The Geneseo department of music presented the musical event “Page to Stage: And the World Goes ‘Round” from Nov. 4–Friday Nov. 6 in Doty Recital Hall. It featured an array of Geneseo’s young, talented actors as they performed songs from various musicals. The event showcased the songs of the renowned Broadway songwriting duo John Kander and Fred Ebb. Some of the musicals featured included “Chicago,” “Cabaret” and “The Rink.”
The performance starred sophomores, juniors and seniors while the freshman theatre majors worked as crewmembers backstage. Both the set and costumes were minimal, but this was not a hindrance to the quality of the performance. Professor of music Don Kot—who was the pianist for the night—addressed this choice and explained that the students aimed to focus solely on the performance aspect of the show.
An intriguing element of the show was how the actors entered and exited through different doors around the recital hall. In fact, the show began with junior Nicole Eras walking down to the stage from the walkway on the second floor. Furthermore, Eras walked right past the audience as she sang the opening number “And the World Goes Round.”
The minimalist set added a raw element to the performances—some numbers were performed with the singer standing alone on the stage with nothing except the wooden blocks and their voice. Junior Ben Reiner’s rendition of “Mr. Cellophane” from “Chicago” was a prime example of this.
Other numbers—such as “Coffee in a Cardboard Cup” from “70, Girls, 70,” which featured the full cast were brilliantly choreographed and entertaining to watch. Each actor was comically in sync with one another as they pretended to jitter excitedly after downing an imaginary cup of coffee.
The most stellar choreography was in “All That Jazz,” performed by senior Alexandra Imbrosci-Viera. Male actors lifted Imbrosci-Viera above their heads as she seductively sang the show tune.
What really stood out about the performance as a whole was the collaboration between all of the actors. Though they were all vocally talented individually, their wonderful chemistry is what made the show significantly more enjoyable for the audience.
The musical ended with the entire cast singing “New York, New York.” Some actors sung the lyrics in different languages like French, Japanese, German and Swedish. The cast pulled another twist on the audience by running out into the seats, inviting them to sing along for the last number.
“Page to the Stage: And the World Goes Round” was a terrific representation of the theatrical and musical talent at Geneseo. All of the student actors put on a performance full of vigor, emotion and comedy.