Henry Ulrich, in front, in the role of John Carter, sings during a rehearsal for the Columbus East High School production of the musical “Ranked” at the Columbus East Theatre on Nov. 11.
Carla Clark | For The Republic
A Hollywood casting call probably could never have brought director Kevin Welsh a more fitting lead performer than Rachel Morris as Lily Larsen in the new musical “Ranked.”
The dystopian show opening Friday at Columbus East High School highlights the pressure of high school students willing to do anything to boost their academic and social rank to further and to brighten and ease their path to the right college and the right future.
It just so happens that 16-year-old Morris herself has been pretty focused in real life on college — since the age of 8 or so, in fact.
She was so fascinated by it that she would go online and peruse college websites at that tender stage.
“And my Mom took me to things to look at colleges even when I was really young,” Morris said, laughing at the memory of her inexplicable obsession. “And both my parents always have been very big motivators when it comes to academics.”
Yet, her character of Lily in the show is one of maybe only two principal characters not yet fully ready to literally buy into the show’s grades-at-any-price grab for glory — especially when an “impossible lie” is discovered, and the fate of these students’ futures hangs in the balance, according to online summaries.
That explains why the pop-oriented song “Peace of Mind” is a favorite that she croons from the production’s soundtrack. Many of the students in the story seem as miserable as consecutive Fs with their intense and driven lives built on the loose gravel of their performance. One girl even prizes her academic achievement over time with her dying mother, much to her later regret.
Modern tunes obviously rank as significant in the show, including numbers such as “Eyes On the Prize.” Welsh has joked with cast member Xandra Ellegood, playing the self-assured and bullying Sydney Summers, that she can “hit notes so high that even dogs can’t hear them.”
Ellegood, a soprano, laughed about hearing such.
“Well, I guess I can hit some high whistle tones,” she said, adding that she did the same in last year’s “Footloose” that East presented with songs such as “Let’s Hear It For the Boy.”
Ellegood mentioned that if even her stressed peers could see “Ranked,” they might see that their life is considerably better than those on stage.
“In the society of ‘Ranked,’ grades and rank mean everything,” Ellegood said. “It’s almost like they don’t have normal lives like students in our world.”
Welsh selected the production because he theorized that students immediately would relate — and they told him they did when they perused the script.
“When you speak to your high school cast about this show, you don’t have to say to students, ‘Understand that someday, when you get to be 50 years old … ,’” he said, emphasizing that high school directors often have to encourage teens to think like older adult characters in various productions.
And Welsh liked the fact that it tales a provocative look at how young people determine their worth. That’s especially important to him because his own daughter is a high school junior.
Yet even audience members missing such a significant theme still can enjoy themselves.
“As a musical artist (drummer), I know some people might walk away simply saying, ‘That had some really catchy tunes in it,’” Welsh said.
He added that, in real life, grades are indeed still held in fairly high esteem. He recalled applying for his current position as auditorium director at East. On one part of the application, he was asked to include a bit of a blast from the past.
His high school grade-point average.
About the show
What: Columbus East High School drama department’s presentation of the new musical “Ranked” about stdents’ obsession with top grades, ranging and colleges.
When: 7 p.m. Friday and Saturday and 2 p.m. Sunday.
Where: East’s Clarence E. Robbins Auditorium, 230 S. Marr Road.
Tickets: columbuseasths.seatyourself.biz.
