June 13–30
Muhlenberg's Summer Music Theatre presents a dynamic display of cheerleading, pop rock, wit and wisdom in this year's contemporary selection. Bring It On: The Musical is a Broadway take on the teen films of the early 2000s, with a whole lot of substance packed in.
Director James Peck, a theater professor at Muhlenberg, is thrilled to be tackling a production he sees as underappreciated. Inspired by Hollywood bubblegum, the musical is the work of a superstar team, with music and lyrics by Tom Kitt, Lin-Manuel Miranda and Amanda Green, and book by Jeff Whitty. “The score is fantastic,” Peck says. “[Kitt and Miranda] both really know how to write pop Broadway music. It's one great song after another, and the book is just a beautiful machine.”
With Whitty's acerbic wit and the energetic enunciation of Miranda's lyrics, Bring It On tells the story of a wealthy white girl finally elected captain of her cheerleading team senior year, only to be redistricted into an urban high school. “It's a story of how she finds herself by losing herself,” Peck says. As she makes friends and convinces the dance crew to turn cheerleader and compete at Nationals, her biggest challenge might be coming to grips with her class and race privilege.
The production allows Peck a generous number of great female roles for students who are often dealing with a dude-heavy canon, and to employ the talents of actors with rapping and cheerleading chops. Gabrielle Hines, a 2018 graduate who's been cheerleading since she was six years old, is in charge of cheerography. Don't expect anyone to be hurled into the rafters, but the routines will be “as pizzazzy as possible.”
With a wonderful summery ebullience, this musical nonetheless delivers trenchant social criticism, and in a hopeful, spirited way.
$31–$41 | 2 & 7:30 p.m. | Muhlenberg College | 2400 Chew St., Allentown | 484.664.3333 | muhlenberg.edu
