Amy Livingston, Egyptian Theatre’s YouthTheatre director of education and media content, wants to make one thing clear.
The YouTheatre Cabaret performance that is set for Friday, May 9, at the Egyptian Theatre Studios, is not a kid version of the classic, but sometimes risque, musical, “Cabaret.”
“We’re doing a revue-styled performance that features our YouTheatre Academy Class, which is our upper-level training program,” she said with a laugh. “The theme for this performance is called ‘Oldies, but Goodies.’ So we have a bunch of songs and dance numbers that will be performed by individuals, duets or groups, depending on the pieces.”
The numbers are culled from different musicals that were written before the year 2000 and include works from “The Sound of Music, “Chicago,” “Les Misérables, “The Wizard of Oz” and others, according to Livingston.
“We wanted the pieces to be fun and wanted to choose from classic shows that people would know really well — audience favorites,” she said.
The pieces were also selected in sync with the three YouTheatre Academy levels, Livingston said.
“We divide the academy into groups, depending on their level of expertise,” she said. “We do start with age and grade, but we also look at their auditions and skill and experience level. So, the kids are put in groups where levels of challenges are most appropriate for them.”
YouTheatre Academy is an audition-only process, which is different from the rest of the Egyptian Theatre’s YouTheatre classes, a program that gives kids hands-on experience with performing, where kids can just register, Livingston said.
“We do auditions at the beginning of the semester, and even if you’ve been in YouTheatre in the past, you still have to audition,” she said. “So our expectations are a little bit higher. We have a smaller group this semester, and each group has about four to six people.”
While the YouTheatre instructors and coaches selected numbers for groups one and two, according to Livingston.
“The youngest group is doing ‘Somewhere Over the Rainbow,’ which is a total classic,” she said.
The two ensemble numbers group two is doing has one that is well known and one that is less known — “The Lonely Goat Herder” from “The Sound of Music,” which premiered in 1959, and then “Once a Year Day” from 1954’s “The Pajama Game.”
“Once a Year Day” is a bit of a deep cut, Livingston said.
“But it’s a piece our staff members, myself included, are huge fans of,” she said. “‘The Pajama Game’ always comes up in conversations when we talk about material choices because we love that musical so much. But it’s not one that many people know. So that song became an easy opportunity to introduce the group to a show they might not know and to introduce the audience to something that they might not be familiar with.”
Livingston and the YouTheatre staff gave the students in group three, the academy’s most experienced group, the freedom to choose their own songs to perform individually, in duets or in groups.
“The reason why we did that is because we wanted the kids to have a lot more autonomy and allow them to explore more musical-theater repertoire on their own,” Livingston said. “There is so much modern musical-theater music, post 2000, that the kids know and love — like ‘Heathers,’ ‘Wicked’ and ‘Hamilton,’ the big standards in the modern rep. So, we were excited to tell them they can only choose pieces that were done before the year 2000, because that would push them to go and do some research and look up musicals that they aren’t familiar with.”
Livingston’s goal was to get the group to dive into the history of musical theater and look for songs that would be fun to perform.
“There is so much good modern musical theater, but you’re missing out if you don’t know the classics,” she said.
Some of the group-three performances will include “Adelaide’s Lament” from 1950’s “Guys and Dolls,” “16 Going on 17” from “The Sound of Music” and “I Feel Pretty” from “West Side Story,” which premiered in 1957, Livingston said.
“Adelaide’s Lament,’ which is one of my favorite songs, is a character piece, and the actor singing is going to do an accent,” she said. “‘16 Going on 17’ is such a sweet piece, and a lot of fun, and ‘I Feel Pretty’ is, for those of us over the age of 20, such a classic song. But I feel those kinds of classics have been overlooked a little bit.”
In addition to the YouTheatre Academy, YouTheatre teachers will perform during the revue, Livingston said.
“That will automatically raise expectations and stakes,” she said. “I’m singing ‘Will He Like Me’ from (the 1963 Tony Award-winning) ‘She Loves Me,’ which is one of my favorite golden-age musicals of all time. Whenever I get a chance to sing anything from that show, I jump on it.”
The YouTheatre Cabaret performance is also a fundraiser for the YouTheatre program, Livingston said.
“This is the second time we’ve done this,” she said. “Last year we did it and called it by a different name — ‘Staff and Student Cabaret,’ and we started a tradition to have these performances become fundraisers. So, all the ticket proceeds go back to the program.”
Livingston loves working on these types of revue-style performances.
“On a personal level, I’m a musical-theater geek who has loved musical theater since I was a kid, and this is where my passion lies,” she said. “I love pulling together a performance that has roots and inspiration from so many different shows, and periods of musical-theater history. As an educator, I love exposing kids to things they haven’t heard or seen before and give them the opportunity to fall in love with something they may not ordinarily think about.”
Livingston also loves working on a production that focuses on the songs and dancing.
“We don’t have elaborate sets and costumes, and we’re not telling a through-line story,” she said. “Because of that, we can focus on each individual piece and the performance of each person. The spectacle is coming from one, two or a group of people. So it’s a nice change of pace to showcase something skill-focused.”
YouTheatre Cabaret
- When: 5 p.m., Friday, May 9
- Where: Egyptian Theatre Studios, 330 Main St.
- Cost: $25 for adults; $15 for youths ages 17 and younger
- Phone: 855-745-SHOW
- Web: parkcityshows.com