Tonight is the opening night for Kennedy’s spring musical, Nice Work If You Can Get It. Tickets are five dollars for students and eight dollars for adults. The musical will be shown at 7 p.m. tonight and tomorrow night, and 2 p.m. and 7 p.m. on Saturday, April 25.

“It’s set in the 1920’s and it’s about bootlegging, prohibition, and there’s multiple love stories going on,” Nina Yu, jr., one of the leads said. Yu plays the role of Eileen and describes her character as, “this ditzy, complaining, whiny, bratty, little girl.”

The cast members have been rehearsing the musical for a few months. They practiced from 3 to 5:30 pm every week day from February to April, and this week they’ve had practice from 3 p.m. to 8 p.m. This proves to be a huge time commitment for the cast members.

Moira Green, a sophomore in the musical’s chorus, said the hardest part is to, “stay on top of school work, especially with AP tests coming up, but it’s worth it.”

Kennedy is the first high school in Iowa to perform this musical. The cast is also in a musical competition and their performance will be judged and ranked against other high schools.

“It’s basically like the Tony’s but for high school. Our musical is going to be compared to all other high school musicals that applied. There’s going to be a best musical, best male lead, and best female lead, and all that stuff,” Yu said.

The musical consists of catchy 1920’s tunes, love triangles, and comedic scenes. “I think it’s pretty funny. I’m excited for all the jokes and all the confusing and complicated romances,” Hannah Walker, jr. and chorus member said. “There’s all these separate storylines and then they come together into one big storyline.”

For these high school performers, critique means a lot. It helps them adjust the show and become better at what they love.

“I’m excited to hear feedback because when we do it in rehearsals we only hear feedback from Mr. Hayes our director. It will be really interesting to hear what people think of our musical,” Yu said.