West Hempstead High School's rendition of 'Les Miserables' a hit

    In their rendition of "Les Miserables," students at West Hempstead High School entertained the audiences that came out to see performances the evenings of March 11, 12 and 14. The students were the talk of the town – so much so, in fact, that even a wild nor'easter didn't keep the audience away.
    The auditorium was packed on Saturday, March 13, although hurricane-force winds raged outside. About a half-hour before the play was set to begin, there was a power outage at the high school, which was immediately evacuated, safely and calmly. The show was postponed to the next day and turnout was just as great.
    Months of rehearsals and practice were well worth it, as the cast of about 50 students put on fantastic show that remained the talk of the town all week. There were some 30 students in the orchestra, according to Eric Albinder, director of music for the school district, and about 40 students working behind the scenes on lights and sound, among other things.
    The play was directed and produced by music teachers Joseph Kane and Wayne Heckler, respectively. Patricia McVetty served as the other musical director, John Tripani as pit conductor, Melissa Benson as choreographer and Dan DiPasquale as stage director.
    "This is probably the biggest undertaking, the most monumental musical we've ever done here because it was close to three hours in length and the entire show is sung: there's no spoken dialogue at all," Albinder said. "We thought it was a good year to do it because we felt we had the singing talent, the vocal talent with the kids that we had."
    The students appreciated their teachers' decision to put on this particular show, and put that gratitude into words printed in the program: "Thank you for having enough faith in us to put on a production as hard and rewarding as Les Miserables."
    Of their performance, Albinder added, "They did a phenomenal job through a very challenging show."