SEMO REVUE TO SHOWCASE MUSICAL TALENT

"A Night on Broadway," a student revue of contemporary Broadway tunes, may be a preview of some interesting things to come once music, theater, dance and other arts are consolidated at Southeast's planned River Campus.

The show consisting of 17 scenes from 11 musicals will be presented at 8 p.m. Thursday at Academic Auditorium. Admission will be charged.

The show is directed by Drs. Christopher Goeke and Leslie Jones of the Department of Music. Also at work on the show are Dr. Marc Strauss, head of the dance program; Dennis Seyer of the theater department; and Barry Bernhardt of the music department.

The students will be accompanied both by pianist Tim DePriest and by the Southeast Jazz Combo. Among the musicals quoted will be "Sweeney Todd," "Follies," "Company," "Titanic," "Jekyll & Hyde" and "Rent."The student director of the show is Bria Nicholson, who in May will become Southeast's first-ever musical theater graduate. The major was created only last year.

Nicholson says her interest in musical theater goes back to the first grade when her teacher let her organize and direct a version of "The Wizard of Oz." "Of course, I made myself Dorothy," she said.

She had no leads in her high school musicals at Cape Central, singing in the chorus in both, but her vocal coach, Lori Shaffer, encouraged her. "She said I had talent and made me want to go for it," Nicholson said. "She gave me a lot of individual attention."Shaffer is married to Goeke."I knew in the first few weeks when I started what I wanted all along," Nicholson said of beginning college at Southeast. "I couldn't imagine doing anything else."At Southeast, she has appeared in "The Music Man," "Sugar" and "Plaza Suite." Last summer she did summer stock at the Huron Playhouse in Huron, Ohio. Thursday night she will sing a solo in "All That Jazz" from the musical "Chicago," a duet with Kim Westrich on "I Still Believe" from "Miss Saigon" and will be part of a trio with Laura Huusko and Roxanne Ackerman in "At the Ballet" from "A Chorus Line."This is her first shot at being a student director. Nicholson didn't realize how much responsibility directing requires. "You have to be very patient and you also have to put your foot down. You have to know what you want," she said.

The musical theater major is akin to working without a net because Nicholson will not be qualified to teach. When she graduates, she plans to move to Chicago, "hopefully get a job and start auditions."Student Doug McDermott choreographed the tune "I Hope I Get It" from "A Chorus Line" and appears in the scene as Zack, the cocky choreographer. McDermott is Nicholson's opposite. At the moment, he isn't dreaming of becoming a professional dancer. "I'm a guy who likes stability," the junior from Desloge says. He is minoring in dance while majoring in public relations.

McDermott's job is to make the members of the chorus line look like dancers even though he says "Ninety percent of them are not dancers."Goeke says this type of show was chosen because "we wanted to give the students an opportunity to do this (contemporary) literature." "Sugar," Southeast's most recent musical production, was written in 1970.

Doing scenes from musicals instead of the full show also "gives more students an opportunity," he said.

Having often performed scenes from operas in the past, the Music Theatre Workshop program wanted to do something different this year, Goeke said."Quite frankly, the legit music community might look down their noses at this a little bit... But we're excited about doing it. We have the flexibility to do a variety of things."