After a large crowd of people had taken their seats in the Revere High School (RHS) auditorium and the lights had turned off, a spotlight shined on the stage. From behind the closed curtains, Sage Owens appeared and introduced RHS’s Variety Show.
The Variety Show is an annual event at RHS and takes place a few weeks after the students come back from their winter break; this year’s show took place on January 27. The show is a talent show open to all middle and high school students in the Revere District.
Sage Owens was this year’s emcee for the Variety Show and was also the student director. Owens listed all of her duties for organizing and hosting the show.
“I sat through auditions with Mrs. Fagnilli [the director], . . . I’ve been writing the entire script, I’ll be helping people get on and off stage between acts,” Owens said.
Although this is her first time being the emcee and student director for the show, it is not her first time taking part in the show as a whole.
“Last year I did slam poetry at the Variety Show and [now I am] dropping that and going in for emcee,” Owens said.
Owens explained how she went about writing her script and introducing each of the fifteen different acts.
“[I] kind of talk[ed] about each of the acts, what inspired them, and their experience in performing in general,” she said.
Owens also talked about the choices she made as student director. Although the show was similar to most RHS shows, she said there was one main difference this year.
“[The] closers for both of the acts are both middle school-focused bands. Usually, we have a high schooler do the closers but there’s two middle school bands this year,” Owens said.
After Owens introduced the show as a whole, she then presented the first act: a piano solo performed by Senior Fuma Kondo. Kondo played “Appassionata no. 3” by Beethoven and said that he chose the song because it has a lot of emotion.
For the second act, Junior Lily Fox sang Lana Del Rey’s “Young and Beautiful.” Fox said that she chose the song because it fit her range.
After Fox, Seniors Leah Valentine and Serena Guo performed “Symphonie Espagnole” (translated to Spanish Symphonie) by Edouard Lalo. Guo began playing the song on the piano, then Valentine joined in with her violin.
After the three musical acts, Lily Blower came out, performing a dance solo to “I Want You to Love Me” by Fiona Apple. This is Blower’s second year performing at the Variety Show, but she has been dancing for sixteen years. Blower dances through Art in Motion and explained what she will do with her dance piece this dance competition season.
“I’ll compete with that and then I also have another solo that I’ll compete with in the spring,” Blower said.
Since Blower is a senior she explained her plans for her dance career in the future.
“I hope to maybe join a club team [in college] or maybe add a minor in dance in the future,” Blower said.
After Blower, Sixth Grader Annabelle Guo took the stage and played “Doctor Gradus ad Parnassum” by Claude Debussy. Guo was the first middle schooler to perform in the show. Although the show is majority high school students, it is still open to middle school students. Since this was Guo’s first time performing, she explained how she felt while she was playing.
“My feelings were like catching my breath after a lot of suspense. I was nervous and excited at the same time. However, everyone in the show was very supportive and helped my confidence a lot,” she said.
Next onstage was Junior Michael Gallup, who returned for his third year performing at the Variety Show. While setting up his equipment, Gallup made funny comments to the crowd and received words of encouragement from the audience.
Gallup performed a song that he wrote titled “Everything You Wanted,” which was the only original song throughout the whole show. Throughout his act, he had a backing track he recorded with other instruments while he sang and strummed his guitar, sometimes taking time to step away from the microphone to focus on the guitar.
Gallup began playing music after he saw School of Rock on Broadway. He explained his reasoning for joining the Variety Show.
“I first signed up because I wanted a chance to play my songs somewhere other than my bedroom,” Gallup said.
Following Gallup, Freshman Kaylee Carpas came onto the stage and sang Keene’s “Somewhere Only We Know,” bopping her head along to the music as she performed.
Carpas is a part of RHS’s a cappella choir, Reverse A Cappella and decided to dedicate her performance to the group. Although Carpas has had singing solos within the group, the Variety Show was her first time on stage alone. She explained how Reverse A Cappella helped to prepare her for this.
“It [was] technically my first [solo performance] because I’m a soloist for a cappella but you have like ten other kids with you. But I performed in front of the entire school during lunch and this was a lot better than that. So doing that last week made me less nervous about this, but I was still shaking the whole time,” Carpas said.
Carpas explained why she chose “Somewhere Only We Know” as her song. She wanted a song with a lot of emotion and one that she cared about.
“It’s a song that I’ve listened to for a long time and it’s kind of sentimental to me, especially because a lot of my senior friends are leaving,” Carpas said.
