Burbank High students take the stage at Valley Performing Arts Center
Burbank High School’s Noa Drake, center, sings and dances along with the rest of the members of the school’s show choir during practice at the school in Burbank on Tuesday, September 22, 2015. The choir will performed on stage with Megan Hilty on September 24 at the Valley Performing Arts Center in Northridge.
Members of Burbank High School’s advanced, mixed show choir called “In Sync” took to the stage in a sold-out show Thursday night with Broadway and television star Megan Hilty at the Valley Performing Arts Center.
The performance came just five weeks after the teens began school.
“We had to work quickly to bring together a show that would be worthy of opening and performing with Megan Hilty,” said Brett Carroll, who directed the students, along with Randy Sage and April James, who choreographed the performance.
Hilty has performed as Glinda in “Wicked” on Broadway and in its Los Angeles production. She has also performed at Carnegie Hall, the Kennedy Center and has appeared on several television shows, most notably “Smash!,” in which she had a starring role.
On Thursday, the Burbank students opened for Hilty’s show in which she sang Hollywood favorites and Broadway standards.
In Sync performed songs including, “I Surrender,” and “Stand Up and Make a Change.”
A smaller group of students performed a cappella versions of “Hit the Road Jack,” and student Reed Shannon was featured in a solo of “Who’s Lovin’ You.”
“It was an amazing performance, and it’s hard to believe they learned it all in five weeks,” said parent Ellie Stockwell.
When the choir members were rehearsing their own rendition of “For Good,” a song from “Wicked,” Hilty began to cry, Carroll said.
She decided at that moment to move the song from the middle of the show and make it the final number.
“She touchingly said, ‘What else could I possibly do after this?’” Carroll recalled.
“This was a special opportunity for our students and a once-in-a-lifetime experience. We were treated like stars, and the singers performed like it,” Carroll said. “Nothing is better than seeing the joy and thrill in our kids when they get to go out on stage and do what they love to do — entertain audiences.”
_______________
FOR THE RECORD
Sept. 29, 2015, 3:33 p.m.: An earlier version of this story misstated that Megan Hilty starred in “Crash.” Hilty starred in “Smash.”
_______________