Last year, the Newport Music Department started a new tradition of the Newport Middle and High School Cabaret. This year, the new name for this event is “The Night of Music.” The event took place on Saturday, Nov. 18 at 5:30 in the elementary school cafeteria.
Middle school students, high school students, and Newport alumni auditioned for this event after school on Oct. 30. After deliberating on who would perform in the show, music teachers and musical directors Mrs. Wiles and Mrs. Finnerty held a practice the morning of the event to prepare for the Night of Music. Along with the performances from the singers, there was a spaghetti dinner cooked by Mr. Wiles before the show and a silent auction.
This year, there were t-shirts with the musical of this year on them. The shirts were available for purchase that night after the show’s reveal so that there were no spoilers. After all the acts were performed, such as Never Fall In Love With an Elf sung by Reagan Smeigh and My Favorite Things sung by Jordan Knouse, Mrs. Wiles and Mrs. Finnerty performed Beauty and the Beast/Tale As Old As Time from the adored show, Beauty and the Beast. While performing, Mrs. Kauffman danced across the stage with the Beauty and the Beast shirts.
Last year, 6th grader David Stewart was the opening act for the show which included a song from the musical, Little Shop of Horrors. Later in the show, senior Zachary Bellis and sophomore Riley Babski performed a duet to “Agony” from Into the Woods. Another duet included Phoebe Tice and her mom performing “Anything You Can Do, I Can Do Better” from Annie, Get Your Gun.
To close the show, Mrs. Wiles and Mrs. Finnerty performed a song from the musical they had chosen for the 2022-2023 school year: We Will Rock You.
The 2024 Newport musical will be performed on March 7-9 by the Newport Middle and High School students and will start practices right after Christmas break. Any student interested in auditioning on Dec. 13 and 14 should retrieve the Google Classroom Code outside the band room.
