Coming April, SJHHS Orchestra will be participating in the spring musical How to Succeed in Business Without Really Trying.

Orchestra began preparing for the musical in January, before the second semester started and a month before the actors begin practicing.

Because actors began rehearsing in February, orchestra had to rehearse and have the music prepared in order for the actors to rehearse for the play.

“We try to get about a month ahead of the singers so we can to have the music prepared for them so we can do recordings that they can use for dance choreography and also have music prepared so the singers can come in,” says McElroy, the orchestra teacher.

How to Succeed in Business Without Really Trying is a broadway play, so orchestra was given professional sheet music rather than creating their own.

“There’s a new revival that’s currently on broadway so we weren’t sure if we could get the rights to it, but we did. We had to go to the publishing company and get rights and permission and pay rental fees and royalties in order to do the musical,” says McElroy on orchestra and drama’s eligibility of performing the musical.

The creative team, consisting of McElroy, De La Cruz, and Beilstein, meets together to discuss the strengths and weaknesses of each department to understand which musical would be best to perform. Orchestra is required to have certain instruments in the musicals, so when deciding on a musical, McElroy looks at musical that have that instrumentation.

It takes about a semester to pick a musical, because each department has to know what and who they have, what they need to work on, and what they excel in. Once the teachers have an understanding of what they are working with, they pick the musical based off what the classes are capable of performing.

The students performing in the musical are students who have volunteered their time to participate. They meet Tuesday and Thursday evenings, and after spring break they will meet everyday to finish up the musical.

During the musical, McElroy will be in the pit, which is the front portion of the stage that drops six feet below the stage, and conducts orchestra and choir.

The instruments the musical calls for are all string instruments like violin, cellos, and bass, woodwind, and brass instruments. They pull in as many instruments as they can fit in the pit, then they bring in the singers and actors to go along with what they have prepared.