Come spring, Da-Shih Hu will play his flute in the pit orchestra for Hanover High School’s 2020 production of Shrek the Musical.
And the Hanover resident would perform for free, if school music coordinator and choral director Jennifer Chambers really needed him to, with the limits of her budget for musicals.
“For me,” Hu said last week, “the greatest payoff is the pleasure of playing with other talented musicians and working with talented music directors like Jenny.”
Chambers, on the other hand, wouldn’t hear of asking musicians to play solely for the love of it. So she and Hanover High choreographer Denise Frawley are bringing dozens of teen singers and dancers to the Briggs Opera House in White River Junction on Friday night, to perform a revue of musical-theater show-stoppers that they hope raises enough money to pay Hu and the other 15 members of the orchestra $500 apiece, up from the standard stipend of at least $150 each for the run of the show.
“These people in the orchestra are amazing, community-minded musicians, but they may not be around forever,” said Chambers, a 1998 graduate of Hanover High. “There needs to be an awareness of the time they’re committing, not just at Hanover, but at other schools and community venues around the Upper Valley. These are adults who are performing and doing hours and hours of rehearsal before a show even opens.”
So Strafford resident Iva Wich learned, while she performed onstage in Hanover High musicals such as Hello, Dolly, as well as in productions such as Pentangle Arts’ 2016 staging of Cats.
“If you don’t have a good pit, it’s hard to sing and dance at all,” said Wich, now a sophomore studying songwriting at Belmont University in Nashville. “It makes a world of difference. They can really drive a show forward or set it back. The pit has to work so hard. That is a lot of music to learn. One of the most exciting parts of the show is when you hear them playing the overture. A show comes together up to a certain point, but when you add the pit, that’s the miraculous moment.”
Such moments have been animating Hu, a longtime psychiatrist with the Dartmouth College health service, since he first played for a North Country Community Theatre musical in 1988. While he also plays classical music with a variety of concert ensembles around the Upper Valley — usually on woodwind instruments, occasionally on viola — “musical theater, for me, is among the best fusions of the arts: dance, music, acting, visual arts,” he said. “It has a capacity to move, because of the story.”
With only pianist Henry Danaher accompanying the young singers during the revue on Friday night — they’ll tackle numbers from Broadway classics ranging from Annie Get Your Gun and Ragtime to Wicked and The Book of Mormon — Da-Shih Hu is looking forward to watching and listening from the audience, for a change.
And the more who join him at the Briggs, the merrier for his fellow musicians.
“I really appreciate Jenny and Denise doing this, their being mindful that we don’t get paid much for doing these things,” Hu said. “Jenny has mentioned for several years that she couldn’t pay us more, so I really appreciate their thoughtfulness, and their taking the initiative to do this.”
Hanover High School stages a revue of Broadway-musical classics at the Briggs Opera House in White River Junction on Friday night at 7. To reserve tickets ($35), visit https://m.bpt.me/event/4423074.
Shaker Bridge Theatre kicks off its production of Alan Ayckbourn’s Taking Steps Thursday night at 7:30 at Whitney Hall in Enfield. The astringent comedy runs through Dec. 22. For tickets ($16 to $35) and more information about this and subsequent plays, visit shakerbridgetheatre.org or call 603-448-3750.
■The Quebecois circus acrobats of FLIP Fabrique perform Blizzard at Dartmouth College’s Moore Theater five times between Thursday night and Sunday afternoon. For tickets ($20 to $40) and more information, visit hop.dartmouth.edu or call 603-646-2422.
■The Briggs Opera House in White River Junction stages its annual Fa-la-la Holiday Revue, a variety show of community theater, dance, music and film on Thursday night at 7. The admission fee of $15 benefits Upper Valley Habitat for Humanity. To reserve tickets, visit tututix.com/uppervalleyhabitat.
■Lebanon comedian Peter Pardoe hosts a battle for bragging rights between stand-up artists from New Hampshire and Vermont on Thursday night at 8, at The Engine Room in White River Junction. Admission $10.
■Trumpeter Toru “Tiger” Okoshi kicks off the 2019-2020 Jazz on a Sunday Afternoon series this weekend, performing at 4 at the Center at Eastman’s Bistro Nouveau. Tickets cost $18 to $20 for the single performance, and season passes are $144 to $160. To reserve seats and learn more about the series, call 603-763-8732 or visit josajazz.com.
The Sound of Music, performances between Thursday afternoon and Jan. 5 at Barrette Center for the Arts in White River Junction. Tickets ($17.75 to $57.75) are selling quickly, so Northern Stage advises ordering at northernstage.org or with a call to 802-296-7000.
Home for the Holidays: A Very Barnie Christmas, revue featuring alumni from the New London Barn Playhouse’s past summer seasons, Saturday afternoon at 2, at Colby-Sawyer College’s Black Box Theatre in New London. Admission $50.
■Holiday variety show, Saturday night at 7 at Chandler Music Hall in Randolph. Line-up of central Vermont musicians, actors, comedians and dancers includes roots ensemble Second Wind. Free.
