7 Metros Moments that linger from the 25th anniversary Metro Awards

Yes, there were awards bestowed, but many of the moments that will stay with me from Monday's 25th anniversary Metro Awards are incidental to that: the laughter, the nerves, the performances, the sheer energy of the night.

Here, in no particular order, are my 7 Metro Moments, 2024 edition.

The charming Arocho sisters

Ivelisse is a Brewster senior, Arianna a junior. They both made bargains this year, bargains that landed them at the Metros. Ivelisse decided to take the bargain that director Nikki Siriani offered when she cast the comic actress as Public Enemy #13, Moonface Martin, the gangster in "Anything Goes."

"When I saw the cast list, I thought it was a joke," Ivelisse told me. But it was no joke and Ivelisse decided to go all in, to go the distance with the role. And she won two Metros for that decision: for duet (with Tessa Boissonnault) and comedic performance.

Arianna went the distance in another way, logging 90-minute roundtrips between Brewster and White Plains, where Archbishop Stepinac Director Frank Portanova cast her as Brenda Strong in "Catch Me If You Can." Brenda sings a show-stopping 11 o'clock number, "Fly, Fly Away."

(Stepinac, an all-boys Catholic school, draws talented actresses from across the region to build its casts. It has built a prestigious program of all-stars, with actresses coveting those roles.)

But landing the part meant getting to White Plains from Brewster. Which meant Arianna's parents, or her grandfather, had to drive, drive away to rehearsals.

Takeaways: Go all in. Take the risk. Turn the joke into honors. Audition. Land the role. Go the distance.

Those medleys

Producers Blake Spence and Jordan Singer took a risk and decided to have the nominees for leading actor and leading actress share the stage, performing medleys of snippets from their nominated characters and then singing backup for their fellow nominees.

It's an important element of acting, called "giving stage and taking stage," knowing how to draw focus and then give it to someone else. Some actors do it better than others. Thus the risk.

The medleys, crafted by Westchester musical wunderkind Michael Mastroianni, were at times playful and powerful, ever professional. The choreography by Harrison alum (and Stepinac co-choreographer) Halle Mastroberardino was spot-on, as in a medley sung by the actresses behind eventual winner Jadyn Schwartz, the alpha female antagonist in Harrison's "Mean Girls." As they gossip and connive in song, they bob and weave behind her, spinning a web of lies.

The nominees told me that working side by side with their fellow actors and actresses relieved the pressure of the night, made them castmates, and was more fun than just singing their 16 bars alone as in years past. They really seemed to have fun with it and, each came away with an appreciation for the company they kept on Metros Monday.

Takeaway: Risks are worth it. Theater kids rise to the challenge. It's all about the show.

That hush

I'm perhaps too fond of calling the Metros "the loudest, proudest night on the high school musical calendar," but the rafters shake when those kids start screaming. So I wasn't fully prepared when, just after the house lights went down, the place was pin quiet. Most everyone knew someone who was in the opening number and they were all anticipation. The hush was deafening.

Takeaway: When the moment arrives, people will dial in.

The opening number

Another risk was inviting every school to send dancers to take part in a live opening number, set to "Shut Up and Raise Your Glass" from "Moulin Rouge." It was a tall order: Dancers who had never danced together before, learning Harrison choreographer Debbie Toteda's steps, on short notice, on a stage much larger than ones they were accustomed to.

But there they were, 46 of them joined by nominees and last year's winner for leading actor, Nathaniel Findlay from Rye Neck, alongside Kiki Zervoudis from Tappan Zee High School for a duet and nominees in several categories.

Takeaways: Risks are still worth it. Dance kids can do anything you ask them. It's still all about the show.

Back at the PAC

The Metros have been a moveable feast for years. They began at the long-lost Helen Hayes Theater in Nyack, were held (simultaneously) in Nyack and the White Plains PAC once, have been at the Paramount in Peekskill, at Stepinac for a few years, and last year, at Tarrytown Music Hall. Each venue had its charm, but I've always felt that the ultimate home for the Metros is right where it was on Monday: The Performing Arts Center at Purchase College.

It's a world-class venue that gives the students a glimpse into what the world of performing arts could look like to them. As one actor told me on the blue carpet: "This place is legit."

And who knows? Maybe one of those 1,400 kids has put Purchase on their radar for future studies. They now know where it is. They know what the experience is about.

Takeaway: There's no place like home.

All those cats

A few words about all those cats. On the blue carpet pre-show, Roman Gatti — who played Rum Tum Tugger, the cat who craves attention — played along as I peppered him with questions. And the kids/kittens struck their particular poses with very little coaxing.

Later, when their overall-production-nominated show filled the stage with felines, they were a study in, well, catlike focus, moving in unison yet somehow managing to find their own way to hold the stage. Their harmonies were tight, the choreography sound. I know this musical has taken its lumps (there was a James Corden joke), but the NVOT kids were so committed to the material that they kind of restored it, in a way.

Takeaway: Learn your moves, rehearse repeatedly, make it your own. And shine in your own way.

The line of the night

Speaking of shining, I have to mention what might be the line of the night for me, which was delivered by the student responsible for making sure all those cats could be seen.

2024 Metro Awards: 'Les Miz' — and 2 Brewster sisters — win big; full list of winners

When Northern Valley/Old Tappan’s Matthew Mancinelli was named one of four winners in the technical merit category — for student technicians and behind-the-scenes work — his cast sent him to the stage on a wave of cheers. Matthew, the student lighting designer and lighting programmer for “Cats,” thanked everyone for their patience as he learned to run the lights "and paused them countless times." And he thanked the company that came and fixed lights that weren't working.

When he first came to the podium, to take his place in a spotlight to be honored for his role giving light to others, he said: "It's a lot brighter up here than in the booth."

Takeaway: That's what the Metro Awards are all about.

Reach Peter D. Kramer at [email protected].

This article originally appeared on Rockland/Westchester Journal News: 7 Metros Moments from the 2024 high school musical awards