Johnston High's Friday Night Live brings down the house, remembers one of their own

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The three-dozen or so teenagers who co-starred in the Johnston Music Department’s Second Annual Friday Night Live put on what people are calling and “incredible success.”

Each and every JHS student shined as bright at those folks on NBC’s highly-popular SNL during his or her moments on stage, during the zany and hilarious production that drew rave reviews from the school’s faculty and even visitors from Barrington.

Peg Guilmette, a JHS physical education teacher, send Music Department Chairman Ronald Lamoureua a message that read: “What a fantastic show tonight! Thanks for making it possible; you have a great bunch of talented kids won there in that band room.”

Micheal Mancieri, an assistant JHS principal, raved about how funny and well-done the night was.”

A student from Barrington High School, who will take part in the upcoming Rhode Island Music Education State Finals, told Lamoureux: “I was wowed by the performances; we need to do this at our school.”

The FNL opened with a video clip that has people searching for the cast around different parts of the school until a parody of kids working on their homecoming floats at an “Overnighter” is staged including the first of many different performances by the Zack’s – Zachary Morin, Zach Zambarano and Zakary Rogala – FNL 2 was a smashing success.

There was A Cappella “Bohemian Rhapsody: arranged by Eisemann and A Cappella “Jessie’s Girl” along with Lauren Civetti, who plays a fast-speaking infomercial presenter touting the many joys and ridiculous uses of “paper towels” that sent the crown into a laughing frenzy.

Perhaps Lamoureux, who helped steer the FNL ship, said it best at conclusion of the show that also included Jack Frenier’s infomercial on the Shamwoah – pronounced Sham-Woe – a towel that didn’t work so well but the video was hilarious.

“Fact is,” Lamoureux said, “we do have fantastic kids. They are so talented and funny and supportive of each other. The thing that’s most impressive and important to me about this event is that we had kids from all over the school coming together. We had athletes, musicians … only this kind of effort put such a diverse group together – kids that would never be in the came room together except for something like this.”

Abby Rain-Heiser, JHS alum Michael Pastore, Jeremiah Heu and Josiah Heu closed the show with Paramore’s “That’s What Your Get” and as Lamoureux emphasized later “It rocked and was the perfect ending for the show.”

There was a formal-like ending to FNL, as Lamoureux pointed out, when the highly-popular and energetic Zachary Zambarano – who did a fantastic job as the show’s host –announced “the entire show was dedicated to our lost friend Rachel Carson” who passed away unexpectedly on January 14 of this year from complications of undiagnosed Leukemia.

“Rachel was instrumental in the conception of many of the skits and was a writer for much of FNL,” Lamoureux related, his voice cracking with emotion. “Rachel loved the environment and planned to attend the University of Maine in September to study Wildlife Ecology. For that reason, our group is going to make a donation in her name to the Leukemia Society for research.”

A collection was also taken in the foyer after the show that the entire FNL troupe will give to the Audubon Society.

“Rachel was a champion of the outdoors and the environment,” Lamoureux explained. “She was heavily involved in our music department and helped write FNL in 2017 and tonight’s FNL and the memories of her many contributions will live forever.”

The FNL cast included Abi Bartlett, Lauren Civetti, Jack Frenier, Emily Gaye, Patrick Leonard, Zach Morin, Kelsey Scott, Philip Thompson, Ben Budway, Ashley DiLorenzo, Nick Gallo, Evan LaPlante, Malorie Magnone, Zakary Rogala, Brad Testa and Lizmar Torres.

As noted, Zambarano was the show host and it included prolific performances by the JHS AcaPanthers, “Abby Heiser & The Heues”, and Cast of J-DAPA’S “Beauty and The Beast” that will be presented on April 27-28 and May 4-5 inside the JHS Auditorium.

The crew of FNL, which also received rave reviews, included Elizabeth Cruz, Abby Heiser, Michael Mollicone, Matthew Eisemann, Maikou Kue and Rick Rajsasombat.

 

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