History comes alive in 'Night at the Wax Museum'

Picture this… school’s out for summer, but not for four unlucky students who don’t know much about history — they have to re-take the class in summer school. First-year teacher Heather Fairchild has arranged for them to help her two aunts and members of the Historical Society set up a new wax museum in Cultully as a class project. Though the students’ eyes glaze over with boredom, there’s a twinkle in the wax figures’ eyes when a mysterious incantation from the back of Cleopatra’s bracelet brings them to life! King Henry VIII finds himself smitten with Cleopatra, making his queen, Anne Boleyn, furious. If she can just not lose her head, Anne will have John Adams to serve as her divorce attorney! When Calamity Jane, Annie Oakley, Blackmole and her bevy of lady pirates show up, everybody’s out for one thing — treasure! Supposedly, there’s a mighty valuable one hidden in the museum! It’s a wild goose chase to find it, with a greedy museum landlord and her bumbling daughters joining in the mad search. And why is Lizzie Borden lurking in the shadows, since the aunts say they never had a wax figure of her?

The Jewish Academy of Orlando’s Fine Arts Department presents the musical “Night at the Wax Museum” at 7 p.m. Thursday, May 24, at the Wayne Densch Performing Arts Center in Sanford. Tickets are available at $15, $25 and $50. Call 407-647-0713.

The magic of history comes alive in this sixth spring musical production from Jewish Academy of Orlando’s Fine Arts Department. The play, “Night at the Wax Museum,” is the department’s most-challenging production to date, and it will have its curtain call on Thursday, May 24, at the Wayne Densch Performing Arts Center in Sanford. Reba Gordon, the department’s director/producer, is astonished and overjoyed with the growth of the program. “It’s amazing to me to think that six years ago we started with a tiny cast on the cozy stage in the JCC auditorium. Now, we have nearly 30 cast members who are performing in full costumes, and we are using real sets, on a truly professional stage, in a theater that hosts a myriad of stage entertainment in the area.”

The cast is made up of students that are in the fifth- through eighth-grades at the school, but the talent doesn’t stop there. Other grade levels wanted to be involved in the production, so Gordon answered their pleas. Now, the fourth-graders serve as the show’s chorus and are under the direction of Eric Levine, the department’s musical director. The school’s third-grade students also treat the audience to a show-stopping acrobatic/dance preshow under the direction of Joanne Kay, one of the school’s physical education teachers.

In addition to the talent and directors, the show couldn’t go on without the tireless efforts of the volunteers who do everything from set building to planning the cast party. Just like everything at Jewish Academy, the show is a “family” affair.

We invite the community to join us for this Broadway-caliber performance at the Wayne Densch Performing Arts Center and support the area’s only Kindergarten-eighth grade Jewish Day School. A portion of the ticket sales will be donated to the Jewish Academy Fine Arts Department.