After an incredible production of the musical Chicago last spring, Langley High School Theater department has emerged again to present Gypsy as this year’s spring musical. Gypsy, a 1959 musical, details a mother-Mama Rose-attempting to raise her two daughters, Louise and June, in show business. After living in the shadow of her younger sister’s success for the majority of her life, Gypsy follows Louise and her path to stardom after her sister leaves show business and Mama Rose turns her focus to her older daughter.

“What’s interesting about Gypsy is it’s a monster of a show,” said Senior Jamie Goodson, who plays Mama Rose. “It’s a classic and it has everything anyone could ask for: humorous dances, emotionally riveting scenes, a great message-just everything!”

Langley’s Theater department, The Saxon Stage, took on the challenge of preparing a famous musical with lots of energy. Fortunately, Langley has an abundance of talented and dedicated actors, many of whom are also highly skilled dancers and singers. Saxon Stage harnessed this talent and energy in a focus to do the musical as well as possible, and the actors themselves have a particular love for the production and sharing it with their peers. Sydney Copp, who plays June, said she is excited “for people to see our character development as actors and to love them as much as we [the actors] do.”

“I’m most excited to see the audience’s reaction. It’s a great musical with very intense moments, and I’m very curious to see how an audience is going to receive them,” said Sophomore Mark Bosset, who plays Herbie.

In terms of preparation, many Langley students do not realize the extensive amounts of time that the theater department spent working to perfect the musical.

“It was a pretty difficult show to put up. We had rehearsal every day until 6:30. The tech aspects of the show were particularly difficult with all the props and set changes and we had to stand still on stage for hours and wait to get the tech right,” said Goodson.

Building on that, Peros recalls countless singing lessons and a lot of hard work learning dances and lines, Copp remembers dance practices and “practicing dancing in such a crazy wig”, and Bosset recollects endless rehearsal time, sometimes working on the show until 10:30 at night. “It was very tiring, but the end product will be rewarding,” Bosset said.

All in all, while the amount of work to put up the production was daunting, Langley High School’s theater department has succeeded in presenting audiences with yet another stunning performance, and if possible, students should go see their classmates and their talent on the Saxon Stage!

***You can see more pictures from Gypsy in our galleries!