On Thursday 10/15 Middletown South held its first ever Lip Sync Battle in the Southside Theatre. It was a fundraiser for Subterranean Literary & Art Magazine to support Middletown Helps Its Own and benefit student scholarships. The battle consisted of students (and teachers!)  who selected songs, learned all the words, rehearsed their performances, got on stage, and did not actually sing, but instead mouthed the words.

The night started off with a hilarious rendition of “Shia LeBeouf” with James Hartmann, Matt Siriani, featuring: Ricardo Davis, and Giulio Bianchi. This was followed by a heartwarming performance of “Time of My Life” starring E.P. Koenigsberg and Nick Vollaro. Next up was Jared Jones’ realistic execution of “World End.” Then came the near perfect replication of High School Musical’s “Breaking Free” featuring Natalie Cuoccio and Elyse Stanziale that was absolutely stunning. Act I concluded with Giulio Bianchi and Ricardo Davis performing Rick Astley’s “Never Gonna Give You Up” which  made everyone in the audience want to get on stage and sing along.

After a brief intermission, Sam Walla and Ayo Oladeji got the fun started up again with their take of “Start All Over” by Miley Cyrus that kept everyone on their toes and made everyone smile. Next to the stage was Sam Abate and Amber Tanzi with their fun and original rendition of “Wind It Up” by Gwen Stefani. Giulio Bianchi made another stellar appearance in “Something Happened on the Way to Heaven” by Phil Collins. The final routine of the night began with Simon & Garfunkel’s “Sound of Silence” with Ms. Boyce, Ms. Canal, Ms. Conrad, Ms. Deignan, Ms. Favara, Ms. Gohar, Ms. Grimm, Ms. Hickman, Ms. Ketcham, Ms. Matri, Mr. Rooney, Mr. Rosenbloom, and Mr. Trezza. They took the audience by surprise when they began to bust their best moves to the popular song, “Watch Me.” However, the true show-stopper came after the final act. Students of the teachers, including Sophie (8) and Finn (5) Monahan, Ms. Grimm’s kids, Evan (4) and Rebecca (6) Conrad, Ms. Conrad’s kids, and Michael Deignan (4), Mrs. Deignan’s child, gave their best rendition of the same song, “Watch Me,” that their parents had just performed.

Overall, the fundraiser was a major success! A lot of money and food was raised for very worthy causes. Audience members, Mike Pianoforte, Anna Hallenbeck, and Saad Channa, all agree that it was tons of fun and very amusing. Sam Peragino, production manager of Subterranean said, “I think it went absolutely fabulous and everyone did great. It was great to see all my fellow editors up there jamming out. I think everyone really enjoyed themselves.” One of the performers, Elyse Stanziale, had the same feelings, remarking, “I’m happy with the way things turned out. I was really happy with the performance. I was nervous at first, but it was really good.” If you missed out on the fun, have no fear! Underground, a coffeehouse-type open mic, will be held October 30th which promises to be a great evening, be sure to check it out.