Bon Voyage!

Students from Jamesville-Dewitt High School will dance their way across the Atlantic Ocean as cast members aboard the S. S. American during 2010's musical "Anything Goes."

This love story takes place on a cruise ship headed to London from New York City. Billy Crocker (junior Austin Roney), an assistant to an Ivy League Wall Street banker Elisha J. Whitney (junior Jeremy Wallace), learns that his one time fling Hope Harcourt (junior Jessie Torrance), an American debutante, is on the ship. Reno Sweeney (senior Katie Weber), a nightclub singer, agrees to help Billy try to win back the heart of Hope. The problem is that Hope is engaged to a wealthy English man, Lord Evelyn Oakleigh (junior Dan Frank), who is also on the ship. Public Enemy Number 13 Moonface Martin (junior Noah Kaplan) also boards the ship with his sidekick Erma (junior Whitney Tracy) and is trying to evade the Captain (junior Tom Wilson) and the Purser (junior Bashee Shawl) the entire time, while helping Billy win Hope.

Weber is very excited for this year's musical. Weber said, "No matter who you are, you'll laugh at least five times while watching this musical."

The curtain will rise at J-DHS's Osborn Auditorium on Mar. 4 at 7:30 p.m., Mar. 5 at 7:30 p.m., and Mar. 6 at 2 p.m. and 7:30 p.m. They will be performing the most recent version, the 1987 Beaumont version, which was performed previously at J-DHS in 1996.

After holiday break, the cast will start rehearsing music in the chorus room and dancing and blocking on the stage. Starting in January, practices will be Monday through Friday from 3-8 p.m. However, not everyone will attend the practices for the whole period of time. They will also practice on Saturdays from 9 a.m. to 4 p.m. In the last three weeks before the play, everyone will practice together at the same time.

"The cast practices are really fun. We joke around during down time, but during practice we are all very focused," said Weber.

Chorus teacher Elizabeth Quackenbush, is the musical director, and Shawn Forster is the director. Mr. Forster has his bachelors in theater, has toured with a national Broadway tour of Footloose, and also went to Liverpool High School with Mrs. Quackenbush. He worked with the J-DHS cast of "All Shook Up" last year, and is returning to be the director this year. "He is a really good acting coach and I'm really excited to work with him," said Weber.

There are other adults that are involved in the musical. History teacher Deborah Fallon is a producer, and physics teacher Doug Wilson is the set director. Social Studies Department Chair Marian Glauber is another producer. She has sold tickets for the musicals for 12 years, but after her youngest daughter graduated, she decided to get more involved. She enjoys working with the other adults in charge. "We make a great team," Mrs. Glauber said about the adults involved in the show.