’s been really fun getting to be someone that I don’t normally act like. … I find it pretty fun and interesting to have my mom be the director, but I’ve gotten pretty used to it over the years.”

Katie, Cindy and Hummel all spoke highly of the connection the cast and crew form with each other over such a short period of time.

“What’s impressed me the most, besides the fact that more students have an opportunity to really shine and be showcased, is just the fact that there’s such a really beautiful sense of community among the cast,” Hummel said. “Everybody’s bonded and has created their own little theater family, and it’s really sweet to see that.”

And it’s not just the students; Cindy and Katie said that the musicals are a great way to bring the entire community together.

“It becomes a community,” Cindy said. “We’ll have 100 people back here, between the kids in the show, in the pit and the tech group and all the parents that help run all the different sections. … We have one parent who’s going to actually run the tech when the show’s going on. So yeah, it becomes a huge community-wide show by the end of it.”

Katie added that often, the shows attract people who aren’t directly connected to the school district, like parents whose students have graduated.

“I think it’s a really big part of it in a small town like Lansing that’s pretty tight knit in general,” she said.

Katie and Cindy said they hope this year’s show is just as much of a hit with the community as past years’. They encourage all to come out and see what so many have been working so hard to make a reality.

“I just want them to come and see it,” Cindy said. “That’s huge because, again, financially, we need their support, for one thing. But the other thing is the kids, they need to see the work these kids have put in. There’s a lot of work that they’ve done to learn all of this and to build the sets and to paint the sets. … The appreciation from the audience makes it all worthwhile.”

Email any questions to ltapa@lcsd.k12.ny.us.

Lansing at Large appears every Wednesday in Tompkins Weekly. Send story ideas to editorial@vizellamedia.com.

In brief:

Hidden Ingredients

The Lansing Community Library is presenting the program “Hidden Ingredients” on March 9 at 7 p.m. via Zoom. Join SNAP-Ed Nutrition Educator Sarah Curless and learn about the added sugar, fat and salt content of snack and fast foods that companies don’t want you to know about. Also, learn tips and tricks for making quick, easy and healthier versions of these foods at home.

Please register to receive the Zoom link by calling (607) 533-4939 or emailing info@lansinglibrary.org.

Curless is the SNAP-Ed nutrition educator at Cornell Cooperative Extension of Tompkins County and has an avid interest in food history, culture and justice. She is especially interested in exploring how people around the world cook food and how a varied and balanced diet impacts people as one of the many social determinants of health.

Night of Light

Night of Life is a communitywide event run by students in Lansing High School with the goal to raise money to offer children with cancer the opportunity to attend camp. The event runs from 5 p.m. to midnight March 4 at Lansing High School, 300 Ridge Rd.

At 3 p.m., there will be a pulled pork barbecue open to the community, and at 5 p.m., there will be sports competitions and festivities.

Admission into the school is $10, which includes all activities inside the school and a pink-out dance open only to Lansing students. This year, students Trevor Coates and Sophia Hull are running the event. They hope to raise enough money to send one or two kids to Camp Good Days and Special Times this summer!