During college, the toughest challenges sometimes arise not in class, but in forming relationships, falling in love and redefining family-all symptoms of growing up. To explore the challenges young people face, Tympanium Euphorium presented EDGES to the Brandeis community this weekend in the Shapiro Campus Center Theater. While EDGES seemed well rehearsed and the actors shared a stellar dynamic, the musical execution of the production fell flat at times.

At the Saturday night showing, even while the men's soccer first round NCAA tournament game was taking place on Gordon Field, the theater was absolutely brimming with people excited to see EDGES. The show deviated from the traditional musical format in that it was a song cycle written by Tony-nominated songwriters Benj Pasek and Justin Paul. Six undergraduate actors brought to life this hour-and-a-half long continuous musical show, which encompassed 13 songs and three short transitions. Each song focused on a snippet of the "growing up" story, like fights with siblings, helping friends out and overcoming trials in love.

The cast, made up of Bethany Adam '15, Katie Jacobs '16, Makalani Mack '16, Jamie Semel '17, Eli Siegel '14 and Ray Trott '16, worked splendidly together. They kept time to the lively and continuous instrumental performance of Natsuko Yamagata '17, Brian Haungs '15 and Melanie Cytron '15, conducted by Emily Eng '14. Though the show transitioned between songs that the actors performed all together in smaller groups and as solo pieces, I thought that the best musical moments of the show came during the group performances. The individual vocal performances did not deliver the level of technical and sonic quality needed to carry a solo piece, but when the cast sang together, the focus shifted to the group's beautiful choral-style harmonies, which really added to the show.

One of the funniest moments in the show-and a crowd favorite too, as it garnered a roaring wave of applause-was a song called "In Short," performed by Semel. The piece did not require immaculate vocals, and actually was made better by her erratic performance. Following a very cute piece about the first time a couple says, "I love you," performed by Trott and Jacobs, Semel quietly took the stage and began her song by pleasantly talking about a guy she had been interested in and cared for.
Mid-sentence, she stalled and burst out into a hilarious rant, repeating "I just want you to f*cking die!" of her former love interest. Semel spent the rest of the song running around the stage, using bombastic and comically disarming body language to tell the audience the story of this love interest, how he wronged her and how she planned to exact her revenge. She was gasping, yelling and musing with total abandon, and put on a stellar and emotionally relatable performance.

Another audience favorite was the song "Man of My Dreams," performed by Adam, Jacobs, Siegel and Mack. Adam raved to her friends, Jacobs and Siegel, about her perfect boyfriend, Mack. She danced around the stage with such joy and sang about how her boyfriend keeps her apartment clean, goes to Broadway shows with her and never tires of shopping together.

The audience began cracking up as Jacobs and Siegel mouthed to each other "He's gay," while Adam twirled around the stage with innocent glee. I felt a bit uncomfortable as the songwriting employed the narrow, stereotypical idea of a gay man and even had the actors deliver a truncated line rhyming with "bag," implying that they were to have used a homophobic slur. However, the audience was still able to laugh at the upbeat, pleasantly comic feel of the rest of the song. 

Overall, I had a good time at EDGES and the end of the show found most of the audience on their feet giving the cast a standing ovation. The fantastic dynamic between the actors and the tremendous effort put forth by the instrumentalists and crew made for an enjoyable production, and a night full of laughs.

-Editor's note: Melanie Cytron '15 is a Justice copy staff member.