To close out the first act of the Variety Show, Abysmal Dystopia, a rock band, came onto the stage. The band consisted of Seventh Graders Adam Herrera on the guitar and Liam Blower on the bass, Eighth Grader Sam Hogan on the drums, and Freshman Val Gonzales singing, and the band played “Duality” by Slipknot.
When the band played the song, they all had on different masks. Gonzales explained the significance behind them.
“The band we played the song from, Slipknot, all wear masks, so we decided to wear them, too,” Gonzales said.
Gonzales also explained how they helped pick out the song the band played.
“They mentioned the song in the group chat among others and it was the only one I knew. I also really wanted to sing a heavy metal song so I was hyped for that,” they said.
After the fifteen minute intermission, the first act out on stage was another middle schooler, Eighth Grader Myles Kelly playing an improvised version of “Just Give Me One More Day” by Alej on the piano.
After Kelly finished, Junior Lily Dunn sang “What Was I Made For” by Billie Eilish. Dunn explained why she has continued to do the Variety Show throughout her middle school and high school career.
“I’m very grateful for the opportunity to perform and I love being able to share my art form with everyone,” Dunn said.
The next act was unique to the rest as it was not musical but instead a stand-up comedy act. Senior Kendal Zvernoff has done her comedy act every year at the Variety Show since she was in sixth grade (aside from 2021 due to the COVID-19 pandemic). She explained how she first came up with the idea to do standup comedy.
“I’ve been told by many family members that I’m funny so I just kind of had to make it a talent, for the resume and because Miss Fagnilli’s awesome,” Zvernoff said.
As Zvernoff likes to change up their act every year, this year they decided on a driving theme because as they stated they got their license “a little late.” At the beginning of the act, they rode in on a small toy car they had borrowed from their math teacher, Dan Mosher. They told jokes about their own driving, their grandmother’s driving and even made one comment about their brother having to go to traffic court.
After the audience was done laughing at Zvernoff, Senior Lucas Timpone took the stage with another piano act. He played “Polonaise in F-sharp minor, Op. 44” by Frédéric Chopin. Timpone has been playing piano for ten years but says that it is just a hobby and he does not plan to pursue any career in it when leaves RHS. He explained his feelings towards performing this year, as it was his first time in the Variety Show.
“I’ve done recitals in the past, I know how it goes. I wanted to try it this year because I’ve never done it before and I’m a senior this year, so why not,” Timpone said.
Following Timpone came the biggest act of the show, the Chamber Orchestra. The act consisted of Sophomores Max Richardson playing the viola, Reese Patton and Rosa Parsons playing violins, Molly Myers on the piano and Marianne Harrington on the Cello, and Freshmen Lyla Wilson also on the viola and Mori Kovach conducting the group. The orchestra performed “Golden Hour” by JVKE. The group already would have caught the audience’s attention due to their size but along with that they also wore matching shiny, gold vests.
Almost wrapping up the show, Seniors Josie Tieland and Jacob Herman sang “I See the Light” from the Tangled Soundtrack by Mandy Moore and Zachary Levi. The two utilized the lighting on the stage to make their act more entertaining. Tieland was the first to start singing and had a spotlight on her. There were then spotlights on both her and Herman, which eventually turned to warm tones like red and orange by the end of the song.
Both Tieland and Herman take part in Revere Players so they wanted to choose more of a musical theater song, but one the audience would still know. Tieland explained their thought process.
“It’s kind of a funny song, kind of a theater song so we’re going to do a little acting with it,” she said.
Along with singing in the second act, Herman also worked on the soundboard for the entire first act of the show.
To close out the show a band, SLAM, walked onto the stage. The group already had some fans out in the audience as this is their third year playing at the Variety Show. The band consisted of two students who were in previous acts, Eighth Graders Myles Kelly on guitar and vocals this time and Sam Hogan on the drums again, along with Eighth Grader Lorenzo Ortiz on bass and Copley High School Senior Christian Petit also playing the bass. The band began their act playing The Rancouters’ “Steady as She Goes” followed by Jett’s “Are You Going to be My Girl.” For “Are You Going to be My Girl” the band brought out almost everyone from the previous acts on stage as well as some of the stage crew. The students danced along to the music on stage, and audience members clapped along.
After SLAM finished performing, they were met with a standing ovation from the audience. The Variety Show is sure to happen next January, with both returning and new acts taking part.
