Students take their typical route to class, ducking through the art wing. Something is different. There is a massive sign capsizing everyone’s attention and advertising the winter show that the cast had put blood, sweat, and tears into (literally). If someone hadn’t known about the show, they did then.

These people had been rehearsing like there was no tomorrow since December, they even put in time over Christmas break. All of their friends heard stories of the crazy things that happened during rehearsals, fellow classmates saw promotional photos of odd moments on Snapchat, and even heard just a few complaints about the endless hours. However, all of this hard work certainly showed.

“In the end, it’d be seven hours a night. So that times five would be thirty-five hours a week,” Hailey Beauchemin, a member of the ensemble, explained. She talked about how it was a struggle in the end to keep up with rehearsals and classwork, but it paid off when the lively crowds gave standing ovations.

Hailey was one of the actors that took the risk of dancing on the roof of a set piece. She climbed onto the roof via a shaky ladder and tap danced up there during the end of Act One. She performed the choreography beautifully and put on a smile even though she was completely terrified of how high up she was… on a roof that wouldn’t stop quivering, especially while being danced on.

“It was very, very high and there was this big projector that is hanging and when your eyes are in line with the projector that is normally at the way top of the ceiling, it’s pretty nerve wracking,” Hailey talked about how she felt while attempting to dance on the roof for the amazed crowd.

“I liked the tap, the ones when they went on the roof,” a viewer by the name of Anna Lendry commented. She, like many others, found the show to be very enjoyable and thought the part where Hailey feared for her life to be fun to watch, not having to experience it herself.

Despite being very noticeable on stage, Hailey was just one of the many people that grabbed the audience’s attention, besides the stars. Characters like Moose and Mingo, played by Murray McKay and Fahim Ahmed respectively, were responsible for a lot of the funnier scenes. The audience (and cast) found these Old Western characters to be particularly amusing. They both had their fair share of ridiculous scenes that viewers loved. From Mingo shooting a gun to Moose being shot by that gun to them both misunderstanding the majority of what the New Yorkers said.

“There’s this one scene that’s in the saloon, specifically at a bar, so everyone’s drunk and this guy named Murray, who played a character named Moose…gets a bottle smashed on his head. And then a bunch of other people get bottles smashed on their heads and then they all fall and fake die. It’s just very comical and we were all doing this slow motion thing so that definitely added to the affect,” Hailey spoke of a specific scene that she found to be incredibly funny that featured Moose.

Of course, the show went beyond the talented ensemble and amazing supporting characters. The main roles did their part in making the audience laugh with the characters and lines they brought to life. An example is another popular scene that featured Bobby Child (played by Will Peterson) dressed up as Bela Zangler and the real Bela Zangler (Michael Poliquin) dressed as himself running into each other and sharing a comical song, without realizing the other is there. Something else that should be credited for making the show so magical is the vocals that Mary Catherine Gill showcased as Polly. In addition to this, the constant bickering between characters was most certainly a crowd favorite. The bickering between Lank & Irene, Irene & Mrs. Child, and Lank & Bobby always caused an outbreak of laughter. Especially when Bobby was sure to take Lank’s insults literally.

“The idiot scene, that’s just hands down my favorite,” Anna commented about a scene where Lank is next to Bobby claims that he is close to an idiot, causing Bobby to step away from Lank. It was the small jokes like these, that barely lasted more than a few seconds, that made the show as laughable as it was.

All the acting aside, however, there are more people who deserve to be mentioned. While watching the Zangler Follies dance was incredibly enjoyable, there were some people who were harder to see that made the show what it was. Those people were the techies and the orchestra. The techies made the sets and managed the lights while the orchestra provided the live music. Without them, the show probably wouldn’t have been nearly as magnificent.

“The techies and the pit are SUPER helpful, like if we did not have them we would not have been able to get the show done by the time we needed to,” Hailey said when asked about a behind-the-scenes fact that the audience should know. The techies and the pit, while not as visible, is the reason the show went off without a hitch. Or, any major show-stopping problems that is, because many friends of cast members did hear about some difficulties that took place backstage. However, techies made sure that the show could go on.

One thing that can be said for sure about the show was that it was not a waste of time. The halls were buzzing with positive comments about the show the next Monday and some people even went to go see it multiple times. Crazy For You was a terrific production and the actors, pit, and techies truly shined in a beautiful display of shared talents.