TURNERS FALLS — The students of Four Rivers Charter Public School want audiences to question authority and follow their hearts, all while sharing a good laugh during their production of the jukebox musical, “Nice Work If You Can Get It.”
The musical opens on Friday, March 6, at 7 p.m., with two additional shows on Saturday, March 7, at 2 p.m. and 7 p.m. at the Shea Theater Arts Center, 71 Avenue A. Tickets in advance are $12 and $15 at the door. Children under 5 will be admitted for free.
The show highlights the tension between rule-followers and rule-breakers during the Prohibition Era of the 1920s in New York City, with music from Ira and George Gershwin guiding the soundtrack.
“Nice Work If You Can Get It,” chosen by students at the start of the school year, follows the story of Jimmy Winter, played by Four Rivers senior Hendrick Carew, as he plans to finally settle down with his fiancée, Eileen Evergreen, who comes from a family of staunch prohibitionists. He crosses paths with hardened bootlegger Billie Bendix, played by junior Adeline Mayo.
Bendix and her associates decide to stash 400 bottles of gin in Winter’s beach house without knowing it’s the weekend of the wedding, where Winter’s fiancée and the Evergreen family would be present. Hijinks ensue as the bootlegger crew pretends to be hired for the wedding while trying to keep people away from their secret stash in the cellar. As the farce continues, Bendix and Winter join together to continue the ruse, and eventually discover magic in a bottle — love.
“She’s smuggling alcohol into this guy’s house, and why would she care about love?” Adeline said about her character, who she describes as an aloof tomboy, “[but that’s] until Jimmy Winter sweeps her off her feet … unfortunately.”
This musical debuted on Broadway in 2012 and includes some famous Gershwin songs, including “But Not For Me” and “Let’s Call the Whole Thing Off,” according to Broadway.com.
The event notice from Four Rivers highlights that the show features more than 40 students, ranging from seventh graders to seniors, in the cast, stage crew, band and tech team. The show is directed by Leah Plath, with additional leadership from Music Director Joshua Hornick and Set Designer Serena Torrey.
Although these high schoolers are portraying the experiences of those living under the bygone Prohibition Era, they shared that they’ve been able to infuse their own experiences into these zany characters.
“If you ask people, they would say that I’m not exactly an uptight attitude, but I like to maintain an air of dignity,” said seventh grader Sadie Wilson, the youngest lead in the show, when asked how she relates to her character, Estonia Dulworth, the elder prohibitionist aunt of Eileen Evergreen.
“The thing that I connect to is my character is very thoroughly about living completely as herself and very truly. She refuses to exist in any other way. She refuses to be anyone that is not her,” senior Vivian Wasileski, who plays Jimmy Winters’ mother Millicent, said about how she relates to her character. “And I try my best to live as that in my own life.”
While students shared how they can relate to their characters, Plath said the themes of the show “transcend age,” and feature human experiences that anyone can relate to, like wanting to be seen, or having agency over one’s life.
In terms of student growth, Plath said that since students began rehearsing in November, she’s seen them improve both in a literal sense by their dancing and singing, but also in the way students tell the story.
“I think they all continue to grow in treating the text with more nuance and thinking about the way — [through] really subtle choices — they may not consciously register with an audience, but they tell a story,” Plath said.
‘Laughter is the best medicine’
While the students have some different ideas on what they see as the themes of the show, they have a common idea of what audiences should come away with.
Vivian shared that this show takes an anti-authoritarian slant set in the context of the Prohibition Era, and the show encourages people to live how they want to live, and that people should keep living and laughing in their communities.
In his mind, Hendrick believes the show sends a message that people should follow their hearts, and Adeline said she expects “cheers, not tears” from the audiences.
Although one of the youngest in the cast, Sadie takes an equally compassionate and humorous take on what she thinks people can expect from this screwball musical.
“I really hope that it transports people away for a little bit … and gives them an opportunity to laugh at people on stage doing stupid stuff,” she said. “I really hope that this play makes people laugh, because laughter is the best medicine, according to whoever said that first.”