A Field Trip to Empire Records

When the first Reach Out to the Arts (ROTTA) trip of the year was announced at School Meeting as a trip to the new musical, Empire Records, I was immediately excited. I love musicals, and I’ve always really wanted to see one pre-Broadway. Going in with such high expectations, I worried the show might not turn out to be quite as I’d hoped. Luckily, I need not have worried, as the show ended up being excellent. Faithfully based on the 1995 film of the same name, the musical follows six teen employees  and their boss through an incredibly tumultuous day at the Empire Records store. The story begins when the business hit some hard times, lagging three months behind on multiple payments. One of the teenage workers, Lucas, takes matters into his own hands, gambling roughly 5,000 dollars of the store’s profits away in an effort to improve their unfortunate situation. Unfortunately, he loses all of it, and he and his co-workers must navigate the consequences, including the only viable possibility: turning Empire Records into an outlet of the chain brand, Music World. The cast navigates the roughly one and a half hours of the show with enthusiasm, rock-inspired scores, and dance numbers with flashing lights, putting on a performance certainly worth seeing.

Beyond the classic plot, the musical boasts many of its own attractions. First and foremost is certainly its cast, which includes members with incredibly impressive histories. One such actor is Lorna Courtney, who has just finished a two-year run in Broadway's & Juliet, where she played the titular role. Others include Michael Luwoye, whose credits include a run as Alexander Hamilton in the Broadway production of the iconic show Hamilton, and Taylor Iman Jones, who portrayed Catherine Parr in a Broadway production of Six. The cast delivers on the high expectations their playbill bios create, with emotion, humor, and a plethora of talented voices lending to the show’s 18 songs and overall experience. 

Further, Empire Records’ staging, lighting, and set add greatly to the musical. It is currently being shown in the Berlind Theater within Princeton’s McCarter Theater, which has a small seating area and no balcony. The cast uses this to their advantage, traveling up and down the walkways of the seating area and jumping down in front of the stage. This unique aspect of the staging creates a sense of immersiveness I’ve never seen in a show before. Additionally, the size of the theater and the proximity of the audience to the stage allows the set to truly shine. The scenes all take place within the store itself, which features a storefront, a main room filled with posters and music, a staff backroom, a copy room, and office space. Walls spin and reveal other rooms, copy machines and doorways slide across the stage, and yet more pieces are flown in from above. And even more impressively, each and every room brims with incredible detail. Countless posters adorn the walls, glowing LED letters read “listening booths” in the back, the couch has mismatched and garishly patterned cushions, the checkout desk is littered with haphazardly placed stickers, and everything has a well-loved look about it. Above all, the iconic store sign glows, with letters intermittently sparking out throughout the show, much to the characters’ frustration. The remarkable attention to detail really makes it feel as though the events of the show are happening in real life, right in front of the audience. With a classic story, excellent cast, and great staging and set design, Empire Records is certainly a show with potential for Broadway.

I’m extremely glad I got to see the musical, and I definitely wouldn't have had this opportunity without ROTTA. In my three years at Lawrenceville, I’ve been on many of the trips hosted by the program. Like this most recent one, they always provide opportunities for me to engage with art that I most likely wouldn’t encounter otherwise. The Reach Out to the Arts trips are something every Lawrenceville student should take advantage of at some point in their years here. This is especially true for dance or musical theater fans, who should all keep a lookout for a potential Broadway trip later this year!