A voice came over a microphone: “Please, students, take your seats. Class will soon begin.” As people settled into their seats in the auditorium, the voice continued. “My class will be two hours long with a fifteen minute intermission. Please stay seated the whole time so the other students can pay attention. Any use of phones is prohibited in my classroom.” The audience was not about to attend a lecture, however. The voice they had heard was that of Professor Callahan, welcoming them to the Revere Players’ production of Legally Blonde.
Revere Players took the stage yet again as they told the story of Elle Woods, a Harvard law school student, in their 2026 musical Legally Blonde. Revere Players performed the musical between April 16-19, 2026.
When staging a production like this, it is important that everything can run smoothly, and consistently and that all people in the musical playing different roles can work in tandem to pull everything together. Rin Lam, the stage manager, observed everyone communicating and cooperating as progress continued on the musical, as well as certain challenges everyone had to work around.
“I know everybody has . . . a different vision for what is happening, or the directors might say something or want something to go a certain way and we’re like ‘Hey, it’s not going to work,’ and we’re going to have to make that change during rehearsals. Working with the cast, they’ve always been very cooperative with us, and I really appreciate them for all that they do,” Lam said.
Two groups that worked together in the musical are the cast and pit orchestra. Montana Fassnacht is the conductor for the pit orchestra. As conductor, Fassnacht is in charge of guiding the orchestra through the music so that the music and actors are timed together. The pit orchestra is designed to add depth and mood through sound to the vocals on the stage.
“Without [pit orchestra], [actors] would be singing to a vocal background track, which is kind of stagnant. . . . The nice part about having a pit orchestra is it gives us a chance to react to the things that are happening on the stage, [like if we need to] go a little bit slower, [or] if we need to go a little bit faster so we’re not necessarily trapped in a box, but it also just fills out the sound period [the moment where the orchestra provides music] so it allows use a little bit of a depth within the type of sound that’s created. It’s not just a backing track of just a piano necessarily,” Fassnacht said.
As Revere Players kept working on the play, there was a point where the director Sarah Pine was able to see the whole thing coming together.
“I think right before we went on spring break, when we started to incorporate more of the set pieces and lighting elements was when I really saw what the show was going to look like. The cast was doing a great job, but adding those other elements really helped me see the potential of the production as a whole,” Pine said.
Pine chose to do Legally Blondeas the musical to have a modern story as well as a large cast. She really enjoys how the characters drive the story, and how that opens up opportunities for the cast.
“[M]y favorite part is how well-rounded the cast of characters is. Yes, Elle’s the main character, but there’s this wide range of supporting and ensemble roles that really flesh out the world of the story, and offer some nice featured moments for a lot of students,” Pine said.
In the Revere Players production, 12th grader Isabella Roodeman portrayed Elle Woods, the fun-loving protagonist of Legally Blondewho enrolls in Harvard Law School to get back at her ex. Through a large amount of time spent practicing both at rehearsals and at home with her sisters she has gotten comfortable with the role.
“It means a lot. It’s my first big lead. It’s been a cool experience to not only be the lead but [also] to lead the cast in a way where I get to set the example, and people are often watching how I act and how I’m running rehearsal, and it means a lot to be able to be that standard,” Rodeman said.
Because Rodeman has been homeschooled since her sophomore year, her experience with Revere Players differs from everyone else involved. She is still able to participate in Revere Players because she lives in the Revere district. She finds that her not being at school does not hinder her relationship with the cast, and in fact encourages other homeschooled students to participate too.
“Everybody in Players hasn’t treated me any differently. . . . I’ve still gotten to do so much in the program. . . . They don’t choose to exclude me because I’m homeschooled. [Mrs. Pine] has always supported me since I was here and at home. It’s a very fun community. Everybody is high energy and welcoming, and it’s definitely worth the time,” Rodeman said.
It is not just the cast, however, who has formed this sort of community. 9th grader Josh Lunieski, a percussionist in the pit orchestra, found a similar environment when he decided to join the musical.
“I wanted to get involved and find something else that’s new. . . . I’m a big fan of doing things with music, it’s just been a passion of mine, so I wanted to find something that was just a different base of playing music . . . that’s not like your standard concert music. . . . [The] most enjoyable [part] is . . . probably the environment of everyone there together,” Lunieski said.
The past several months have yielded challenges that people on the musical have needed to work around. Northeast Ohio endured high winds during mid-March causing a power outage and since then, the Revere High School backstage garage door has not opened. This door typically allows the crew to move things from the prop room onto the stage, but now that it’s broken and cannot lift, it is much more difficult to move set pieces around.
“[The garage door broke] when all of the big power outages were happening, and then it just never opened. So it’s been a big thing about adapting, too. We’ve figured it out, sort of, but at first that was our biggest stressor, figuring out props and how we’re moving like couches and chairs and stuff in and out and where we’re going to fit everything,” Lam said.
Pine too felt the pressure that this broken garage door created.
“Snow days, power outages, auditorium conflicts [were all challenges]. . . . We lost the most rehearsal time of any show I’ve worked on. The show also has some insanely quick and complicated set changes, so figuring out with [backstage] crew how to make those work was definitely one of the trickiest aspects of the show,” Pine said.
Colleen McCardle-Contillo, owner of McCardles Dance Studio, took on the role of choreographer for the production of Legally Blonde. This was different from earlier years when Kelsey Johnson was the assistant director and choreographer, though Johnson would not have been able to be choreographer anyways, considering she went on maternity leave earlier in the year.
“In previous years, Mrs. Johnson had been the choreographer because we did not have a contract available for an assistant director— so Mrs. Johnson took the choreography job. With the new teaching contract, we were able to hire BOTH an assistant director (Mrs. Johnson) AND a choreographer (Mrs. Contillo),” Pine said.
Despite the setbacks, there are things that make the job of the crew much easier. Being able to consistently run through the motions makes the process less confusing for people like Lam.
“Thank goodness for long rehearsals. I think the biggest thing is rehearsals and doing it over and over and over again so we know where people should be at what time, where people should be standing at what time and what props should be moved when,” Lam said.
Revere Players concluded their final 2026 production by thanking several staff members for their help in making the musical possible and for the overall environment and experience they provided by being involved in Revere Players. A few Revere Player members and representatives called the director Sarah Pine, the assistant director Kelsey Johnson, the artistic director Bob Pierson, the orchestral director Montana Fassnacht, technical director Tom Chiera and vocal director Michael Wiley up one at a time to accept a bouquet of flowers as the students briefly spoke of their gratitude and appreciation towards them.
Much like Elle Woods, the Revere Players went through struggles and triumphs as they worked together to put on this production. As the cast takes their final bow and thanks their crew and pit and directors, another year of Revere Players comes to a close.
