Arts

Abbot Cabaret: Rapping, Tapping and Magic Tricks

“Energy, gravity, I’ll force you down depravity, if you try to step too much,” rapped Charles Stacy ’16, strutting around the stage before Justin Muchnick ’16 finished the line with “Lock your doors and hide your family!” Dressed in sporting glasses, science T-shirts and pulled-up pants, Muchnick and Stacy performed a humorous rap about physics in Abbot Cabaret, accompanied with a video projection to display the lyrics of their “Reapplied Physics” rap.

“We wrote it two years ago when we were in the same Physics 400 class Lower year,” said Stacy. “We always wanted to do some sort of performance with it, but it took us ‘till Senior year to take the courage to do it, since now we have no shame.”

Abbot Cabaret was produced by Michael Shen ’16 and Jo Pandji ’16, Abbot Cluster Co-Presidents. The performance showcased 13 student acts this year. Similar to previous years, all proceeds from the three-dollar admission fee were given to “We are the World Kids,” a non-profit organization founded by Justine Wang ’15.

“This is definitely a time-honored Abbot tradition. But I feel like this time around, because we had so many acts to choose from and the variety of acts was really dynamic, that we have something that Andover has maybe never seen before. It was really humbling to see the array of talent that came in to showcase their acts,” said Shen.

Azure, Andover’s all-female a cappella group, performed Hozier’s “Work Song” as the fifth act in the show. Starting off in a circle, the first soloist, Maddie Zerbey ’18, emerged from the center to belt the calm, soulful verse.

“Azure’s performance was really well put together. They included some choreography, which was really effective. There was a good blend, as everyone’s voices complimented each other’s really well. It was my favorite performances,” said Yuji Chan ’18, an audience member of the show.

Later, Alejandro Diaz de Argandona ’16 and James Jusuf ’17 performed “Magic & Music: Time Dimensions,” a brief magic show. Accompanied by a soothing piano melody played by Jusuf, Diaz explained the four dimensions of life – past, present, future and dreams – while shuffling through a deck of playing cards. As he described each dimension, he amazed the crowd by waving his hand over the cards, flipping them over to reveal that their pictures had disappeared.

“I think it’s a nice performance because it includes music with speech and magic. It’s a magic routine created by a Spanish magician who shared it with me. I have been doing magic for eight years, and it was really great to work with [Jusuf] to share it with the community,” said Diaz.

Footnotes, a student tap dance group, danced to “The North Strand” from “Once The Musical.” Wearing flannel shirts and jeans, the tap dancers stomped four times in unison, before tapping out a fast-paced routine to the cheerful, upbeat music.

“We chose to perform this song because [Hannah Beaudoin ’17, Co-Head of Footnotes,] and I saw the musical ‘Once’ over [Winter Vacation] together and we really liked the music from it, so we decided to use the song. The audience seemed to enjoy [the dance] and they were hooting and hollering, which was fun,” said Lydia Paris ’17, Co-Head of Footnotes.

Each adorned with a sparkly gold crown that complimented their black dresses, The Trap Queens, featuring Brooke Keene ’16, Sitara Rao ’16, Mihika Sridhar ’16 and Sarika Rao ’19, performed a mash-up of Fetty Wap’s “Trap Queen,” “679,” “My Way” and “Again.” Strong piano chords, played by Sarika Rao, opened the song as each singer harmonized to mesh the four songs together.

“It’s mine, Brooke’s and Sitara’s senior year and we had never auditioned or performed for [Abbot Cabaret] before, but we always wanted to do something like it. It was a bucket-list item and we just wanted to be part of something that’s always incredible. [Abbot Cabaret] every year is always amazing,” said Sridhar.

After several weeks of preparation and rehearsal, Abbot Cabaret was a success, raising over 1,000 dollars for charity. Pandji said, “We tried our best to hone [Abbot Cabaret] down to a really diverse, dynamic and energetic show. I think in the middle of winter we need something extravagant to bring up spirit. It’s all in good fun.”