Did you know?

The musical has become the largest club or activity in our entire school, with an average of 130 students participating each year.

Our school’s first sellout performance happened in 2013-14 with the musical Hairspray.

Since 2010, our annual musical attendance has gone from 499 people to over 4,000 people.

This is the second time in our school’s history that we will perform two shows. The first was 2001-2002.

When the auditorium was renovated in 2016, we went from 794 seats to 860 seats.

Southwest Musicals were first performed at (what is now) Lombardi Middle School.

There is a placard on the seat-arm at the end of every row in the auditorium, honoring each musical in our school’s history.

In 2017, the first year of the Centerstage High School Musical Theatre Awards, Southwest High School took home 5 awards, including the biggest recognition of “Outstanding Overall Production.”

Our very own Felix Torrez was selected as one of only 37 males in the entire country to perform on Broadway this summer at the Jimmy Awards.

Our student-led “circle time” tradition was established at SWHS in the early 1990’s, and was inspired by Shakespearean tradition.

Over the years, dozens of students have transferred in to Southwest High School, simply to be a part of our musical theatre program. Dozens more have gone on to pursue careers in the performing arts and have gone on to attend noteworthy collegiate musical theatre programs.

Among our 50 musicals, 40 of them have been different shows! Only 10 musicals were repeated from previous years.

The only show to have been performed three times in our history is Grease. The other repeat shows are Oklahoma!, South Pacific, The Music Man, The Wizard of Oz, Fiddler on the Roof, Guys & Dolls, Hello Dolly, Bye Bye Birdie, and The Sound of Music.

The 2017 production of The Book of Empty Pages is the first time in our school’s history where we will perform a “world premiere” of a production.

In 2017, our directors were selected to present at the Wisconsin Music Educators Association State Conference in Madison on how to build an outstanding musical program.

Over the past 50 years, it is estimated that over 5,000 students have participated in SWHS musical productions and that over 150,000 people have attended SWHS musicals!