Baldwinsville — For the 10th anniversary of the Reynolds Elementary Youth Players, the parents who organize the school’s annual musical wanted to do something special.
“We took two one-act plays and we basically are squishing them together into one,” director Richard Madden said. “It’s the classic play-within-a-play.”
Reynolds’ double feature melds “The Grunch” — in which a Grinch-like character plans to destroy a musical written by a group of students — with the outer space adventure “Space Pirates!” Both musicals are from Beat by Beat Press, creator of past Reynolds’ productions such as “We Are Monsters” and “The Most Epic Birthday Party Ever.”
Madden said he contacted Beat by Beat Press composer Denver Casado for advice on how to marry the two productions.
“He said, ‘No one’s ever tried that before with our plays,’” Madden recalled.
Casado suggested a few lyric changes to blend his works more seamlessly and gave feedback on Madden’s suggestions. However, Casado’s advice wasn’t the only help Beat by Beat Press gave Reynolds.
“They gave us a royalty discount because we put two plays together,” Madden said. “I really loved the music in the first play, and I really loved the music in the second play. I wanted to do them both.”
Fifty-one students in grades three through five make up the cast of “The Grunch/Space Pirates!”
“We also had a great group of kids this year — a lot of talented kids,” Madden said.
“There are auditions, but every kid is accepted,” producer Linda Horan said.
Choreographing more than four dozen students onstage at once was a challenge, Madden said. In a typical production, there are no more than 20 students onstage at a time, but the double musical has a few big showstoppers.
“We don’t want the kids to just stand there and sing their song,” Madden said.
continued — Despite the difficulty of the choreography, Madden said the students “never cease to amaze me with what they can do.”
“They’re very enthusiastic,” Horan added. “They’re very intrinsically motivated to do well because I think they know this is a special opportunity. They rise to the occasion.”
Reynolds Elementary Youth Players’ first production was “Annie” in 2007, starring Julia Goodwin, who later won Michael Feinstein’s Great American Songbook High School Vocal Competition in 2013 and was a contestant on “America’s Got Talent” in 2014. Reynolds is the only elementary school in the Baldwinsville Central School District that puts on a musical production each year.
This is Madden’s third year directing the Reynolds musical. He said he has enjoyed seeing the students grow over the years.
“We have fifth-graders this year that were third-graders when we first started,” Madden said. “There’s a little girl [who] when she was a third-grader, she was a handful — and now she’s great.”
Horan said Reynolds’ musicals help children find their “worth and value.”
“They realize they can be a part of something bigger than themselves,” she said. “My oldest … grew out of her cocoon. Everybody has their own developmental journey or their artistic journey.”
Showtimes for “The Grunch/Space Pirates!” are 7 p.m. Thursday, March 31, and Friday, April 1, and 2 p.m. Saturday, April 2. All performances will take place in the Reynolds “cafetorium.” Tickets are $5 and go on sale in mid-March. Email [email protected] to reserve tickets.
