Woodland Hills Presents "Phantom of the Opera"

Known for ambitious musical theater ventures, Woodland Hills High School is preparing to take it to a new level with this year’s show choice – Phantom of the Opera.

In the last three years, the students have created musicals targeted to children, including Wizard of Oz, Annie and Beauty and the Beast.

Woodland Hills Musical Director Thomas Crone said the students wanted to take on heavier material.

“We kicked around a lot of things and changed our minds three or four times,” Crone said of the decision. “At the beginning of June, I got a notice that they had just released the rights nationally for high schools to do Phantom of the Opera. We dropped our other initial thought and decided to give this one a shot.”

Scenery, costumes, lighting and designs all started planning over the summer. Crone encouraged students to get a few voice lessons if they could to prepare for the taxing nature of the show. Auditions took place in October while rehearsals started earlier than usual this year in November.

“We knew it was going to be tough on the kids vocally – it’s really difficult,” Crone said. “But I know we have the work ethic to pull it off.”

Woodland Hills High School created another tough production three years ago with Victor Hugo’s epic tale, Les Miserables.

“This one is more difficult,” Crone said. “It’s challenging technically, too, at the level we try to do things. They said they wanted a challenge, so here it is.”

Crone said he is looking forward to meeting a surprised audience after opening night.

“We want them to say, ‘I can’t believe these are high school kids,’ as they always do, which will be a little tougher this year,” he said. “It’s so mature, that it will be tough – and that’s the biggest challenge, and we have been very successful with that in the past.”

Tickets are $10 and are now on sale. 8 p.m. shows are April 29, 30, May 5, 6, 7 and 1 p.m. matinee shows are April 30 and May 7. To buy tickets or for more information call 412-244-1100 ext. 5187.