“Movies will make you famous; Television will make you rich; But theatre will make you good,” are the words from the famous theatre director Terrence Mann.
At Rancho Cucamonga High School, drama students live by this quote day by day, especially for the musical “Young Frankenstein,” which played in the RCHS auditorium on March 12 through March 14
The musical “Young Frankenstein” is a hilarious parody from 1974, based on the original gothic novel “Frankenstein” by author Mary Shelley, which was written in 1818.
“Young Frankenstein” follows the story of Frederick Frankenstein, who is collecting his inheritance after his grandfather Victor Von Frankenstein’s death. Originally, Frankenstein is reluctant to follow in his grandfather’s footsteps, but when he meets crucial main characters like Igor and Inga, they help him create Frankenstein’s famous monster and discover who he was truly meant to become.
As the shows commenced, cast members reflected on their personal performances.
“I feel that I performed really well tonight,” junior Malcolm Whitehead said. “I didn’t forget no choreo, no blocking, no lines, no lyrics. I did amazing; my performance as well.”
Junior Dawson Hyde also gave his insight.
“I feel I performed really well,” Hyde said. “There was one time where I had to improv something and that went really well. I sang great, despite having a sore throat; it was great.”
While the cast reflected on how they performed, they also explained their favorite part about performing.
“My favorite part was the audience being so enthusiastic,” Hyde said. “It’s so fun to perform on a stage.”
Senior Brooklyn Helper also shared her favorite part about performing.
“My favorite part about performing was probably interacting with my cast mates just because they always keep me grounded onstage and then also the applause,” Helper said.
Overall, the cast claimed to have enjoyed the entire performance, but there were a few select scenes they favored over others.
“My favorite scene has to be ‘Deep Love’ with my co-star Khloe Wales, who played Elizabeth,” Whitehead said. “The choreo and just the chemistry there, it was amazing, it was nice. I love that scene all around.”
Helper also shared her favorite scene from the show.
“My favorite scene to perform, this might be biased, but I really liked performing ‘Roll In the Hay’ just because I get to be on a wagon and it’s super cool,” Helper said.
Though the cast of “Young Frankenstein” reveled in the limelight onstage, the audience also had positive reactions to the show. During intermission, some of the audience members explained how they were liking the show.
“So far, I’ve liked it,” senior Suhmya Truley said. “I like how they were up there hitting the notes and doing the dances. I find it really funny how they keep throwing people around, but so far it’s really good, I really like it.”
Junior Grace Jourieh also discussed how she had been liking the show up to that point, to which she claimed that the show had been “absolutely phenomenal.”
Jourieh continued to go into detail about why the show had been great so far, commenting positively on how the cast had been performing.
“They have been performing so well; I am so proud of each and every one of them,” Jourieh said. “They’re all super prepared, super energetic; I love how everything turned out.”
Truley gave her opinion on the cast as well.
“Really good, actually,” Truley said. “I don’t know what I was expecting, but they definitely went over what I was expecting.”
Aside from the cast and their performance, the audience members explained what they loved about the musical as a whole.
“I like the singing, I like the high notes, I liked Maia’s [Frau Blücher] ‘He Was My Boyfriend’ song, that one is my favorite so far,” Truley said. “I like all the props and everything, and how they’ve built everything so far, it’s really nice.”
In addition, Jourieh offered her thoughts on the musical.
“I really love all the songs, especially all the ensemble pieces,” Jourieh said. “I think they’re beautifully written, beautifully sung, beautifully choreographed. I think everything is just fantastic; I love all the music.”
Apart from the cast and audience members giving their insight to the musical, the show’s two directors, Dr. Joel Hamilton Wilson and Mr. James Loudermilk, also explained how they felt the show went.
“I think the show went really well,” Wilson said. “It all came together, everyone worked hard, and I think it was great.”
Loudermilk said he felt the show went “amazing, wonderful, fantastic, fabulous, awesome,” and expressed his pride in his cast.
“The cast was so amazing, I’m so proud of them,” Loudermilk said. “The energy, we had such amazing audiences, night one and this night, and it just brought up the energy level so, such a great performance, so proud of them.”
Wilson also gave his opinion on how the cast did while performing.
“I think the cast was awesome,” Wilson said. “They worked so hard; they’ve been working since November on the show, and I think it really paid off, so I think they should be proud of themselves.”
While the two directors explained what they loved about the cast, they also reflected on their favorite moments during rehearsals leading up to the show.
“I think that this cast really became a family and we brought a lot of new people into the program, so it was so amazing to watch them form those bonds together,” Loudermilk said.
Wilson said all of the laughs he and the cast had together were his favorite moments.
“When we would just laugh,” Wilson said. “We would just have a good time, lots of fun, lots of laughs. I think that was my favorite thing about it.”
The 2025-2026 drama productions centered around classic horror film monsters, meant to frighten its audience as much as humor them. The 2026-2027 productions will be released shortly on rchs-drama.com, along with info on auditions.
