St. Joe Goes Broadway

A bit of Broadway came to the theater at  on Saturday for the third night of "St. Joe Goes Broadway," where students performed numbers from several popular musicals.

St. Joe theater director Eugene Pierce and music director David Kowalczyk were the co-directors for the show, while senior Cass Muenks was in charge of the show's choreography. Muenks was assisted by Pierce and fellow students Haley Schneider and Monica Macheca. Pierce said that this particular show is a great venue to showcase different students' talents.

"When I first started full-time at St. Joe, I wanted to do something different in the spring to give students a chance to display their talents," Pierce said. "St. Joe Goes Broadway has worked well for this. It’s a chance to feature singers and dancers in ways that might not be possible in a traditional musical. It is also an opportunity for students to take a leadership role, help create much of the choreography and even suggest songs to be included in the production."

Assistant director and St. Joe student Emily Burns popped out of a trunk on stage to perform the show's opening number, "Born in a Trunk" from "A Star Is Born."

After the first medley of songs, St. Joe senior Emily Johnson greeted the crowd.

"We are happy to have you all here to share the evening," she said.

The night included performances of songs from hit Broadway musicals such as "Billy Elliot," "Shrek," "Spring Awakening," "Victor/Victoria" and "West Side Story." The crowd enjoyed all of the numbers, but they had a few clear favorites.

"Hair" from the musical of the same name seemed to have the best cast performance, with "Hand Jive" from "Grease" close behind. Johnson's rendition of "The Alto's Lament" from "A Night on Broadway" was probably the crowd's favorite solo performance, largely due to her comedic timing. "Meadowlark" from "The Baker's Wife" was also a crowd favorite, thanks in part to the beautiful ballet dancing by Macheca.

Before the last number, Johnson came back on stage for a few closing remarks, as this was the last show at St. Joe for her and the rest of the seniors.

"This has been nothing but the best of times for me," she said. "I will never forget the lessons I've learned both from the teachers and my fellow students."

Several students were emotional for the last number and after the show, as it set in that this was the last show ever for some of them.

"There was a lot of emotion on that stage," said Mary Kay Macheca, mother of Monica.

It was that emotion that led both audience members and cast members to remark that the Saturday night show was the best of the three performances.

"We felt really good about it," Monica Macheca said. "We have a great group of seniors, so we had to do everything all out."

"It was a superb performance," added Kowalczyk.

As St. Joe is an all-girls school, three boys from other schools in the St. Louis area were needed to supplement the cast. Sean Gunderson of Francis Howell Central High School, Jimmy McEvoy of Christian Brothers College High School and Jordan Ward of Metro Academic and Classical High School provided great additions to the cast in terms of dancing and singing.

"It was perfect - everything came together," Gunderson said of Saturday night's show.

If you're interested in seeing more of St. Joe's talented dancers perform, their annual Dance Concert is taking place this Thursday, May 19, at 7 p.m., also in the school's theater.