Crowds roar for ‘The Lion King Kids’ musical at Musson

ROCHESTER — When the curtains opened on stage at Musson Elementary, the students in “The Lion King Kids” were ready to shine before a sold-out crowd.

Fourth and fifth graders beamed with pride as they slowly entered the room and took to the stage, singing in a native African language.

Animal headpieces of all shapes and sizes appeared as the students emerged in their colorful costumes — which were carefully sewn by teachers, parents and a loving grandmother.

The animals gathered to bow before the hand-crafted pride rock, where a newborn Simba was held high for all of the prideland to see.

The musical, presented by Musson’s new Drama Club, was a labor of love for all involved.

First grade teacher and drama club leader Sheila Thomason — who directed the show with fellow club leaders and teachers Jennifer Juengal and Amy King — said the trio decided to start the school’s first drama club last year, after many years of dreaming.

“The pandemic happened and so much of the performing arts was minimized because of the fact that people couldn’t get together, and that’s when our talent show also stopped here at Musson,” she said. “That was when we were like, ‘No, this niche of kids, their talent is not able to shine,’ and this was our opportunity.”

When the drama club made its debut, all 44 students who wanted to be in the first production, “Finding Nemo Kids,” received a part.

This time around, the cast was limited to fourth and fifth graders. Although 78 students tried out, only 40 were chosen to perform, due to the small size of the elementary school’s stage and limited technical equipment.

“We don’t choose by talent or singing ability,” Thomason explained. “We choose by how much they work to learn the parts for the auditions and how much they show us that they have confidence.”

For many kids, drama club is their first opportunity to act on stage.

“It looks so fun, but some kids don’t realize that it’s also a huge amount of work. It’s like having extra homework every night,” Thomason added.

For the past six months, the cast worked hard reciting, memorizing and practicing their roles and musical performances in preparation for their shows — a school performance April 4 and two more for the public April 9, which both sold out.

A mix of fourth and fifth graders — including Heather Choi, Aadhya Ananthakrishnan, Kristen Winkler, Savannah Rowe and Josephine Koluch — teamed up as Rafiki, narrating the play together.

Ananthakrishnan, who is in fifth grade, admitted she had a little bit of stage fright at first.

“In the beginning I was worried I might forget my lines, but then when I started practicing more — and I figured out that practice makes perfect — it was really fun and I actually wasn’t scared anymore,” she said. “I knew I had other people on my side who could help me out.”

Other fifth graders to earn main character roles included Riley Granger as young Simba, Celine Winkler as young Nala, Hope Barrett as Scar, Maxwell Ziebinski as Timon, and Tovia Rim as adult Simba.

Granger said she felt more confident on stage this time around, after having played Crush the turtle in ‘Finding Nemo Kids’ the year prior.

“With my experience last year, I remember I was really scared, but once I saw the audience, I realized, ‘You can’t go wrong with all these people that are ready to see you perform because of how much you worked,’” she said. “So this time, since all of my peers were next to me and walking through the savannah with me, I was ready to do anything because they were by my side.”

Ziebinski, who made his acting debut as the outspoken meerkat Timon, provided some comic relief on stage.

“In one of the scenes, I had to put on a grass skirt and do a hula dance, so I was a little nervous about that at the start, but then it went away,” he said. “It was pretty fun. I enjoyed making new friends and getting a chance to shine my light.”

Fourth graders Santiago Montero served as Mufasa; Ruth Swanson was Sarabi; Blake Dillard played the role of Zazu; Videesh Patel was named Pumbaa; and Scarlett Watson was chosen as adult Nala. Fourth grader Sofia Papakonstantinou performed as Shenzi, along with classmates Luke Hunnicutt as Banzai and Anthony Shammami as Ed.

“After the show was done, I felt like everybody felt accomplished,” Dillard said. “We did something to feel good about ourselves and we were all happy.”

Many more students made up the ensemble, performing in multiple roles  — as elephants, giraffes, lionesses, birds, wildebeests, zebras, buzzards, and hyenas. Fifth graders Sofia Caruso, Addilyn Hoekstra and Leanna Zhang were among them.

“At first, when I got my part and I was (in) the ensemble, I was thinking it wasn’t very important in the show because the ensemble didn’t have any talking parts, but toward the end of the show, once we were doing our last performance, I realized that everybody relies on each other and everyone needs each other to complete the show,” Caruso said.

“There’s not one small part,” added Thomason. “Every single character makes the entire show work.”

Hoekstra said she loved how everyone knew how to be the character they were assigned to be, and how “they could make it come to life.”

“Everyone was very committed and it was a lot of work,” she said. “Some songs were in a different language, an African language, and we all had to learn it and make sure that we pronounced it right.”

The one-hour performance of “The Lion King Kids” drew smiles, awe, and laughter from the crowd, which erupted in thunderous applause as the curtains closed on a restored pride rock.

Zhang, a zebra and member of the hyena army, said there’s one thing she hopes everyone will take home from the club’s performance.

“Everyone can do something if they work hard for it,” she said.

“It couldn’t have possibly been pulled off with just one person,” added Granger. “It took everyone to build courage and make a big performance and dance and sing — it was like a big wave washing over the audience of how amazing it was and it took the whole group. I’m very happy that we all did our part.”

In 20 years of teaching, Thomason said she has never been more proud to be a part of something than the Musson Drama Club.

“There is just some magic to it,” she said. “It’s like my dreams and wishes come true when I watch them and I see all the pieces we put together, and the hard, hard, hard work that we do. It’s what I always imagined it would be, right from the very beginning, and then some — the students always excel.”