Melanie Espinal– General Assignment Reporter
The Boy Friend’s opening weekend had many students and general admission playgoers filling up sections to come out and support the theater department.
The theater department and the Crescent Players will be presenting the show multiple times thru this upcoming Sunday, October 16.
“The Boy Friend” written by Sandy Wilson, first hit the theater scene in 1953. The play, a light-hearted tale, is set during the roaring twenties in the French Riviera.
The play, often coined as a comic pastiche, imitates the culture by being set in a boarding school for “The Perfect Young Ladies,” where the students are not allowed to have boyfriends.
The first scene opens in the school, taught by Madame Dubonnet, played by Taylor Tennenbaum, in a room typical of French interior design in the 1920s.
The play follows the lovestory of student Polly Browne, played by Brianna Bauch, and the errand boy, Tony Brockhurst, played by Dallas Swaine.
During the musical, the actresses and actors are spewing out fast lines in British and French accents and breaking into song.
They also are keeping up with the fast-beat dances of the 20’s like the Charleston and the shows own “The Riviera Dance.”
One dance number titled “Safety in Numbers,” is where actress Maire Whelan plays the frivolous Maisie with multiple suitors.
Another self-titled “The Boy Friend,” is a number in which the characters advise boyfriends as utmost necessities.
The dances were directed and choreographed by theatre professor Larry Nye, and musically directed by Thomas Buckley.
The dance numbers were surprisingly amazing, said student Maddy Causapin.
Causapin, a sophomore pre-nursing major, said she too was a part of theater in high school.
“I’ve never heard about this play though, it’s hilarious,” she said. “I love musicals.”
She said she has attended other SCSU productions before, such as RENT.
“It was really good,” she said, “ I cried.”
Causapin managed to have her friend, student Kelsey Kyziak, tag along.
“She dragged me here,” she said. “It’s my first play at Southern.”
Kyziak, a junior early childhood education and psychology major, said it is an experience Southern students should partake in.
Business management senior Giovani Burq came out to support his frat brother and friend Eric “Church Boy” Clinton, who played Polly Browne’s father Percival.
“I’m not really into musicals,” he said, “and I really liked this one.”
Burq acknowledged that playing in a musical might not be something typical of students in fraternities.
“His personality is so out there,” he said. “He’s also a talented musician, poet.”
He said if students knew Clinton personally they wouldn’t even question it.
“Everyone should come out and see it,” he said. “As someone who doesn’t like musicals, I’d say this is an exception.”
Photo Credit: Palmer Piana- Photo Editor
