Summer Theater Camp Show "Stars of Tomorrow" Tonight at Amity HS

WOODBRIDGE - The Amity Theater Camp will present one performance of “Stars of Tomorrow” tonight, July 29, at 7:00 p.m. in the Amity High School auditorium. Friday marks the final day of summer camp and the fifty plus campers ages 6-16 will celebrate by performing all kinds of Broadway showstoppers for an audience.

Andrea Kennedy is the camp director, with her husband Rob Kennedy serving as the acting teacher. The choreographer of all of the musical numbers is Lily Swain, assisted by Molly Blair, and the Kennedy’s son Ryan was the music teacher for the very lucky budding performers. Rob Kennedy was also the technical director for the performance, with Merrin Holland on the light board and Alyssa Salizar in charge of the soundboard. Ryan Kennedy carefully gave the singers/dancers their music cues from the front of the audience as he played the musical tracks.

The production team invited me to attend the final dress rehearsal on the morning of the show and I was delighted with the carefully chosen musical numbers performed by the fifty campers.

The musical numbers run back to back and feature different groups of campers, ranging from the “littles,” through middle school age, and up to some talented teens. There is nothing like seeing the Amity stage literally filled with singers and dancers of all ages, working together to put on their show. Each and every one is fully committed to the various numbers, and the fact that they can remember such a huge amount of choreography, as well as music and lyrics, is most impressive.

The younger Kennedy told me that he found it extremely easy to teach the music to the campers. Ryan literally grew up on this stage under the direction of his parents and it was special for me to see him sharing his many talents with the young performers. There are ten young adults that gently wrangled the students as camp counselors. The production team thanks their volunteer counselors who spent the last month taking care of the campers. “We couldn’t do it without them,” they posted.

Audiences tonight will be able to enjoy thirteen full musical numbers listed in the printed program, with a cover designed by Angie Ring and Victoria Pelton.

The tiny invited audience cheered for every one of the numbers, featuring music from a wide variety of Broadway musicals, thereby introducing the “stars of tomorrow” to some of the best of music that has been sung on Broadway stages since well before they were born.

Some highlights for me included the opening “Larger Than Life” from the new show“& Juliet,” with the entire cast dancing and singing on the stage, and the song “Come So Far” from “Hairspray” that closes the show. In between, there is the some of the youngest campers doing “We’re All Made of Stars” from “Finding Neverland,” the inspiring “This Is Me” from “Greatest Showman,” a jivey “Nobody” from “Bandstand,” and an adorable “Oh the Thinks You Can Think” from “Seussical The Musical” featuring the tiniest of the campers.

Don’t miss the quartet of young ladies singing “I’m A Star” from “Still Dreaming Wide Awake" and the camp counselors performing "I See Stars" from "Mean Girls." I also loved hearing the entire cast sing “Our Time” from “Merrily We Roll Along” as a bunch of photos and videos taken of the campers during the last three weeks of rehearsal are shown behind them. The performers wore their camp t-shirts with some creative add ons, and several made quick changes for some featured roles.

This is a wonderful show and best of all it's free, so the Bethany, Orange, Woodbridge community can bring the entire family. Bring the kids, the rest of the family and the neighbors.

The performance tonight will run 45 minutes at the Amity High School John J Brady Center for the Performing Arts.