Mill Theatre’s “Forever Friendships” Highlights Everyday Connections

Actors in the fall musical “Forever Friendships: A Homecoming Cabaret” sing and dance with smiles on their faces as they perform 19 songs about the highs and lows of friendship. // Photo by Star Herring

Have you ever wondered how many songs about friendship there are? “Forever Friendships: A Homecoming Cabaret” answers these questions with 19 songs involving friendship, some of which were created by iconic songwriters and playwrights Stephen Sondheim and LinManuel Miranda.

This show was directed by Amy Lyn McDonald-Bagby, chairwoman of the Department of Theatre and Dance, and Nicholas Pulikowski, professor in the Department of Music and music director in the Department of Theatre and Dance. This show featured veterans like Delaney Murphy, Allie Cook, and Kallia Memtsas. This show was also the debut for Lily Galarza, Marie Groppe, and Ava Terry.

From the first song, “Consider Yourself” from the musical “Oliver!,” Ella Boyden, Murphy, and the whole company showed us a song about friendship and how to keep your friend close even during hard times. This song goes through the struggles of Oliver Twist, and even if he does not have a family, he has his friends on the streets of London who will keep him safe and protected.

Cook went next to perform “What It Means to Be a Friend” from “13: The Musical,” which discussed the different types of friendships that you go through in your life and how hard it can be when you are friends with someone, then they find new people and toss you aside.

Some other highlights included “BFF” from “SpongeBob SquarePants: The Broadway Musical,” “Bosom Buddies” from “Mame,” and “You and Me (But Mostly Me)” from “The Book of Mormon.” Every song has its own art form and way of presenting friendship, whether it be one where everyone gets along or it has a lot of fighting.

Friendship means something different to everyone, and even when there are moments when it may seem toxic they could still be your closest friends. Life is hard enough, you need others to live through it with you and experience life just the same as you are. These performers were able to embody friendship through their songs and show every aspect of friendship, warts and all.

Throughout the show you could tell the performers truly had friendships within the cast and were devoted to personifying what a forever friendship is about and how you can actually have friends who you stick with forever. Forever friendships do not need to be perfect and a lot of the time they will have bumps where you might drift apart, but you always find your way back to them if you put in the effort. The hardest thing about a forever friendship is that you do not know it is forever until you lose them and realize the connection you had with them.

If you have not been able to see the show, it will be performing Oct. 1-Oct. 3 in the Mill Theatre. I highly recommend going to this once-in-a-lifetime experience displaying all different types of friendships.