Bells Will Ring for Soph-Frosh SING!

Their name is SING!. Soph-Frosh SING!.

Coordinated by Liam Kronman and produced by Alec Shafran, Lara Somoroff, Avni Garg, and Ruth Lee, this year’s Soph-Frosh SING! attempted a more political and satirical storyline focused on the theme of espionage, in contrast to previous years’ Soph-Frosh SING!s, which chose more cutesy and wholesome themes such as candy or toys.

The show opens with the Senate Majority Whip (Jonathan Schneiderman) presiding over an environmental conference of a rather barren set of a simple projector and chairs, with chorus members acting as the Senators in their simple white shirts and black bottoms. Whip manages to slip in a critique of the gridlock of the current Senate (“Senators… I request to have one minute of silence so my Top Ramen can be cooked”), before being interrupted with the tragic news that the Liberty Bell has been stolen.

Suddenly, music plays and the characters and chorus break into a humorous rendition of “Rumor in St. Petersburg,” as they obsess over the loss of their bell and constantly diss juniors, seniors, and other Stuyvesant affiliations alike with lines such as “The seniors might have stole it / but they're all cutting class.” Upon receiving the news, immature and dramatic President McMan (Max Kahn) and uptight, Girl Scout-hating Secretary of the CIA (Katerina Corr) call on two secret agents to trace the bell back to the town of Croissant, France.

These two agents are none other than Agent Montgomery (Maya Angles), an excessively theatrical and decorated yet incompetent CIA agent, and Agent Belle (Mimi Gillies), a much more serious and logical-minded foil to Montgomery who remains under her shadow. Despite the pair’s many differences and amusing bickering, the crux of Soph-Frosh SING! revolves around the duo’s eventual friendship and mutual respect for each other.

Along their journey of finding the Liberty Bell, which lies in the hands of bell-fetishizing and internationally wanted thief Sir Arthur Wetherfield (Ian Saint-Germain), the colorful and vibrant backdrop of Paris gradually lowers onto the stage, finally giving the audience an appealing visual, as the dynamic duo comes across several characters who aid them on their quest: Montgomery-superfan and romantic interest Agent Marseilles (Stella Oh), CIA lab technician Courtney (Ashley Choi), and… an Australian halal food truck owner residing in Paris (Alexander Lake).

Despite some of these supporting characters having individual quirks and amusing one-liners that made each of them stand out (for example, Agent Marseille telling Sir Wetherfield, “I suspect that you lack feminine attention”), the majority of them simply lacked screen time and relevance to the plot. Many of them, such as the latter two of the aforementioned characters, were only in one scene in the first half of the show, and as such, were unfortunately easy to forget, making us question whether or not they were necessary at all.

Perhaps this was in part due to the more satirical nature of this year’s Soph-Frosh SING!. Characters such as Whip, McMan, and Agent Montgomery play some of the most important roles in the U.S. government, yet they are each characterized as incompetent and dumb, whether it’s Montgomery dropping to her knees, admitting defeat at every issue (“Ah! Hopeless! They’ve outsmarted us; they didn’t write a name!”), or McMan declaring that the thief of the Liberty Bell should get his fingers cut off.

One particular running gag throughout the beginning of the show is every character besides Agent Belle being extremely geographically and culturally unaware, such as mistaking French for Sanskrit, or McMan saying, “Japan, isn’t that in, like, what… France?” Even so, these are some of the most publicly celebrated characters, with Montgomery being adored by all members of chorus and McMan turning his recorded reaction to the loss of the Liberty Bell into an inane and explosive political stunt akin to a Jake Paul vlog.

However, the show seemed to drag these jokes and this commentary on for an excessively long period, resulting in the plot becoming muddled and confusing. They felt somewhat disjointed from the rest of the show, and eventually they simply disappeared as the storyline turned to Agents Montgomery and Belle’s adventures, making it seem as if Soph-Frosh SING! were putting on two completely different shows. While definitely a commendable effort for trying something new, the first third of the show felt slow and lacking in terms of music and dancing, while the ending seemed overloaded with it.

