Cabaret at The Drake: a musical community-building event

On Thursday, January 8, at 7:30 p.m. the ARHS music program hosted its third annual Cabaret show at The Drake, a live music venue in the center of Amherst. The price of admission was $5 for students and $10 for others attending. 

This was my second year attending this venue at The Drake with my friend Geisel Bousel, who loves attending musical arts performances at ARHS. Geisel and I brought a good friend of ours, Sofia, that night for a fun girls’ night out. We got there 15 minutes before the start and the venue was packed, with no open seating in sight. Luckily the three of us eventually found a bench off to the side and still had a decent view of the stage. 

When the event started, students from ARHS introduced themselves as the emcees who wove together musical acts and skits of many different varieties, showcasting the different talents of ARHS students.

The opener for the show was Michael who sang “Sway,” by Michael Buble which I enjoyed. 

My favorite performance of the night was a song sung in Arabic by Marit Gubrium called “Homl,” by Emel, with Violet playing the electric guitar beside her. Although non-Arabic speakers couldn’t understand the words of the song, the way Mar sang was like a professional, very beautiful and moving. The melody of the song made the crowd understand and also feel the many emotions in the song, portraying everything beautifully. 

Before intermission the final performance was a group of teachers here at ARHS who kept their song of choice a secret from the Cabaret cast as well as everyone else in the audience. The teachers got on stage and announced that they were singing Feeling Good, by Michael Buble which they killed.

Mr Fruth started singing the song as everyone else followed. All the teachers who sang alongside him were social studies teacher Chris Gould, math teacher Geoff Friedman, and Alyssa Black, an academic skills and social studies teacher.