By Julianne Cuba
They shook a leg and broke a leg!
About 20 Marine Park middle-schoolers brought audiences right back to their disco-loving days with their production of the 1980 romantic musical “Xanadu” at the Fillmore Academy on May 11 and 12. Two of the leads are graduating and will bring their talents to high school — but they will be sorely missed, said teacher and show director Kimberly Simek.
“We’ll miss them dearly, they’re very tight and very enthusiastic,” she said. “They’ve been involved in every show we’ve done. I will miss my eighth-graders when they go on to bigger and better things.”
Eighth-grader Jonay Jackson played Kira, an Greek muse who inspires the lead character Sonny Malone — played by eighth-grader Jack Harkin — to follow his dream of opening up a nightclub. And the two later fall in the love during the show.
But the whole cast really earned its standing ovation, said Simek.
“You give them a note and they just delivered it — better than I could have expected. Really a great group of kids,” she said. “Everybody did excellent, I’m very proud of them all.”
