The Musical Theater Club presented their show, “Live from New York , it’s MTC!” on Saturday March 24 in the Alice Austin Theater. The show was a combination of short comedy routines and modified cover songs that tailored to MTC. Pictured above are the MTC seniors. (Izzy Graziano/Knights’ Life Editor
Geneseo’s Musical Theater Club is a group of talented students on-campus who use their biannual performances to express their love for the musical genre.
MTC performed a collection of songs from a variety of musicals interspersed with comedic skits on Saturday March 24 in the Alice Austin Theater. In a homage to the long running “Saturday Night Live,” the show’s tagline was “Live from New York, it’s MTC!”
The musical selections varied with songs from newer, and more popular musicals and movies, such as, “Dear Evan Hansen” and The Greatest Showman, but also hit upon classics like “Chicago” and High School Musical. Beside the great selection, the was show compelling because the songs were adapted to create new meanings that allowed them to flow into an overarching story about a group of college students passionately pursuing fake in the performing arts.
The first song that introduced the show modified the lyrics of “Prince Ali” from Aladdin, and was titled “MTC.” Another fun transformation was a performance of “Stick To The Status Quo” from High School Musical. The lines in this song were altered and changed to be about musical theater students shamefacedly confessing to outside interests, like baseball or juggling.
The songs were also relatable to college life. A performance of “96,000” from “In the Heights” was changed to discuss the college expenses and what the students would do with their lottery winnings.
The skits the club members performed were hysterical. The first skit, again in homage to “SNL,” was in the format of a satirical “Weekend Update” which had many zingers about campus life. For example, it commented on the ongoing construction that will last until the end of the century and Starbucks’s exorbitant prices.
Another amusing skit was in the style of the confrontational comedy show “Billy on the Street,” which involved two MTC members screaming trivia at audience members to see if they had bothered to read the program for the reward of a dollar.
MTC member freshman William Snyder, who was one half of the “news” segment, commented on the collaborative effort of creating both the lyric changes to the songs and the skits themselves.
“Most of the [skits] that got put in the show were just spur-of-the-moment, ‘hey let’s go on stage and do this,” Snyder said. “I’m very proud of how the skits turned out this year.”
This fun-loving atmosphere is a very important part of the show. It enables the students, who are passionate about musical theater, to have a space where they can foster a sense of community and create real friendships.
MTC member freshman Rocky Nardone, who performed in “It Should Have Been You,” has enjoyed his time with the expressive club.
“It’s a place for people to go who just love performing. It’s a place for people to put themselves on stage solely because they love it,” Nardone said.
That love is what made the show genuine. From the time the curtain rose to the time it fell, the performers had the biggest smiles on their faces.
In a beautiful moment toward the end of the night, the seniors sang “When I Grow Up,” from “Matilda,” and it was apparent in that performance how much they appreciated what they were doing, and who they were sharing the experience with.