For the Sixth Year in a Row, Night on Broadway Hits the Stage
March 22, 2023
Night on Broadway invited members of the La Salle community to help support the Pride Alliance and the International Thespian Society (ITS).
All revenue from the event went to an organization called The Living Room, supporting LGBTQ youth.
Junior Izzy Sulloway Ferreras performing one of her three acts, “When He Sees Me” from “Waitress.”
“A lot of practicing, a lot of mentally preparing,” Evelyn Barrera explained about preparing to sing “Breath” from “In The Heights.”
“I was super excited to perform a song that I have been working on for a really long time in front of an audience, and I was also really excited to be able to contribute to a good cause,” senior Isabella Simonutti said.
Junior and Night on Broadway organizer Ezra Moody supervising rehearsals prior to the start of the event.
Sophomore Owen Kuntz performing “As The World Caves In” by Matt Maltese.
(From left to right) Junior Izzy Sulloway Ferreras, junior Riley Herington, senior Claire Schnyder, and freshman Madeline Schnyder performing “Express Burlesque” from “Burlesque.”
“I was excited obviously to perform and sing my song and just see how everything turned out, but also to see everyone else’s performances and cheer and be involved,” junior Angelina Lopez said, who performed “Maybe This Time” from “Cabaret” and a duet with another student.
Co-president of the Pride Alliance Ezra Moody and president of the ITS, William Clem, emceeing in between acts.
Sophomore Charlie Lewy performing “Stars” from “Les Misèrables.”
Not only did students perform on stage, but many students volunteered to be part of the crew, helping backstage and with lights and sound.
Senior Marieka Kaufman performing “I Could Have Danced All Night” from “My Fair Lady.”
Performers and some of the crew bowing on stage after the show.
On Friday, March 17, La Salle’s Pride Alliance and International Thespian Society (ITS) partnered together to bring Night on Broadway to the La Salle theater. All proceeds from the event will be given to an LGBTQ nonprofit organization called The Living Room, specifically aimed at supporting youth.
Junior Ezra Moody, one of the co-presidents of the Pride Alliance, had been preparing for Night on Broadway for a month as the main organizer for the event, alongside 10 performers and 15 people on the crew.
Night on Broadway consisted of nine different performances where each participant was encouraged to use a song from a Broadway musical. The acts included singing and dancing, with jokes in between each performance.
Though many of the participants are not unfamiliar with the stage and have performed many times before, there was still an opportunity for some of the performers to step out of their comfort zones to try something new.
Sophomore Owen Kuntz explained that he had originally planned to perform a different song with two other people but that they had to cancel. “Ezra was desperate for another act,” he said. “I had sheet music for ‘As the World Caves In,’ and so I did have to make myself uncomfortable and sing in front of an audience, so it was a lot of late nights of preparing in the last week.”
Similarly to Kuntz, freshman Madeline Schnyder was able to do her first dance routine in front of an audience alongside her sister, senior Claire Schnyder, as well as juniors Riley Herington and Izzy Sulloway Ferreras.
“I’m really proud of my sister,” Claire Schnyder said. “Because this is the first time she’s really performed. I got her to join theater, and she’s really blossomed and found her people here which is really nice.”
Claire Schnyder choreographed the dance with the help of senior Lilly Tiller, for the four of them to perform to “Express” from “Burlesque.”
One of the four dancers, Sulloway Ferreras, not only performed “Express,” but also sang in two other performances: “When He Sees Me” from “Waitress” and a duet with junior Angelina Lopez, “The Dark I Know Well” from “Spring Awakening.”
“I’m really proud of Izzy Sulloway,” senior Isabella Simonutti said. “She performed three times tonight which was not her plan, but it just so happened to work out that way. She was stressed before the show, but she killed it.”
Simonutti also mentioned that the most difficult part of the entire preparation process was picking a song to sing. She ended up picking “I Dreamed A Dream” from “Les Misèrables.” She chose this song because it was the first song she had ever sung on the La Salle stage as a freshman.
“I thought it would be kind of cute and a full circle moment if I sang it as one of my last songs on the La Salle stage,” Simonutti said.
Along with being proud of Sulloway, Simonutti expressed her recognition for everything that Moody did for Night on Broadway. “He overcame all the obstacles that were thrown at us to put this on, and he overcame them with grace, and I’m really proud with how well he put this thing together,” Simonutti said.
Going into Friday night, Moody mentioned one challenge as having to work around the schedule of the spring musical, “The Sound of Music.” “I had to push this thing back three times because of different performances,” Moody said.
He explained that last year’s Night on Broadway was in June, making the scheduling aspect of the show simpler because no other performances or musicals were happening during that time.
In addition to the scheduling issues, the school administration required an adult to monitor most of the production process, creating problems when those designated for the task were not always available.
Despite the multiple interferences throughout the development of the show, many of the participants felt the show went well regardless of them. Senior William Clem, who was in charge of the set and running crew, and was also an emcee, expressed that he was “really proud of what everybody was able to achieve with the obstacles and limited time that we had.”
Isabella Simonutti • Mar 22, 2023 at 9:56 pm
Thank you so much for covering the arts!! We couldn’t be more grateful <3