Soph-Frosh SING!: A Show That Transcends Time

If you were to travel back in time, before visiting Greece and Rome, before meeting dead presidents and world leaders, before passing yourself the answers to the math test you failed last week, before returning to the time MarkyMark and CharChar reigned supreme, you might want to stop by this year’s time-travel themed Soph-Frosh SING!. While it had its rough patches (time travel can be bumpy) and struggled at times to maintain momentum in the plot and incorporate dance crews, Soph-Frosh’s talented cast, band, and dance crews pulled together a convincing and timely story of acceptance and coming of age.

Centered around a mishmash of characters from different eras, Soph-Frosh SING!, coordinated by Debi Saha and producers Michael Chen, Lena Farley, Liam Kronman, and Lara Somoroff, addressed the struggle for acceptance that transcends the constraints of time.

In a futuristic small town, a scientist (Zeynep Bromberg) is a disgrace to her community. In the opening number, “Belle” from “Beauty and the Beast,” she expresses in a clear, ringing voice her frustration at the provinciality and small-mindedness of the townspeople as chorus, directed by Noa Greenstein and Grace Goldstein, scorns her failed attempts to create a time machine. Though chorus was initially low energy, their dulcet and melodious singing, as well as the band’s superb accompaniment, made up for their lack of stage presence.

Despite her town’s lack of faith, the scientist is undeterred yet surprised when characters from various time periods step out of the time machine, a cute painted box mildly reminiscent of a porta-potty. From the moment they are introduced to the audience, Ooga (Maya Angles), a cavewoman, Edith (Emily Gillies), a posh British woman from the Victorian era, and Pelvis Parsley (Adam Cohen), an Elvis impersonator, dazzle in their flashy attire. Costumes, directed by Tara Mavinakere and Stephanie Chen, did an impressive job in dressing the characters, showing incredible attention to detail, from Pelvis’s green bell-bottoms to Edith’s lavish white and gold floor length dress complete with a cage crinoline.

When the time machine breaks down, the motley crew finds themselves unable to return to their respective time periods. A highlight of Soph-Frosh SING! was when a psychic (Alex Nobert) led belly, directed by Dikkila Sherpa, Hiruni Kumari, and Sara Bautista, for a stunning and spellbinding performance to the melody of Beyoncé’s “Naughty Girl,” accompanied by a solo flute that sent chills up the audience’s spines. With the psychic’s guidance, the crew sets off to a post-global-warming New York City to find the battery that will restore the broken machine and save the day.

It is safe to say that Soph-Frosh SING! shined for its execution and superbly talented cast and band. The driving forces behind the show were the relationship between the scientist, her daughter Phoebe (Victoria Wong), and Theo (Matthew Carlson), a teen from 1980s Brooklyn. Phoebe, overwhelmingly relatable in her Kanken Fjallraven backpack, is afraid to tell her mother that she wants to be a historian instead of a scientist, a predicament countless Stuy students are sure to recognize. Her story is mirrored with much more gravity by Theo, who doesn’t want to return to his time period. At first the reasons for his apprehension are unclear but in perhaps the most touching moment of the entire show, he comes out to Phoebe as gay in a burst of well-acted emotion, transitioning into the beautifully sung and impassioned duet between the two, “I Won’t Give Up.”

Despite the cast’s musicality and the skills of band, directed by Sarah Stebbins and Nicholas Jun, Soph-Frosh SING! hit a stumbling block in incorporating the various dance crews into the plot.

When the gang stops at a bar to fuel up, latin, directed by Kristie Chu and Paul Ramnauth, is introduced by the bartender as being “the show,” not an entirely fluid or original transition into the dance. Their costumes, limp pale pink skirts for the ladies and all black for the guys, were also a bit unclear. Regardless, their energy was exuberant and their stunts drew many well-deserved cheers.

The roles of step and co-ed hip-hop were also confusing, with step, directed by Helen Zhang, Wendy Yan, George Zhou, and Matthew Chan, bizarrely assuming the role of the assassins that supposedly inhabit futuristic New York, and hip-hop, directed by Sarah Hwang and Crystal Liu, playing good samaritans. The wind-up doll costumes for tap, directed by Camilla Green and Elizabeth Doss, were creative, but it was unclear exactly what role they played in the story.

While the actors were clearly committed to their roles, Ooga, Edith, and Pelvis lacked character development. They were not integral to the plot, written more as one-dimensional caricatures used to add another time period to the medley. However, Ooga and Pelvis did inject much needed comedic relief into the otherwise heavy plot; Pelvis’s grinding and swaying while singing Elvis’s “Can’t Help Falling in Love” in his skintight pants elicited nervous giggles, a few groans, and more than one passionate outcry. Ooga darting around the auditorium and screaming “ROCK” during the cast’s performance of “Jailhouse Rock” earned uproarious laughter from the audience.

After searching high and low, exploring the ruins of futuristic New York, and battling assassins, Theo and Phoebe finally stumble upon the battery. However, Theo, who wants to stay in the more accepting year of 3018, convinces Phoebe to hide the battery despite her concern that this might mess up the space-time continuum (a concept she got off of a Buzzfeed article).

Tension builds as they reunite with the rest of the group and return to the town and the time machine. Finally, when all hope seems lost for returning to their respective times, Phoebe pulls the battery out of her knapsack, and in a head-scratching moment, her mother simply throws the battery into the time machine and poof! It’s ready once more to bend the space and time.

As the characters disappear one by one into the time machine, Theo is left alone with Phoebe and her mother, and Phoebe's mother debunks the fake news, graciously assuring him that the space-time continuum will survive. The three remaining characters then launch into a rendition of “Rewrite the Stars,” singing in impressive three-part harmony and flow, directed by Khandaker Ridwan, Corinne Pita, and Sara Mui, lit up the stage like a galaxy as the time machine works its magic.

Soph-Frosh rode a wave of talent in both its cast and crews to tackle a tricky theme and beat out the far more cerebral Junior SING! by a significant margin. While it did not push boundaries and could have been executed more smoothly, Soph-Frosh overcame a set collapse to put on a very enjoyable and authentic show. Indeed, the real theme—acceptance—could not have been more timely.