BY DONNA MACKENZIE
Since its incorporation in 1968, Pittsford Musicals has brought a number of Broadway shows to life with talented local people onstage and offstage over two weekends, for many years in November and, more recently in October.
This 50th year will see a one-night concert with songs from many of those shows with the night also honoring the organization’s longtime music director, Harold McAulliffe.
Pittsford Musicals’ 50 Years of Song and Dance, A Night Honoring Harold McAulliffe and His 50 Years of Musical Leadership, will be held on Saturday, November 10, 2018 at 7:30 p.m. at The Lyric Theatre, 440 East Avenue in Rochester.
Performers in the show are Sharon Bayer, Shannon Beel, Kim Blood, Leslie Boedicker, Kate Bond, Joey Campagna, Adell Cuminale Cecconi, Lauren Cummings, Amy Degro, Zoe Degro, Eliza Jane Diekmann, Laura Jean Diekmann, Lydia Diekmann, Margie DiPaolo, Laurie DiVasta, Pam Gerner Ernst, Tina Evans, Jason Ford, Sophia Fusilli, Gabriella Graney, Linda Dirksen Gressell, Jeanette Gruttadauria, Ron Herman, Annie Horras, Emily Howard, Alison Irwin Jameson, Ashley Jordan, Ella Jordan, Kelly Jordan, Jessica Kaufman, Katie Keller Groat, Catherine Kennedy, Nicholas Kinney, Lynn Winchester Kinsman, Julie Kleinhans, Caroline Kunz, Ceyda Lenio, Don Letta, Lauren MacDonough, Jody Todd Manly, Cheryl Mares, Michelle Abraham McNutt, Amy Mitchell, Joey Mitchell, Danielle Moore, Robin Morris-Gaylord, Kylie Olson, Jennifer Pawlak, Collette Roes, Jacinta Roes, Mark E. Roos, William Ruiz, Mary Ann Rutkowski, James Scott, Jillian Severin, Imani Sewell, Shireen Sinclair, Chris Streeter, Shelly Thompson, Allyn VanDusen, Alexis Weber, Judy Young, and the Women of Note. McAulliffe will be a special guest performer.
All the songs are from prior Pittsford Musicals shows, which have included over the years well known shows such as Oklahoma, Carousel, South Pacific, The King and I, The Sound of Music, The Music Man, Fiddler on the Roof, Guys and Dolls, Brigadoon, My Fair Lady, Camelot, Hello Dolly!, Kismet, Annie Get Your Gun, Mame, Finian’s Rainbow, Anything Goes, Annie, Oliver, Kiss Me Kate, 42nd Street, The Wizard of Oz and Les Miserables as well as lesser-known shows such as Sweet Charity, The Will Rogers Follies and Steel Pier. In fact, Pittsford Musicals was the first local adult community theatre group to be able to perform Les Miserables in 2013.
Many of the performers have connections to Pittsford, Honeoye Falls, Lima and Scottsville. Among the Pittsford Mendon or Pittsford Sutherland High graduates are Cecconi, Laura Jean Diekmann, DiVasta, Ernst, Gressell and Jameson. Ford and Severin are graduates of Honeoye Falls-Lima High. Young lives in Honeoye Falls. Streeter, an Episcopal Priest, was Rector of Grace Episcopal Church in Scottsville and St. Andrew’s Church in Caledonia when he played the role of Javert in Pittsford Musicals’ Les Miserables in 2013. He is currently the Rector at Church of the Incarnation in Penfield.
There will be food, drinks, raffles, a lobby display and more. Tickets are $25 for adults and $20 for students and seniors and groups of 10 or more. Group and Patron of the Arts seating orders received before October 31, 2018 will receive reserved seating with all other tickets being general admission. For tickets, go to www.pittsfordmusicals.org/tickets. A portion of the proceeds from this show will go towards the group’s scholarship fund which has awarded scholarships over the years to graduating seniors from both Pittsford Mendon and Pittsford Sutherland High Schools as well as area high schools such as HF-L.
