Westfield Students Perform at Paper Mill

Friday I saw half of their dress rehearsal and was impressed with what I saw. Watching the stage fill with the 120 or so participants in the program for the end of the first half of the show for songs from Disney's "High School Musical" was certainly one of the highlights. And they sounded fantastic. And that was just dress rehearsal.

Unfortunately, I couldn't make it to their full performance Friday night to see the culmination of what this group has been working on all summer. But Patch contributor Alana Horowitz was there and has a review of the performance:

The New Voices' performance is an amalgam of "new" classics, appropriately titled "Thoroughly Modern Musicals." The cast sang their way through Tony nominees and winners—and some Disney favorites—with the kind of enthusiasm only found in young actors.

The opening medley was alive and bursting with talent, every turn and shimmy perfectly in sync—a testament to how tirelessly the directors and performers had worked.

The first section was comprised of mostly ensemble numbers from shows like In the Heights and The 25th Annual Putnam County Spelling Bee. The second act featured powerful vocal duos, like Wicked's warring divas, Galinda and Elphaba. Last came six colorful songs from Disney's High School Musical—the spirit of the night reflected in the song "We're All in this Together" with its chorus: "We're all in this together, and it shows when we stand, hand in hand, make our dreams come true."

Westfield performers included Rachel Chodor, Jennifer Dilzell, Catalina Gaglioti and Christopher Morrissey.