Soprano Julie Ness, piper Timothy Cummings, accordionist Jeremiah McLane and pianist Annemieke McLane, mix of original songs and new arrangements of yuletide compositions of Barber, Britten, Handel and Poulenc, Friday night at 7 at United Church of Strafford. Admission by donation to fund for upkeep of church steeple.
■Guitar master Ed Gerhard, Friday night at 7 at Sunapee Community Coffeehouse. Admission by donation.
■Anonymous Coffeehouse, Friday night at First Congregational Church of Lebanon. Features Americana ensemble Dan Freihofer and the Pocket Dinos at 7:30, folk trio Never Too Late at 8:15 and Boston-based folk duo Crowes Pasture at 9. Free.
■Pianist William Ogmundson, flutist Nicole Densmore and singer Mary Jane Ogmundson, holiday-themed original compositions and classics, Friday night at 7:30 p.m. at CedarHouse Sound and Mastering studio in North Sutton, N.H. With limited seating, best to reserve tickets ($25) by calling 603-927-6363.
■Red Stars youth chorus, Christmas classics, Saturday night at 7 at Newport Opera House. Admission $5 to $10, with proceeds benefiting the Willey-Perra Community Giving Program.
■Thetford Chamber Singers, three concerts on theme of “Winter Stars”: Saturday night at 7:30 at United Church of Strafford, and Sunday evening at 4:30 and at 7:30 p.m. at First Congregational Church of Thetford. For tickets ($8 to $15); visit thetfordchambersingers.org.
■The Randolph Singers, holiday concert, Sunday afternoon at 4 at Chandler Music Hall in Randolph. Admission by donation.
Monthly Shindigs dance on Saturday night at 7 at Tunbridge Town Hall, with Stone Cold Roosters playing country, Western swing and rockabilly. Admission $10.
■Moving Spirit Dancers, “Homage to Mary Oliver,” performance with members of Woodstock Poetry Workshop reading tributes to the late Pulitzer Prize-winning poet, Sunday morning at 10 at North Universalist Chapel in Woodstock. Free.
Mad Hazard Band, jazz, bossa nova and blues, Thursday night at 5:30 at the Quechee Club’s Davidson’s Restaurant.
■Singer-songwriter Jason Cann, Thursday night from 6 to 9 at Harpoon Brewery in Windsor.
■ Royalton singer-songwriter Alison “AliT” Turner, Thursday night at 6 at Crown Point Country Club in Springfield, Vt.
■The Dinosaurs, roots, Thursday night at 6 at Peyton Place restaurant in Orford.
■Adam McMahon Trio, rock, Thursday night at 7 at Windsor Station; Jester Jigs, rock, Friday night at 9:30; Supply & Demand, roots, Saturday night at 9:30; guitarist Ted Mortimer, Tuesday night at 6.
■Singer-songwriter Jim Yeager, Friday night at 6 at Common Man in Claremont, and Monday night at 6:30 at 506 on the River in Woodstock.
■Pianist Bob Merrill, bassist Peter Concilio and drummer Tim Gilmore, jazz, Friday night at 8 at Skunk Hollow Tavern in Hartland Four Corners.
■Turner Round, rock, Friday night at 8 at Salt hill Pub in West Lebanon; singer-songwriter Ken Macy, Saturday night at 8.
■Rich Thomas and Logan Flewelling, country rock, Friday night at 9 at Salt hill Pub in Lebanon; Better Days, classic rock, Saturday night at 9.
■Singer-songwriter Ken Macy, Friday night at 9 at Salt hill Pub in Newport; Chad Gibbs, acoustic rock, Saturday night at 9.
■Jazz pianist Sonny Saul, Wednesday nights at 6:30 at On the River Inn in Woodstock.
Jim Yeager hosts open mics on Thursday night at 7 at ArtisTree Community Arts Center in South Pomfret, and on Tuesday night at 8 at Public House Pub in Quechee.
■Alec Currier’s weekly open-mic at Salt hill Pub in Lebanon, Thursday night at 8.
■Fiddler Jakob Breitbach hosts jam sessions at two venues in White River Junction over the coming week: jazz on Friday night at 6 at Hotel Coolidge’s Cafe Renee; and roots music on Tuesday night at 7 at Filling Station Bar and Grill.
■Tom Masterson’s open mic, Tuesday nights at 7 at Colatina Exit.
■Peter Meijer’s open mic, Wednesday nights at 8 at Skunk Hollow Tavern.
All is Calm, Opera North production reimagining Christmas-Day truce between British and German soldiers during World War I, Dec. 14 and 15 at Briggs Opera House in White River Junction. For tickets ($50) and more information, visit operanorth.org or call 603-448-4141.
David Corriveau can be reached at dcorriveau@vnews.com or 603-727-3304. Send entertainment news to highlights@vnews.com.
Correction
Johan Berendsen is among the Hanover High School students who will sing during a benefit concert at the Bri ggs Opera House on Friday night. An earlier photo caption misspelled his last name.