From “Under The Sea” to “Be Our Guest,” SHS has performed Disney musicals for the past annual fall musicals. However, this year the theater department has decided to change up the pace, by announcing on Wednesday, Aug. 1, that this year’s fall musical will be “My Fair Lady.”

“We wanted something that was contrasting from what we’ve done the last couple of years. I mean we’ve done Grease, we did two Disney shows, it’s time to get back to an American classic musical,” SHS choir teacher Katherine Doty said.

The musical “My Fair Lady,” written by Alan Jay Lerner and Frederick Loewe, is a classic award-winning musical about the social class transformation of Eliza Doolittle and her professor, Henry Higgins, helps her do so. The musical was adapted to a movie in 1964 and won eight Oscars including best picture. It also includes several hit songs such as, “I Could Have Danced All Night,” “Wouldn’t It Be Loverly” and “Get Me to the Church on Time.”

Doty is going to be the head director of the production and will do so with SHS theater teacher, Kimberly Roberts, and SHS music teacher, Cody Wakefield, ready at her side. This is also going to be Roberts’ first musical that she will take part in directing here at SHS. According to her, she is not nervous, but rather excited.

According to Doty, this years musical is going to be different than the ones they have done in the past, mainly because of the content.There is also the fact that not very many people at the high school level are not familiar with this musical.

“We’re hoping that since many people don’t know the title, that the kids in the production talk about how much fun their having with the script and the music and that will hopefully get other people involved,” Doty said.

Since the title was just announced, the theater department is now starting to gear up and get ready for auditions for the cast and make arrangements for the orchestra pit and crew.

According to Doty, they are preparing for the musical with auditions being soon and also there’s a Google Classroom with more information on it.

The announcement of the musical brought mixed feelings with veterans from past productions and even the new people that are wanting to get involved this year. This is due to the musical being new to a lot of students at SHS. All the musicals in years prior have been well known stories like “Grease” and “Beauty and the Beast.”

“At first I was kind of disappointed, but then I was excited because not many kids know about these classic musicals…,” senior Maria Guia said. “It’s a way for everyone to get together and see the difference from the old musicals and the ones that are newer.” Despite all the disappointment that many people felt from the announcement, Doty and the theater department are thrilled and ready to get working on this year’s musical. Doty is especially excited for it because it means that they get to learn about something new.

“I’m really excited for it… it means everyone gets to learn something maybe they didn’t know before and the goal is to expose people to new stuff,” Doty said. “The content is a little different, (but) you still have that love story and the character arc where you start in one place and end in another.”

The SHS production of “My Fair Lady” starts on Nov. 16 and also has shows on Nov. 17 and Nov. 18. Listen to announcements and look for flyers in the hallway for more information.