On Friday, December 5, 2014, the Visual and Performing Arts Department announced that the 2015 spring musical will be Beauty and the Beast. Auditions will be held from Monday, December 8 to Friday, December 12.
Audition Schedule:
Monday, December 8: Vocals
Tuesday, December 9: Dance
Wednesday, December 10-Friday, December 12: Callbacks
The musical, traditionally the largest arts production at University High School (UHS) each year, was originally scheduled to be Mary Poppins. Due to copyright issues, the musical was switched to Beauty and the Beast. Christine Ho (Jr.) said, “I’m excited for Beauty and the Beast because it’s exciting to follow Shrek with something similar and now we know how to improve and we already have experiences being animated characters.”
Pit orchestra members will rehearse both separately and with the onstage performers in the musical to prepare for their live performance under the direction of Mr. Corey Heddon (Visual and Performing Arts Dept.). Mr. Heddon said of the music for Beauty and the Beast, “I think a lot of people know the music well as it will be very similar to the music in the movie. I’ll also say that since the music is more post romantic than other musicals, which tend to lean more towards popular music, it will fit our music program perfectly. This is going to be a great show for Uni.”
The musical will be performed from Thursday, March 19, 2015 to Saturday, March 21, 2015 and from Thursday, March 26 to Saturday, March 28.