By River Mitchell
@rivermitchell17
As the last show at 7 p.m. on the Saturday before Thanksgiving break came to a close, the Best of Broadway wrapped up its fall performance.
Best of Broadway, which is a student-run musical theater club at Springfield College, just celebrated its 50th anniversary as a club as it was also the same celebration for the club performing at The Fuller Arts Center.
The group puts together two shows every year, one in the fall and another in the spring semester. The fall semester show was a “Broadway review,” where they collected about 20 different songs from various musicals and put together full cast numbers, duets and more. Some of the songs from the Broadway review were featured in movies such as Hairspray, Newsies and Beauty and the Beast, which Best of Broadway will perform as a full show next semester.
While there’s a whole other semester for the Best of Broadway club, some have decided to end their Best of Broadway career, as they ride off into the sunset. This directly applied to senior Daniel Curren.
“It was definitely very bittersweet,” Curren said. “I’d say that this is the best way I could’ve gone out.”
For Curren, he also got to go out in style, as he was able to perform his favorite number of all time.
“I got a very loud applause from the audience so I was very happy that I got to go out on that note,” Curren said. ‘It definitely is emotional because I love performing more than anything else and just saying goodbye to the stage was really hard.”
Curren, who is a Communications/Sports Journalism major, decided to do Best of Broadway his first year on a whim. It turned out to be one of the best decisions that he’s ever made.
“You’re always a family in theater,” Curren said. “It’s really a time for all of us to come together and just show a lot of appreciation for one another. I made a lot of memories and I met some incredible people who I otherwise would probably have never talked to.”
Curren was not a stranger to performing before this, as he performed in plays a lot during his childhood too.
“I started doing theater in elementary school, continuing through middle school, on a whim decided to continue doing it in high school, and I really truly fell in love with performing then,” he said.
Best of Broadway has been an integral part of Curren’s time at Springfield College. This whole entire journey was a special one for the senior.
“It showed me that I still had a passion for performing,” Curren said.
If you are interested in learning more about the Best of Broadway club, you can email Annie Warchol at awarchol@springfieldcollege.edu.
Photo: Springfield College Flickr