Not Your Average High School Musical

I have always been an avid lover of theatre.  I try to see as many shows as I can, from local theatre productions to Broadway tours.  The show I look forward to the most each year, however, might surprise some people.  My absolute favorite performance, and the one with the most talent, is consistently Theatre Xavier’s annual musical production.

Theatre Xavier is the student theatre at St. Xavier High School in Cincinnati, Ohio, although if you’ve ever seen one of their shows you may have mistaken it for a Broadway production.  The talent and passion of the students involved blows me away year after year, and I always go in wondering what else they will manage to surprise me with.

This year Theatre Xavier presented Andrew Lloyd Webber’s Cats.  As always, TX presented the show with complete style and professionalism.  The set and costumes were perfect, the music was wonderful, and the entire performance was completely captivating.  The energy of the cast was phenomenal and I came away from the show feeling like I had just seen a Tony Award winning performance.  One thing that set this one above any other I’ve seen at TX was the dancing.  Cats is a very dance-driven musical, with the actors portraying the movements and attitudes of cats within the choreography.  It takes an extremely talented group of actors and dancers to pull off a show like this.

So how did TX come up with such amazing choreography and talent for this performance?  At the beginning of the school year, when Cats was announced as the annual musical, St. Xavier Senior Ben Lanham was chosen by director Michele Mascari to choreograph the show as well as run the dance auditions (he also played the part of Mr. Mistoffelees).

Lanham has been studying dance since he was 9 years old, when he saw Cats performed in New York City.  “I was so enthralled with the show that afterwards I asked my mom if I could do what the cats did, and when we got back to Cincinnati my parents enrolled me in classes,” Lanham said.  He currently trains in Ballet, Tap, Jazz, Contemporary, Acrobatics, and Hip-Hop and will be studying dance performance at Oklahoma City University this fall.  He chose OCU because of their dance program which focuses greatly on the theatrical aspect of dance performance.

Lanham worked in conjunction with Northern Kentucky University Senior Emily Brinkman on the choreography for Cats.  They watched the original Broadway choreography for inspiration, then developed their own movements for the performance.  Most of the choreography seen in the final production was their own.  The two would listen to the songs and try out different steps, then if they both liked it, they would add it into the piece.

Lanham says the most important thing to remember in choreography is to keep the big picture in mind, but you also have to remember to keep listening to the music.  “Music has a built in evenflo with accents the dancing should hit,” he says.  “If the choreography doesn’t go with what the music is saying, it will never click for the performers or the audience.”

Another thing that made this performance of Cats so incredible was the dedication and connection of the entire cast and crew to the show and one another.  Lanham said that although he has worked on many shows, this one was “really something special.  Everyone involved was so closely knit and worked so well together and only because of that were we able to pull off a show like Cats.”  He also said that the cast was so deeply involved with the show that they had a hard time dropping their cat characteristics even once they were off the stage.  “I can’t tell you how many meows I get in the hallway every day.”

Cats is nominated for 24 awards in the Cincinnati Cappies, including two for Ben Lanham as Best Male Dancer and one for his choreography.  This sets a record for the most Cappies nominations for one school.  TX is also the most successful of all schools in the eight years of the Cappies, earning 52 awards in the first seven years.

To see the full list of nominations, click here: The Cappies

To see the full cast list, click here: Theatre Xavier’s Cats

Click Read More for some cast photos.

Ben Lanham as Mr. Mistoffelees

Katy Flanigan as Victoria

Tommy Boeing as Rum Tug Tugger

Cast Photo

Ria Villaver as Grizabella

Tommy Boeing, Katy Flanigan, and Ben Lanham