‘Twas the Season—Looking Back on a Decade of SING!

2011:

First: Senior, Monsters: Big Foot, the adopted child of Dracula and Medusa, goes on a quest to find his identity and of course, falls in love along the way.

Second: Junior, Nursery Rhymes: Mary, after a dispute with her parents Jack and Jill, goes on an adventure with her lamb, a golden egg, and Muffin Man. Evil Mother Goose and her sidekick Itsy Bitsy Spider attempt to thwart Mary and steal the egg.

Third: Soph-Frosh, Searching for a Theme: Three script writers try to brainstorm a theme and write a script to go with it but struggle.

Notable for: Soph-Frosh settled with the theme of “searching for a theme,” and the plot detailed the process of how the scriptwriters brainstormed—but ultimately rejected—different theme ideas.

2012:

First: Senior, Apocalypse: The world ends on December 21, 2012, leaving only the magical characters inside the enchanted walls of the set’s castle alive. They embark on an adventure to find the cause of the apocalypse and begin the rebuilding process.

Second: Junior, Zoo: A newcomer to the zoo, the Canadian Arctic Fox, tries to convince all the animals that they should be free and stage a revolution with the current leader’s daughter and of course, fall in love along the way.

Third: Soph-Frosh, Cards: The two Joker cards, seeking revenge for their exclusion from so many games, kidnap a Stuyvesant student to wreak havoc in Card World.

Notable for: 2012 is the first year that The Spectator publishes SING! Top Fives and the 40th anniversary of the first SING!.

2013:

First: Seniors, Underworld and the Seven Deadly Sins: Hades dies after a sinner accidentally poisons him by committing the ultimate sin of creating Junior SING! All hell breaks loose as Eight Deadly Sins battle for the throne.

Second: Juniors, Under the Sea: Inspired by Disney’s “Little Mermaid,” a mermaid falls in love with a human man but is trapped by the wishes of her overbearing mother, with special appearances from a Septopus, a seven-tentacled octopus, and pirates.

Third: Soph-Frosh, Mystery: The characters of Scooby-Doo embark on a mysterious mission to recover a missing Pink Panther diamond, only to uncover the unlikely culprit behind it all.

Notable for: Social studies teacher Eric Wisotsky makes an appearance in the Junior SING! finale.

2014:

First: Seniors, Prehistoric: A forbidden love between two members of the dominant Homo Sapiens and the subservient Neanderthals lead to a journey of twists and turns until the lovers finally unite.

Second: Soph-Frosh, Extraterrestrials: Two friends on their journey to Mars accidentally crash land on an alien inhabited Pluto. An interplanetary young love blossoms.

Third: Juniors, Circus: A circus is in danger of shutting down if they receive a bad grade. An unlikely betrayal threatens the circus’s survival.

Notable for: Soph-Frosh beats Juniors for first time in over a decade.

2015:

First: Seniors, Enchanted Forest: When an evil Fairy Godmother casts a spell to destroy an Enchanted Forest, storybook characters band together in hopes of confronting the Fairy Godmother and saving the Forest.

Second: Juniors, Ancient Egypt: A pharaoh goes missing. While some people embark on a journey to find him, others build a scheme to take the throne.

Third: Soph-Frosh, Toys: Misfit toys, ridiculed by a group of Barbies, embark on a journey to get fixed and embrace their self-identity.

Notable for: Senior SING! included SING!’s first ever non-heterosexual couple.

2016:

First: Seniors, Horror: The worlds of the living and half-dead collide as a group of teenagers summons demons in a graveyard and pay for their bold actions with their lives. A Romeo and Juliet-esque interdimensional love leads to a tragic ending.

Second: Juniors, Winter: A group of friends embark on a journey to fix a crack in a snow globe out of frustration. Politicians spend their time debating with each other rather than finding solutions to fix the crack.

Third: Soph-Frosh, Apocalypse: As a series of natural disasters threaten the end of the world, a Prophet sends a group of friends off to find a magical scroll to save humanity. Spoiler alert: the apocalypse was completely made up by the Prophet.

Notable For: The residential rap battle in Junior SING! referenced the 2016 presidential election.

2017:

First: Seniors, Medieval: A noble princess, an inept prince, a ridiculous knight, and a powerful sorceress go on an adventure to find a safe haven after an assasination attempt and of course, fall in love along the way.

Second: Juniors, 1920s: Two gangsters stow away on a ship that also happens to have a precious jewel, and they plot to steal it. Unfortunately, one of the gangsters falls in love with the jewel’s owner along the way.

Third: Soph-Frosh, Candy: The candy in a candy shop is going to be eaten when the store opens the next day, but first they’re going to throw a party and maybe escape.

Notable for: Junior SING! used the spongebob-theme as their spirit song.

2018:

First: Seniors, Ancient Greece: A prince and his band of assorted sidekicks go on a quest across Ancient Greece, facing classic Greek characters,and of course, fall in love along the way.

Second: Soph-Frosh, Time Travel: An Elvis impersonator, noblewoman, gay teen from the 1950s, and a cavewoman get unintentionally brought to the future by a mother and daughter duo and go on a quest to be returned. Mom, I want to be a historian!

Third: Juniors, SING!: A SING! producer who thinks SING! is corrupt and a waste of time (gasp!) attempts to sabotage the show.

Notable for: The Soph-Frosh stage collapsed during the theme song during the New Haven performance.

2019:

First: Seniors, Renaissance: A run-away nun and monk go to Florence because the nun dreams of being a scientist and of course, falls in love along the way.

Second: Juniors, Mafia: An undercover cop infiltrates a pizza place that is a mafia front, but there’s also a divorce happening.

Third: Soph-Frosh, Espionage: Two CIA agents, one competent and one self-involved, go to France to return the Liberty Bell, which had been stolen by a bell-obsessed villain.

Notable for: The gondola scene in Senior SING!, when the protagonists wowed the audience as they sung Lady Gage and Bradley Cooper’s “Shallows” (2018) and rowed in a boat attached to the stage.

2020:

First: Seniors, Hollywood: A crazy super-fan kidnaps the stars of a recent movie to fulfill her obsession.

Second: Juniors, Revolution: A newly-employed palace party planner and a disgruntled peasant stage a revolution against a corrupt monarchy and of course, fall in love along the way.

Third: Soph-Frosh, Wonderland: Alice, an average girl, is transported to Wonderland, where she goes against the machinations of the evil Cheshire Cat and attempts to restore the Queen of Spades to the throne, who also happens to be her grandmother.

Notable for: Breaking the 2000/2010 junior curse: in both 2000 and 2010, Junior SING! had won, causing many to expect that the same would happen in 2020.