Expectations are high for students preparing for ‘Burroughs on Broadway’ production
Maddy Mahay skates across the stage at rehearsal for “Xanadu,” at Burroughs High on Tuesday.
Students who perform with the John Burroughs High School Vocal Music Assn. are used to meeting high expectations as they gear up to perform in the annual three-day “Burroughs on Broadway” production, the organization’s largest fundraiser involving about 200 singers from several student choirs.
In the past, students have learned to tap dance for the show, and members of the behind-the-scenes crew have built complicated props, such as a 40-foot-long wooden piece resembling the Titanic.
This time around, about 15 female students, who are part of the Sound Sensations choir, took on roller-skating for a number they’ll perform from the musical “Xanadu.”
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Flynn McHugh performs a solo at rehearsal for Xanadu, a Burroughs on Broadway performance at Burroughs High School.
The students auditioned for the roles at Moonlight Rollerway in Glendale during the summer, said director Brendan Jennings.
“There’s several girls who can do tricks who are very good roller skaters,” he said. “We’re putting them to work.”
On Tuesday, the students held a dress rehearsal at 4 p.m.
When 17-year-old senior Madison Mahay arrived, she said learning how to skate for the show put her in skates for the first time. While auditioning for a part, she realized, to her surprise, she could easily skate backward.
Over recent weeks, she fell a few times getting the hang of it and has “the bruises to prove it,” she said. Learning to sing and skate at the same time was also a new challenge.
“I feel alive from it,” she said, adding that when she skates down the ramps on stage, “It’s a wind-in-my-hair moment.”
A trio of singers peak out from behind the curtain during a rehearsal for “Xanadu,” a performance that will be part of the “Burroughs on Broadway” show.
Fellow skater Sage McNeely, a 15-year-old sophomore, will also be skating down ramps as part of the “Xanadu” performance.
She grew up skating with her dad and her friends at Moonlight Rollerway, located at 5110 San Fernando Road.
As part of her recent training, she learned how to take a tumble.
“We did some crash courses on how to fall,” she said. That means the girls had to bend their knees and fall on their rears, and not on their heads.
The work has paid off.
“No one has made any big accidents. No one has really, really hurt themselves. It’s scary at first, but now, most of the girls are used to it,” she said.
As part of the upcoming performances at 7 p.m. on Friday and Saturday and 2 p.m. on Sunday, the Powerhouse, Sound Waves and Decibelles choirs will also perform a range of songs from popular Broadway shows, including “Hamilton,” “Wicked” and “Cinderella.”
For information, visit jbhsvma.com.
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Kelly Corrigan, kelly.corrigan@latimes.com
Twitter: @kellymcorrigan
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