From singing to dancing to instrumental acts, the Variety Show gets its name from the assortment of performances that it hosts each year. With the entirety of McHale getting filled within a matter of minutes, the show was highly anticipated by the student body.
“The past few years, we have had either a rap or a rock guitarist to give the show a grittier feel, but we have enough quality singers in this year’s show to keep the tempo going,” Director Anthony Kinney said. “Plus, this year’s show had a lot more student input on the production side, especially with the ‘Gravy Train.’”
Junior Annika LaOrange, who works as a crew head for the McHale Tech Crew, expressed that this year’s show stands out from previous years.
“Usually, it’s about 90% singing with a complementary musical instrument act,” LaOrange said. “This year’s inclusion of the ‘Gravy Train’ bit absolutely set it apart from any LHS Variety Show in the past, and people are definitely going to remember it.”
A dance performance of “Everybody Wants to Rule the World” by Lorde was choreographed by senior Gretchen Prifogle. The dance was originally a duet with someone who went to her dance studio, but she adapted it into a solo performance.
“Most of changing it to a solo was taking parts of other dances that I’ve had and piecing them together differently,” Prifogle said. “It’s easier to convey emotions with dance because you can just show the message you want to get across just from body movement.”
Junior Justin Snay has been in the Variety Show since his freshman year, and he has performed pieces that he has composed himself for all three years.
“With the piece that I composed called ‘Gloria,’ it’s originally a choir piece,” Snay said. “I took the accompaniment from it. I only kept the beginning and one part of it. I learned it a long time ago, and then all of a sudden, I randomly remembered it. I recomposed a bit of it because I don’t usually play the original thing. I like recomposing the pieces that I play.”
Snay is also a member of the Drama Club, and he has had roles in other school productions.
“With singing, it’s more structured because, for the most part, people are gonna know what you’re singing if it’s a widely known song,” Snay said. “With the piano, because I composed it, I can play anything I want. If I messed up, no one would know. With acting, I think it’s looser than playing piano or singing because you can improv if you want to. If you messed up your lines while acting, someone else would also be able to back you up.”
Although performers in the show were given a little under a month to prepare for the show after they had auditioned, they managed to pull it off well.
“I didn’t feel like the shorter time made anything more difficult,” Kinney said. “That may have mostly to do with the talent of our students and the great job that John Vales and the McHale Tech Crew do with the show.”
Kinney also directs each year’s Winter Fantasy musical as well as the school play in the spring.
“Directing the variety show is much looser than other productions because the creative input is from all the students,” Kinney said. “My main jobs are just picking the orders and supervising the practices.”
