Because of his early love for Disney, Matthew Friedman, a fourth-year mechanical engineering student, was shocked to arrive at UCLA his first year to find no official Disney-related club or group on campus.
Friedman decided to fix that. In 2011, he founded the Disney Club of UCLA. Over his four years, Friedman has remained president of the club, helping it grow to 400 active members and more than 2,000 Facebook page “likes.”
This fall, in collaboration with UCLA’s Hooligan Theatre Company, Friedman has organized “Be Our Guest: A Night of Disney Cabaret.” On Tuesday in Kerckhoff’s Grand Salon, the show will feature UCLA students of all ranges of vocal experience as they perform renditions of classic Disney songs.
“While a good amount of the cast is from Hooligan Theatre, we have students who are involved in all different groups, from music majors to theater to a cappella,” said Kelly Lennon, a fourth-year theater student and artistic director for Hooligan Theatre Company.
The idea for the show was born last April, while Friedman was searching online for other Disney-related videos and stumbled upon a video from a group at another university that had organized a night of Disney-themed music.
“The lightbulb went off,” Friedman said. “I thought to myself, ‘Why hasn’t something like this happened at UCLA before?'”
Friedman then recruited the help of friends and fourth-year music performance student Joey Galasso, who is responsible for arranging the show’s group numbers, including everything from duets to ensemble pieces.
Next up was the audition process.
“The Hooligan Theatre Company was with us 100 percent of the way through the audition process, and I think the majority of our performers found out about it through their social media. It was a total collaboration,” Friedman said.
The auditions took place last month and were open to anyone who wanted to participate, and while a cabaret performance by an on-campus club might seem like it would be a casual endeavor to some, Friedman said he and his team had a vision.
“They were adjudicated based on vocal ability, as well as availability to make the practice schedule. We were fairly selective,” Galasso said.
In the end, only 13 of the 30 individuals who tried out were selected. Each of the 13 selected cast members chose a song for the show, and these songs, coupled with group numbers, make for a nearly two-hour running time.
The official set list is being kept as a surprise, but Friedman said he is confident that there’s something for everybody, the cast’s choices featuring selections from “The Disney Songbook,” Broadway and the D23 Expo’s “Broadway and Beyond” concert series.
“At the end of the day, it’s a passion project,” Galasso said. “The way that the Disney Club strives to put 150 percent into everything we do, combined with music – something that everyone on the team and everyone at Hooligan is so passionate about – it really just makes for something magical.”