Josh Rittberg

Staff Writer

Miscast proved to be an extremely successful event for ACMO. The show opened with the whole cast singing and dancing together to the song “Dude Looks Like a Lady by Aerosmith. The opening song set the tone for the fun night in store. Freshman Zach Balint was a standout singing the song “Hello by Adele. In this song, Balint showed excellent comic timing while still doing the song justice vocally.

Some of the other standout numbers in the first half included the male ensemble’s fabulous performance of the Beyoncé classic “Single Ladies”, Phil Romansky’s and Cara Finkel’s heartbreaking rendition of the song “Stayand Trent Soto, Phil Romanksy and Joe Sefrit’s fierce act one closer “Candy Store”.

The second half of the show had lighter numbers than act one, but still managed to be very entertaining. The female ensemble gave the audience a warm welcome back with their very funny rendition of the song “Hello from “The Book of Mormon”. After Curtis Hall’s emotional rendition of the “Les Miserables” classic “On My Own”, Kiley Bartuesk, Molly Evans, Morgan Chamberlain and Ana Sica got the sold out audience smiling with their version of “Hakuna Matata”. The creative costumes in this number really helped pull their performance over-the-top.

 The fun continued with a campy rendition of the Abba classic “Dancing Queen”,  which was sung with very fabulous feather boas by Grant Carlton, David Karpalla and Joe Seifrit. David Karpala also provided a very energizing rendition of Lady Gaga’s “Born this Way”, and he won over the audience with his infectious energy and passion. The cast closed out the performance with a show stopping rendition of the song “One Day More” from the musical “Les Miserables”. The whole cast sang their hearts out in this song, and the number really had audiences leaving the theater on a high note.

Miscast was slickly directed by Sydney Sniezek.  Sniezek created a loose and festive atmosphere that contributed greatly to the show’s  success. The lighting by Amanda Piergallini helped to set the mood for all of the numbers. The lighting transitions between numbers were effortless and contributed greatly to the fast moving nature of the showcase.

The onstage band who backed up the singers played with constant enthusiasm. They played the various musical styles on display with ease, and they were a constant highlight to the show.

The sound by Harrison Wallace was muddled at times, but, overall, made the music radiate throughout the theater. The costume design by Kat Turner was very bright and spectacularly campy for the upbeat numbers, while also being elegant for the ballads.

Overall, this was an extremely successful night for ACMO that left audiences on a high note.