The Musical That Took the Audience by Storm
November 15, 2019
Lights, camera, action! McAuliffe Middle School students recently performed their musical, “Once on This Island Jr.” Sixth, seventh and eighth-grade students in choir, drama or selected from auditions took part in the musical. The performances took place last Wednesday, Thursday and Friday evening in the MPR.
“Once on This Island Jr.” featured many songs, such as, “We Dance,” “Discovering,” “Pray,” and “Why We Tell the Story.” With the help of four gods, Erzulie, Agwe, Asaka and Papa Ge, Ti Moune learns the meaning of love as she ventures to the other side of the island and meets the “love of her life,” Daniel. She ultimately sacrifices her life to get Daniel’s life back, and the gods bless her by turning her into a tree.
The play overall was thrilling with a dramatic climax. Stars of the show Sophie Lu and Brooke Singleton blew away audience members with their incredible vocals.
While the McAuliffe cast may have looked like professionals on the stage, many performers were nervous. David Jung, a sixth-grader who was a part of the musical, shares, “The most nervous thing about the show was dancing in front of people because if we mess up it looks bad, and there are a lot of people watching.”
Another performer named Ethan Lim adds, “Singing is the most important and nervous part of the show because we put a lot of time into it, so if we mess up, then it looks like we didn’t put our effort into it and we embarrass ourselves.”
Overall, this show was entertaining and creative. In the last song, “Why We Tell the Story,” every performer who took part in the show came out to dance in the final number and bowed to a cheering crowd.

Matthew Lim is attending McAuliffe Middle School. He is in seventh grade and his favorite subjects are math and science. He likes to do many things in...
Quotes from the cast was a great addition to the article because it gave us a look in on the performer’s point of veiw.
Great Article! It gave me background information about what took place in the musical.
great article!
I didn’t go to the show but i heard great things about it. I wish i could have, it sounds amazing
The article is well made. The interviewed people were right, the musical is difficult knowing mistakes will be seen, so thank you for mentioning it.
I like this article! It helps people who did not participate in the show get an insight to the mind of the performers.
This article gave me a lot of information about play! It was really good!
NIce to know about the play!
Sounded like a great show!
Since I didn’t get to watch and enjoy the play, I’m glad I got to read about it in a well written and descriptive article!
I didn’t get to watch the musical, so i’m glad I got to read this article. Good job!
This was a great summary of the musical! Very well written.
I am so glad that I was part in that show and I am thankful for Mathew who took his time and talked about it.
I’m glad I got to read more about the show, for I didn’t have time to watch it myself.
Great article, good job getting quotes from performers in the show.
Good Job Brooke! You did a really great in the show! 🙂
Even though I was in the show I learned a lot
I loved the show
Nice article! Even though I didn’t get time to watch the show, I learned a lot! Good job, Mrs.Armstrong and Mrs.Wallace! Great job everyone who was in the show and who were cast crew!
Great article! so many of my friends said it was a great show! Wish I could have watched it! I heard Sophie was amazing.