Cohoes wins theater contest

Drama club gets $4K royalty fee for “Chicago” waived

The show will go on for free as Cohoes High School won a national competition and won’t have to pay the $4,000 royalty fee to perform “Chicago: High School Edition”.

Christian Gunn, director of the school’s drama program, applied at the beginning of the school year to the Samuel French “Razzle Dazzle Competition,” which celebrates “Chicago” composer John Kander’s 90th birthday. All Gunn had to do was show how the Cohoes Drama Club’s “students ‘razzle dazzle’ their school community by demonstrating how musical theater impacts their lives, inside and outside of school,” according to a release by the district.

“I didn’t believe it at first,” Gunn said. “I thought ‘this is not possible.’ It’s crazy.”

What’s not crazy is that the musical’s performance rights, orchestrated music and scripts will be given to the club free of charge. Gunn said this will allow the club to steer funds toward some much-needed infrastructure updates, and more elaborate sets and costumes.

Cohoes High School is one of 10 schools to win the national contest.

“It’s inspirational to see how far they’ve come in such a short period of time,” said District Superintendent Jennifer Spring. “Christian is the catalyst of the program and he’s really taken it to new heights.”

The Cohoes Drama Club is currently preparing to perform “Shrek” April 12-14. The students will perform “Chicago” in the spring of 2020.

“We’ll jump into some of the racier elements of theater. It’s a real life musical with real life problems,” Gunn said.

The musical, according to Gunn, is more a danceoriented production than the student performers usually undertake.

“I always try to set the bar unrealistically high so they’ll push themselves andgoashighastheycan. This can really take them to the next level,” Gunn said.