Classic love songs from Broadway are bringing Cupid’s arrow to Oklahoma Christian University during the annual Valentine Cabaret.
The annual show consists of a 16-student cast led by faculty director Terry Attebery. According to Attebery, the students have been hard at work rehearsing various Broadway numbers and will continue practice leading up to opening night.
Attebery said he feels the Cabaret is a positive opportunity for the students involved to enhance their skills while having fun.
“The Cabaret is an outlet for these students to use their talents,” Attebery said. “Without a doubt, the most rewarding thing is to see the performers reach their potential, and to grow and to shine and to love what they’re doing.”
Sophomore Sydney May will be performing for a second time in the Cabaret, and said one thing she loves about this year’s show is how inclusive it is for all the cast members involved.
“Everyone in the show has a solo and duet this year,” May said. “So everyone really gets to show off what they’re good at, which is hard to do in things like the musical because in the musical there are leads and minor characters, and you might not get a solo, but in Cabaret you know that you put all this hard work into your songs.”
May said she enjoys how the Cabaret isn’t only fun for the students performing, but is also an avenue for the student body to come together.
“It’s cool having other OC students who may not be musical come and still appreciate the show,” May said. “It’s cool watching the students be able to do this amazing thing at this small school. And that’s kind of a perk for being at OC — that it’s such a small school and the music department isn’t huge, but everyone can kind of participate.”
First-year Cabaret cast member, freshman Austin Peace, said he first became interested in performing in the show after hearing about it from older students.
“I’d heard a lot of upperclassmen talk about Cabaret,” Peace said. “They’d talk about how fun Cabaret is and what kind of show it is, and I’ve always been into musical theatre and stuff like that. It just really jumped at me as something I might be interested in doing.”
According to Peace, the Cabaret is a good way to entertain students, even if they may not be very interested in musical theatre, and help them form an appreciation for the arts. He said he feels this is especially important in a world where interest in the arts is fading.
“I feel Cabaret gives students an insight to the musical theatre world,” Peace said. “I think musical theatre is underappreciated right now. People know what it is, but they’ve never really seen a show. I think the music we sing could get them really interested. I think the arts program in general just adds an entire new section of creativity to OC. It’s pretty obvious that the arts are dying in modern society right now, and I think talented students like these can spread a lot of creativity and music into the world.”
The Valentine Cabaret will take place in the Adams Recital Hall Feb. 10-14 at 7:30 p.m. each night. Tickets are available for $12 at the OC Box Office and online.
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