Twelve middle schoolers, two girls dressed like thirteen-year-old boys, and a female King George III walk into a bar the MPR. 

Last night, the boundaries of musical theater were crossed with an event put on by the Theater Arts Club board and the Agoura drama club, called Miscast. Students had the opportunity to sing songs that they would never get cast in for a production, hence the girls dressed like thirteen-year-old boys and a female King George III. The middle school thing was totally real, though. 

Students from Lindero Canyon middle school came to Miscast to advertise their production of 13: The Musical. They offered free tickets to all students for their Saturday Night matinee, and sang a couple of songs from the musical before the event began.

“It was really inspiring to see the impact of the Lindero kids on the high school students,” says TAC Vice President, Dylan Baer. “To see a next generation group of performers at that level, before stepping foot into high school, was incredible. I cannot wait to see where they go.” 

After the Lindero Canyon students sang What It Means to Be a Friend, hosts Annabelle Miller and Lily Nasseri resumed the night, introducing each song with their own banter and several puns.

There were 14 songs performed throughout the night, and all were memorable in their own way. In the first act, a standout performance was I’m Still Here from the Follies performed by Jesse Brasler. Sung with great passion, it was altered to include an ode to Brasler’s time at CHS, as a graduating senior. He changed the lyric from “I’m almost through my memoirs and I’m here” to “I lived through seven DTASC’s and I’m here.” DTASC is a theater festival that CHS and Agoura go to every fall and spring. 

“I’m honestly surprised that the joke was allowed to be kept in, let alone land,” says Brasler. 

Brasler also carried a box labeled “COLLEGE” on stage, including souvenirs from past performances at CHS. 

“I thought it would be interesting if, especially in a show with a premise like MIscast, I played the character of Jesse Brasler. Which, ironically, I don’t get to play very often,” says Brasler. 

In the second act, adorned in a red cape, wearing a crown, and holding a spray bottle labeled “spit” Riley Eichberg gave Hamilton’s You’ll Be Back her all. Even though she did put the bottle to full use, spraying the crowd with a little too much excitement, she charmed the crowd enough for them to sing the chorus back to her. The MPR rang out with “Da-da-da, dat-da, dat, da-da-da, da-ya-da” during the finale of the song. 

“It was awesome! Everyone was just having fun and being silly, and that’s all I could have wanted in that moment,” said senior Riley Eichberg, also president of the Theater Arts Club.

Other memorable moments of the night included when Dylan Baer sang a song alongside Noah Mayor, a junior from Agoura. They performed as Elphaba and Glinda from Wicked in their special rendition of For Good, Baer with a green tie and Mayor with a pink tie. To close out the night, both AHS and CHS theater boards performed Summer Nights from Grease, the girls playing the guys and vice versa. 

Overall, the goal of miscast was to unite the Agoura and Calabasas theater departments, as well as give students new opportunities. 

“We all have things we want to play that we are never going to be able to,” said Eichberg.

It was a night centered around having fun, and it was clear that the performers on stage were not taking themselves too seriously. Mistakes were laughed off and did not cheapen any of the acts, but instead added a layer of charm to them. 

“I loved the show, and I really hope they keep it an annual thing,” says Eliana Long, a junior at Calabasas High School who attended the show. 

Auditions were open to all members of the Theater Arts Club, which is about 85 students, and there were some thoughts about possibly opening it up to all students next year, but involvement outside of the club was questioned. 

“I’m so happy that Miscast happened this year because this is the first time it’s happened since the pandemic. The more we have events like this, the more our community will realize that the CHS Theater Department is fierce. My expectation was a night of inspired, incredible performances, and that expectation was massively exceeded,” says Brasler.