Choir students performed in “Give My Regards to Cabaret” Friday and Sunday. Students in Bel Canto, Chamber Singers, Wolverine Chorus and Jazz Singers performed a variety of Broadway songs in Rugby Auditorium.

Students sang in combined choir groups as well as duets, trios and solos.
The music selection ranged from the early 20th through 21st centuries. This year’s Cabaret is the first to have a Broadway-centric theme.

“We’ve never done it before,” upper school choral teacher Rodger Guerrero said. “The amount of music that we could do was unbelievable, exponentially bigger than almost any other topic area. We could get old and new and jazz and pop and classical styles of Broadway all within it. We got music from as early as 1904 on Broadway and as late as 2013.”

Choir students performed songs from “My Fair Lady,” “Chicago,” “Fiddler on the Roof” and other popular musicals.

This was the final performance directed and conducted by Guerrero, who is leaving the Upper School to teach music to adults.

“Cabaret is my favorite performance of the year. Since everyone in the choral program has a part, it really brings together this wide-ranging community of people who all share the joy of singing,” Eli Timoner ’18 said. “The acts are always fun, and the singing is amazing. This cabaret is also really special because it is Mr. Guerrero’s last show before he retires, so we want to make it his best show, and something he will remember as a lasting, parting gift from everyone in the choral program.”

Guerrero believes that this year’s theme is unique and unlike any other previous cabaret performance.

Prior to the show, he said that he was looking forward to seeing the audience’s reaction.

“With a show like this, we take songs out of context from their musicals and make our own show out of it, so we never know what the audience is going to really like and we don’t know what their reactions are going to be,” Guerrero said.

Choir alumni joined the students for a surprise performance of “For Good” from “Wicked” to commemorate Guerrero’s last show and honor his 15 years at the school.

“It is our job as your teachers to open your eyes to either literature or art or science or history that’s outside of what you know,” Guerrero said. “The kids in the music program know a lot about music, but we always choose things that they don’t know, and then we get to see them get appreciation for something new.”