Sunset Boulevard

By: Olivia Zhou

Under the stage lights of a high school auditorium, history is made. Where stories are laced with delicate melody, heartache contrasted with roars of laughter. There is certainly an enchantment to it all. The spectacle of the high school musical is a prominent aspect of American secondary education. Nowhere is this fact truer than it is at Niskayuna. Our institution has long prided itself on its incredible productions, the fruits of our talented staff, crew, cast, and orchestras. This year’s Sunset Boulevard was certainly no exception to this long-running legacy of show-stopping performances.

A Brief History of Niskayuna’s Winter Musical

Our high school’s annual tradition of putting on a winter musical has fostered an array of incredible shows. From Phantom of the Opera to Oklahoma!, it is clear that Niskayuna has never found a particular production too difficult to shy away from. Moreover, this dedication to success and hard work has led to very favorable outcomes. The 2023 production of A Chorus Line: Teen Edition won Best Student Orchestra in the High School Musical Theatre Award, which recognizes outstanding musical theatre productions and students, highlighting the importance of musical theatre and arts education. This recent feat is only a glimpse of Niskayuna’s shows, which are notorious for their high production quality. We truly highlight and appreciate the efforts of all of our staff and students throughout the years to always put on a great show!

2025: Sunset Boulevard

This year, Niskayuna certainly did not disappoint. Andrew Lloyd Weber’s Sunset Boulevard is both heart wrenching and sensational, yet an incredibly ambitious pursuit, especially for a high school. Yet, Niskayuna managed to knock this out of the park! In an interview with this show’s director, as well as Niskayuna’s band director, Mr. Hughes, he states his motivation behind selecting such a difficult production, “This is the first time the rights to perform Sunset Boulevard have ever been granted so I jumped on the chance for Niskayuna to be one of the first high schools ever to perform it. Plus, it offered a great musical challenge to both our singers and the orchestra, and I knew they could do a great job with some hard work and dedication!” This year’s musical featured a score that tested even the most talented of musicians, including many technical challenges for both the orchestra and cast. Moreover, the subject matter of this show requires cast members to dedicate great effort to understanding their characters. Putting together a show as complex as that of Sunset Boulevard requires a great deal of talent, hard work, and dedication. However, as we have seen before, this is nothing new to Niskayuna’s music department. With countless hours of rehearsals, dance practices, and studying scores, it is truly incredible to view the outstanding fruit of this all. Sunset Boulevard at Niskayuna was truly both show-stopping and thought-provoking. Congratulations to all the students and staff who dedicated their time and effort to producing this show, and especially to Mr. Hughes, Mrs. Pizzino-Catalano, and Mr Neubert for their long-running dedication to our school’s winter musicals. They truly would not be the same without these three individuals. It was wonderful to conclude yet another musical season with Sunset Boulevard, and we look forward to more greatness in the future.