This year, the theater department put on “Zombie Prom” for the 2022 musical. The story is about a high schooler, Jonny, who dies in a nuclear power plant after being broken up with, but later comes back to life as a zombie. His love interest, Toffee, goes back and forth on how she feels about him before realizing her true feelings. Jonny faces obstacles when he tries to return to his old life, such as the principal Miss Strict and Eddie, the Exposé writer, trying to get his story. The show had many laugh-out-loud moments and shocking twists that made it easy for the audience to fall in love with what they were watching unfold on the stage.

The set wasn’t very complex. There was a brick wall with colored splotches spread out and green lockers in the middle. It has stairs coming from both sides to get to the balcony above it. While it wasn’t super interesting, it was used well during all the scene changes.

For the most part, the costumes were good. The show girl and Miss Strict wore lovely sparkling dresses. However, when we got to the prom dresses, they seemed off. Some of the boys had colored suits, but they didn’t match the dress color of their dates. Personally, I thought Toffee had the worst prom dress even though she was the main character. One thing that was really cool was Jonny’s leather jacket change. When he was human, it was regular with his name on it, but when he was a zombie it was bedazzled and really brought his costume to life.

The acting and singing were very good for the most part. Matalyn Chitwood, 12, played Toffee. Her solos were amazing and her excitement level matched her character perfectly. Ethan Knust, 11, played Jonny. His acting was good, but his singing needed improvement at times. When Knust and Chitwood did their harmonies, they were a little rocky. Remington White, 12, had the role of Eddie. His solo came out strong and finished strong until the end. His song was a funny one that had many jokes for the audience. Maryanne McNally, 10, played Miss Strict and she was perfect for the role. McNally has a lower range, but she nailed her songs by taking advantage of it. McNally and White’s duet was a crowd pleaser. They performed very well together. The pit accompaniment was often very loud, making it difficult to hear the actors singing. Other times their mics would rub against their costumes or produce a loud feedback sound throughout the theater, taking away from the experience.

I did not particularly like the choreography. The only time it stuck out was the tango between White and McNally. One time, the ensemble did a hand jive. While this could have been really cool, the execution was done poorly so it wasn’t enjoyable. Most of the time the moves they did seemed really simple. It didn’t add very much to the show, but it didn’t take away either.

All in all, “Zombie Prom” was an incredible production. The casting job was perfect. There may have been troubled moments, as there are in most high school productions, but they didn’t ruin the show. This was definitely a show worth seeing and I can’t wait to see what is to come for the spring play.