Compared to last year’s modern Disney classic “The Little Mermaid,” this spring’s Penn-Trafford Drama Guild production of “Bye Bye Birdie” is an older musical that the younger audience may be familiar with. Despite this older production, the Drama Guild is excited to bring this colorful show to the stage.

     The musical, originally making its Broadway debut in 1960, follows the story of Conrad Birdie (based on Elvis Presley) as he is forced to leave behind his music world to fight in the war. His music producer, Albert Peterson, attempts to put together one last showstopper with Birdie before he leaves by randomly picking a girl to kiss him. While doing this, Peterson is also forced to deal with his girlfriend, Rosie, who wants him to become an English teacher and give up the failing-producing career. Additionally, Kim MacAfee, a 16-year-old from Ohio, is chosen to receive the kiss which causes a big fight between her and her boyfriend, Hugo.

     The Drama Guild has been hard at work learning all the different and challenging dances that help to make this production fascinating to watch and that is part of the reason they chose this production over others.

     “There is a lot more dance in this musical than most of [the cast] is used to doing,” said Haberberger. “We do not have a lot of dancers, so we are expecting the non-dancers to dance as well and learn some new things.”

     While this much dancing and singing isn’t an easy task for any performer, it presents a certain type of challenge for those who play leads. On top of learning their lines, dance steps and songs for their “main” role, they also have to learn dance steps and songs for their “off” weekend, when they will play an ensemble role, due to the double casting of the leads.

     “It can be hard to balance my ‘on’ and ‘off’ weekend because when I am Kim, I have all those scenes to learn, but for the weekend I am not Kim, I have to learn an entirely different part,” stated sophomore Maddy Longo, who has been cast as one of the Kim MacAfees. 

     The musical is a high-energy and funny production which can be seen when watching the rehearsals as the cast works very well with the script and with each other. Cast members said the Drama Guild is a tight-knit group who all work together quite well and help each other produce the best production possible.

     “Sometimes [the Drama guild] have our moments, but it is because we are so close to each other, and we just spend so much time together. We all care about each other and we look out for each other,” stated Longo.

     The cast and crew is working extremely hard to bring the world of 1958 to the P-T community on the weekend of April 5-7 and the next weekend, April 12-14. Tickets are available to purchase online or every Tuesday night at the high school. 

Tickets can be purchased at https://www.showtix4u.com/event-details/79891

Mia Williams, Business Manager