West Windsor will see labor and romantic troubles galore in a pajama factory when workers demand a seven and a half cent raise. High South’s production of “The Pajama Game” has performances this weekend, Friday and Saturday, March 2 and 3. .
“The Pajama Game,” based on Richard Bissell’s novel “Seven And A Half Cents,” opened at St. James Theater in 1954. Winner of three Tony Awards in 1954, it received another for best revival of a musical in its second revival in 2006. The musical features popular songs including “I’m Not At All In Love,” “I’ll Never Be Jealous Again,” “Hey There,” “There Once Was a Man,” “Steam Heat,” and “Hernando’s Hideaway.”##M:[more]##
The show is directed by Roseann Lucarine with choreography by Marilyn Stoddard, musical direction by Scott Collins, and vocal direction by Janice Chapin. The student directors are Amita Maram and Alex Zuckerman, and the student musical director is Joshua Suslak.
Lucarine, who wanted to go back to the classics for her first musical at South, decided to use “The Pajama Game” after seeing the recent New York revival. “The play works well with high school students,” she says. “I also knew that I would have the talent for the show.” A teacher in the school’s drama program, Lucarine has worked with the students on the last two fall productions, “Fools” and “The Laramie Project.”
The cast include Ryan Lupo as Sid and Melanie Fernandez as Babe. Also David Sidari as Hines; Sarah Esmi as Gladys; Crawford Miller as Hassler; and Rose Dzugan as Mabel. Other cast members are Dan McElwee, Allison Taaffe, Marc Lyons, Julie Moorman, Eric Spiegel, Nicole Stoddard, Joe Thel, Blake Eisenberg, Catie Taaffe, Matt Hasling, Christine Oglesby, Ethan Fishbane, Tara McGuinness, Jesse Lee, Stacey Greenberger. and Alyssa Gay.
Ensemble members include Christina Buttner, Mike Cantor, Erina Davidson, Danielle Erickson, Kelly Fisher, Isabel Hager-Johnson, Elisa Jankowski, Dylan Klein-Denk, Ethan Levy, Maureen Luddington, Ted Mahoney, Christina Menendez, Stephanie Mischell, Samantha Mitgang, Manish Modi, Jennifer Rogers, Milagros Simon, Annie Stuart, Shaina Watrous, Caitlyn Wisser, and Samantha Zimbler.
Crew members include Sofia Alvarez, Jessica Caricato, Aanchal Chopra, Kim Clifton, Danielle Erickson, Kasa Hozer, Andy Hwang, Keerthi Kanchinadam, Jenn Kao, Sophia Latorre-Zengierski, Aditi Lafey, Hannah Loeb, Upasana Madan, Flannery Miller, Angela Mukkadan, Lena Phalen, Allie Pungello, Robert Pungello, Kristen Robinson, Lauren Silvey, Becky Sgouros, Yusuke Shimasaki, and Samantha So.
Orchestra director is Scott Collins. Orchestra members include Kevin Luan, Vidhi Dalal, Alex Dicker, and Andy Hwang, on violin; Alex Carlson and Liz Qian on viola; Michael Weintraub, cello; Sam Boyles, bass; Christina Park, piccolo; Angelea Ramboyong, Victoria Song, and Christina Park on flute; Kat Harter, oboe; Kat Harter, English horn; and Shun Ju Hsieh, Jen Principe, and Stephanie Grossmann on clarinet.
Also, Matt Steiner, bass clarinet; Josef Grossman, alto saxophone; DJ Sarkar, tenor saxophone; James Park, Ethan Stern, Tom Gresavage, Derrick Liu, and Tracy Mischell on trumpet; Nick Ferrante, and Dan Rodriguez on trombone; Greg Steiner and Hannah Loeb on guitar Jake Hoyne, drum set; and Eugene Park and Kyle Schwartz on auxillary percussion. — Lynn Miller
The Pajama Game, High School South, Clarksville Road, West Windsor, 609-716-5050. Musical. $10. Friday, March 2, 8 p.m. amd Saturday, March 3, 2 and 8 p.m.
