On April 13th, the BHS Drama Club opened its spring musical. Gypsy, held in the BMS theater, was an enthralling play for both audience and cast members alike.

The play is centered around a mother’s well-intentioned yet poorly executed ambitions for her daughters. While she is willing to sacrifice anything for her daughters to achieve stardom, she ruins her family and relationships in doing so. Rose Hovick’s (Emily Evans) self-centered ambitions create a rift between her and her male companion Herbie (Barry Teich). Rose pushes her daughter June (Courtney Fishman) to the point of running away, and pushes the relationship between Rose and her other daughter Louise (Jessica Gill) to the brink of destruction as well. Louise discovers her own way of becoming a star when she turns into a world famous stripper. The play takes the audience through a journey of ups and downs with the family’s struggles; however, in the end, they resolve their differences.

“The show deals with controlling mothers, failed aspirations, broken hearts and much more,” explained Evans. “All, in my own opinion, fall within the realm of teenage life.”

The cast this year was unique, consisting of students from all grades, a few adults, and a few live animals.

A black puppy named Angie played “Chowsie,” and there were also twin baby lambs, which the cast named “Rose” and “Herbie” after two of the main characters.

“Rose and Herbie belong to a wonderful man named Eric West whose farm is out in Chardon,” explained Director Sheila Heyman. “He bent over backwards for us to make this happen.”

There were many unexpected moments involving “Rose”. However, the actors knew how to improvise and keep going when the live animals tried to escape or take their lines.

The tech crew also did an excellent job with lighting and special effects. One particularly amazing optical allusion was the strobe light that seemed to transform young characters into adults.

“In the final analysis, it worked out very well, but this one, in particular was extremely hard work,” Heyman explained.

“The most difficult part of the show was having such a big cast,” said Fishman. “We only used one dressing room, and every cast member was always running in and out of it. With a production like Gypsy, you not only have a lot of cast members, but a ton of costume and set changes. It definitely paid off in the end, but it’s hard to handle.”

“There wasn’t very much time to prepare for the show and I think that was our biggest obstacle, but we made it,” explained Evans.

Despite all of the challenges, the cast and crew were able to pull it together, and put on a strong production.