Still, there’s no denying that each actor and actress put their best efforts into embodying their roles. Despite the very wide variety of “bell” puns that ranged from actually creative to cringe-y, the cast was able to truly portray their various characters. Gillies in particular stood out in the role of Agent Belle, the straight man in a cast filled with zany and extra characters, through constantly expressing disapproval and disappointment by the people around her. Even when Montgomery dramatically declares that they have failed and her life is over, in a very expressive performance by Angles, she manages to show both irritation and fake sympathy.

The script also seemed to have trouble integrating several dance numbers into the storyline creatively. For instance, though mesmerizing with their fluid motions, belly, directed by Tiffany Cai and Roshni Patel, only served to make yet another pun as Wetherfield’s “BELL-y dancers.” Meanwhile, while latin, directed by Emily Chrevinsky, was extremely lively and animated, they did not even play a role in the story, only dancing to the cue of President McMan declaring, “Alexa, put on some French music!” (aka “Taki Taki”), immediately followed by a well-timed Alexa-voiced “Playing French music!” recording from lights and sound.

Despite these shortcomings, many dance crews still managed to impress with their choreographies. Tap, directed by Sunny Bok, played the role of French citizens in Agents Montgomery and Belle’s introduction to Paris (evidently through their stereotypical striped shirts and red scarves), and was entrancing with their synchronized and clear clacking of their shoes, while also adding a unique touch with the incorporation of umbrellas into their dance. Flow, directed by Raymond Zhu, was surprisingly innovative in the role of the security lasers of “Tako” Bell, another awe-striking sight. As the band began playing the electric theme of “Gravity Falls” with an exciting energy that immediately captured the audience’s attention, flow cracked their glow sticks in sync with the song, changing with each new melody the band began playing, providing a mesmerizing sight (up until one of the dancers amusingly hits Agent Belle, causing the alarms to go off.)

Band, directed by Derick Fang and Joshua Kim, was another standout crew, staying consistently energetic and loud throughout the show. Even during awkwardly long transition scenes, in which stage and tech rearranged the set in the dark, band managed to distract the audience’s attention with a number of lively themes from iconic spy and action films such as “Mission Impossible” and “The Incredibles,” and from the cartoon show “Pink Panther.”

Crews like these helped distract from how rushed the ending seemed to be (which can perhaps be explained by how behind schedule the show became with the excessive booing at each diss towards Junior and Senior SING!s). After finding the Liberty Bell among a collection of many other smaller ones, Belle and Montgomery are captured by Wetherfield, and though Montgomery remains her abrasive, spunky self, Belle finds that Wetherfield understands her more than any other character in the show, as both seek greater things in life. But after the two share a kiss in their romantic duet of “Only Us” (the first song sung since the two were introduced to Paris), Montgomery witnesses it and feels betrayed.

Belle instantly is torn, questioning her decisions and loyalties in a powerful and moving rendition of “Human” that showcases Gillies’s impressive vocals. As modern, directed by Athena Lam and Elizabeth Tang, twirls and dances somberly behind her, the emotion Gillies manages to put behind the touching lyrics was able to get the audience waving their phones’ flashlights in support.

In a humorous finale, Wetherfield throws the Liberty Bell atop Montgomery and invites Belle to escape with him and live a new life together. But Belle realizes that she ultimately holds her loyalty to the CIA and her country, no matter how inept their leadership may be, and in one of the most iconic lines of the show, she knocks Wetherfield out with one of his coveted bells (comedically aided by bell sound effects), stating: “You can’t steal this bell.” As Montgomery and Belle come to terms with their frustrations with each other in a heated duet of “Moderation,” the two eventually (albeit somewhat hastily) make up, as the show ends with Belle finally getting her minimum wage paycheck from President McMan.

Soph-Frosh SING! incorporated an incredible degree of talent in its cast, dance crews, and band, and while these elements were not always put together perfectly, they broached themes more relevant today than those of Junior and Senior SING!s. Far from remaining cutesy and inoffensive, Soph-Frosh SING! created a show willing to challenge the boundaries of what messages a SING! performance can convey.