The Divine Child High School Theater chorus rehearses the “waiter’s gallop” for its production of “Hello, Dolly!”
Divine Child High School Theater presents the classic musical “Hello, Dolly!” March 30 to April 2 at the school, 1001 N. Silvery Lane in Dearborn.
Show times are 7:30 p.m. March 30, 31 and April 1, and 2:30 p.m. April 1 and 2.
Tickets are $10 for adults and students, and $8 for senior citizens. Tickets may be purchased at www.divinechildhighschool.org.
“Hello, Dolly!” is a musical filled with charisma and with heart. Dolly Levi is a widow, a matchmaker, and also a professional meddler — but everything changes when she decides that the next match she needs to make is to find someone for herself.
Set in New York City at the turn-of-the- 20th century, “Hello, Dolly!” is boisterous and charming from start to finish. The show features such memorable songs as “Before the Parade Passes By,” “It Only Takes a Moment,” “Put on Your Sunday Clothes,” and the title number, “Hello, Dolly!”
This marks the third time Divine Child has produced “Hello, Dolly.” DC also put the production on in 1974 and 1992.
The current production features students hailing from Dearborn, Dearborn Heights, Taylor, Trenton, Northville, Livonia, Westland, Garden City, Redford Township, Brownstown Township, Flat Rock, Detroit, Plymouth, New Boston, Canton Township and Wayne.
Freshman through seniors perform in roles from chorus to the leads with freshmen Ben Noethlich, Hannah Young, Kennedy Klauza, Emily Walker and Jonathan Sadler playing primary roles or understudying leads. Noethlich plays Ambrose Kemper, Klauza and Young share the role of Ermengarde, Walter understudies the role of Minnie Faye and Sadler understudies the role of Horace Vandergelder. Each understudy gets to perform at least two times.
The production team features Divine Child graduates, including Broadway “Wicked” cast member and dance captain Casey Quinn as the choreographer, Colleen Johnson as prop master, Walter Grysko as art director, and Elisa Noeske as director and producer.
Robert Bush and Paul Abbott round out the production crew as the set director and pit orchestra conductor, and choral director, respectively.
DC students have competed for the Ovation Awards, a statewide honor where high school students compete against other schools for the award of best musical theater performer in the state. From there, they go on to compete nationally at the Jimmy Awards to win the honor of best musical theater performer in the country.
In 2015, DC student Alexsander Papanastasopoulos won the Michigan Ovation Awards and competed for a week in New York City at the Jimmy Awards.
Papanastasopoulos studies musical theater at Western Michigan University.
Current senior Riley Klauza has been accepted to Long Island University and the American Musical Dramatic Academy, among others.