LSU’s Musical Theatre Club honors a heartfelt LSU tradition while pleasing theater fans presenting Singo — Homecoming.
The students performed an array of classic theater songs while including fun choreography. The show itself allows students from all over campus to bond over their love for musical theater.
Cast member Riley Kloostra, an anthropology sophomore, gave an emotional performance of “Mama Who Bore Me” from the popular musical “Spring Awakening.” Kloostra said she appreciated her experiences with the club as a student who’s not a theatre major.
“I think it’s really special that it gets to showcase all the different sides of musical theater as well as bring people together from across all of the different colleges and majors to not only to create something that they enjoy, but for the public to enjoy as well,” Kloostra said.
Another part of the on-campus community is that all of their performances are free to the public. The non-profit organization allows students of all walks of life and career paths to come together and celebrate their love for musical theater.
Kloostra shares her appreciation for the variety of students in the club and how the club itself allows her to make time for passion.
“It’s been a lot of fun because I’ve always loved theater, and getting to have an outlet for that, that’s not like you have to be a music major or you have to be a theater major,” Kloostra said. “One of a co-presidents of musical theater club is a bio-chem major. I just think that’s really cool.”
With a theme that discusses tough topics like insecurity and acceptance, the cabaret consistently conveys its message through the structure of the show. From a Spring Awakening medley to a hit from Avenue Q, all of the songs deal with personal growth in some form or fashion.
“The same person will be the same character in every song,” Kloostra said. “You can follow a bit of the story of the musical even if it’s out of the context of the rest of it, and I think that’s really cool.”
When describing the show, Kloostra used the words “holy teen angst.” This description was fitting with the performance featuring songs from Carrie: The Musical, Calvin Berger, Heathers: The Musical, Spring Awakening and Grease.
With the show moved up from its original date, which is always around Cinco De Mayo, the rehearsal time was cut short this year. This is was also a challenge since the club just finished their production of “The Addams Family.”
“We’ve only had a month since Addams ended to rehearse it all when normally we have two, so it’s been a bit of a rush job, but everyone’s been really committed to it and it’s been really nice,” Kloostra said.
The cast worked consistently to produce a show that would please musical theatre lovers while making the songs their own. The cast members researched different iterations of the performances they were working on.
“I went back and watched videos from the Deaf West production [of ‘Spring Awakening’], videos of Lea Michele, videos of like touring,” Kloostra said. “Christine ‘Christy’ Altomare, who played Anastasia on Broadway, was Wendla in a touring production and so I went back and watched a bunch of different versions of that and tried to come up with bits and pieces of them I could combine together to make my own, I feel like everyone’s done a pretty good job of doing that.”
Singo is a fan favorite tradition that was successful for another year and proudly represented the non-profit organization here at LSU. You can donate to the club by using their Venmo @MTCLSU and can like them on Facebook @MusicalTheatreLSU or follow them on Instagram @MTCofLSU.
