Murray Avenue School is mounting its first school musical in years. Produced by KJK Productions with support of the Murray PTA, The Sound of Music is now in rehearsal. Performances are scheduled for the Murray auditorium on January 23 and 24 at 12 and 3:30 pm.
Sound of Music at Murray January 23
January 24
All Tickets $7 Run time approximately 1 hour |
The show is based on the story of a real World War II-era Austrian family and a struggling novice nun popularized in the 1965 movie starring Julie Andrews. Murray children in grades two, three, four and five will offer up such crowd-pleasers as Maria, Do-re-mi and My Favorite Things.
KJK Productions has produced shows at Central School and is providing professional choreography, music and acting direction, as well as costumes and scenery. Kevin J. Kearins, KJK’s artistic director, has put on more than 50 Broadway-style musicals in the tri-state area.
Why a Musical Now?
There had been musicals at Murray in the 1970s and 1980s recalled Carole West, a Larchmont resident and former Murray music teacher. But the tradition had died out.
Amy Psaila, who has had a child attending Murray for the last six years, was curious why every other school in the district was putting on musicals. “I kept asking why and never really got a satisfactory answer,” she told the Gazette.
Finally, after seeing Central School’s production last year, she started researching how the show was produced there. The answer: they hired a production company. “That seemed a great fit and was so well received there, that I thought it was worth a try,” said Ms. Psaila.
The Murray PTA gave her the go-ahead. So she found a co-chair – Karen Paul – and recruited additional key parent volunteers, including cast coordinators Cheryl Marshall and Rachel Goldman. “It came together with the help of many, many people,” said Ms. Psaila.
Now in its first week of rehearsals, the status of the production is “so far, so good,” she reported.