Encore!

In the mid '90s, a group of San Diego area teenagers got on stage

to sing and dance and act like children

for their high school production of the musical Annie.

The sun will come out tomorrow

It's been nearly a quarter century,

and they're all grown up.

But now, these adults will get to reprise the roles of their youth...

It's a hard knock life for us

...because the 1996 Santee High School

cast of Annie is reuniting for one more encore performance.

This is Encore!

The employees here have no idea that I've ever been in a musical,

that I like musicals.

It's not a side of me that I've ever shared with anybody.

No, you're never fully dressed Without a smile

I'm not an orphan!

My mother and father left a note saying they loved me

and they were coming back for me!

I miss performing every day.

When I was in high school, there was nothing else.

Of course, I still have dreams of Broadway. It's what I wanted to do.

- (CHILDREN SCREAMING) - Oh, my gosh. We're almost home, boys.

Life just kind of happened.

Boys, the things that I do for you... You better love me.

- I don't. - (CHUCKLES) Okay.

One of the best choices I ever made was become a deputy sheriff.

I enjoy my job, which makes it easy for me

to do well at my job and to excel in my job.

- (KEYBOARD CLANKS) - (PHONE RINGING IN DISTANCE)

I have to sometimes act more confident than I am.

I may be scared, I may be nervous, but I can't show that.

Acting taught me to do that.

Forty, 50, 60, 70, 80, 90...

One hundred!

All right, boys and girls, you did an amazing job today.

I'm so proud of you.

My memories of Santana are great.

My whole senior year was very exciting.

I mean, I went to all the football games, all the dances.

I was in the popular group. Straight As. I was homecoming queen.

1996 was definitely one of the highlights of my life.

I want spaghetti. That's what I want.

Daddy. - The house belongs to them.

My closet belongs to me.

I'm looking forward to a week...

...by myself.

Are you gonna do my makeup for the play?

- (BABY COOS) - Oh, my.

- Oh, my gosh. You ready for this, girl? - I don't know.

Annie and I are good friends, but we don't get a lot of time

to see each other 'cause we're both busy with our kids

and their activities and family life.

- Oh, my God. Hi.

Give me hug. - How are you? It's so good to see you.

Figuring out who I was in high school

was a really interesting process. I did date girls

and then started dating guys.

Since high school, I've been on a pretty long, windy road.

(SCREAMS) Ah, Debbie. - Here she comes.

Hi. - (ALL LAUGH)

Hi. (SQUEALS)

I'm excited to get to revisit a time that I made some great friends.

I'm hoping it feels like it felt in '96.

I was really just living in the moment and having a good time with my friends.

And, generally, my time was more social...

than it was academic, says the future teacher, ugh!

- What are you guys doing? - I'm teaching.

- Me too. - Yeah. Yeah.

- Oh, my gosh. - Special education. Yeah.

- I do special education. - Wait. You're a special ed teacher too?

- No way. That's awesome. - Yeah. Oh, my gosh.

- What about you, Katie? - Stay-at-home mom.

- Nice. - Yeah.

Oh, my gosh. I do the same thing.

- Oh, my gosh. - No way.

- We're so connected. - You guys are so connected.

I wanna say I was a good kid but I had rebellious tendencies.

I needed an outlet. I need some people to call my friends.

I needed somewhere to be and something to belong to.

Theater actually saved me.

I don't have my glasses on, so I'm like, "Who is this?"

Oh, my gosh!

- I came here. I have so many questions. - I know.

Hi. You look good. - Hi. Thanks.

You know what I remember most about you two?

See, that's what I remember. - You guys were always together.

- We have a lot of catching up to do. - (ALL LAUGH)

- Oh, someone's coming. - We're doing it live.

Is that...

- Jarron. Jarron?

I don't think I knew him very well in high school.

- Good, how are you? - You look so awesome and so...

In high school, I was kind of a... Well, a wallflower,

and I was put into like this third-year drama class by accident.

Am I the only one here without kids?

Do you not have kids?

- They're overrated. - No, you can't say that.

- (ALL LAUGH) Yeah, you really can't.

- Hi. - Oh, my gosh.

Oh, my gosh, my people.

I'm Shenny.

I'm Jaimie.

And we are twins.

- We can speak Pig Latin. Our twin language.

Yeah. - (SHENNY SPEAKING PIG LATIN)

Yeah, a little bit. - (GASPS)

- Hi. - Hi.

- Hi! - First day of rehearsal.

You must be feeling like so excited and...

- My cheeks hurt. - It's crazy.

I'm Marcia Milgrom Dodge. I'm your director for Annie.

I did the recent Ragtime revival on Broadway.

And got a Tony nom.

This is Adam Wachter. He's our music director.

- Hi. Hi.

- And this is Melinda. - I'm Melinda Sullivan.

I'm your choreographer.

And I'm so excited to be here and get you guys in your bodies.

So, really happy to be here.

So, we're missing...

Well, where is he? He's working.

First thing we wanna do today is get those pipes working again.

- That's the first thing we're gonna do? Okay.

Doing a production like this is crazy.

Hi. - Debbie, wanna sing a little?

- Yes. - (ALL CHEER)

My biggest job is to...

very quickly, like a radar...

suss out what their strengths are and what their weaknesses are.

When I'm stuck With a day that's gray and lonely

I just stick out my chin and grin

And say, oh

The sun'll come out tomorrow So you gotta hang on till tomorrow

I'm... I'm off.

I'm on the wrong tune 'Cause I've drunk too much

Tomorrow, tomorrow

I love ya, tomorrow

You're always a day...

- Away - (CHEERING AND APPLAUSE)

You know, we weren't, like, a performing arts school

- so it's not like... No. We were Santana High School.

- We were just a bunch of kids... - We were all they had.

So, we're gonna take what is known in the professional world as a ten.

Okay. I'll be in my dressing room.

Yeah. (CHUCKLES)

Do you think they'll be able to take notes and make changes,

or do you think what they will do is regurgitate the performance

- that they originally... did. That.

It's gonna be like riding a bike for them,

and so I think the hardest thing is gonna give... Me giving them...

- New direction. - ...new direction.

I don't know about any of you, but I didn't go to the reunion.

- Me either. - I couldn't make it.

And so now I feel like this is my chance.

Like I don't think I was, like...

had that many friends in high school to be able to go to a reunion,

because of the wall that I put up.

Because I was a Jehovah's Witness. Like, I didn't go to parties.

I didn't get to go out and hang out with people afterwards, so...

Yeah.

I was gonna ask if you kept in touch with Katie.

- Mm-hmm. No way.

I was wondering that, too.

- No. - 'Cause you guys were just so tight...

- I know. - ...and inseparable in high school.

So, like, you guys don't hang out every weekend?

We've... I haven't seen her since high school.

No way! - Yeah. Yeah.

We actually kind of got into, like, a stupid argument even, I think.

And I don't even remember.

Like, I can't even tell you what it was about. It's just like...

eighteen, 19-year-old girl drama. And so...

And then it was just kind of weird again after that.

So, yeah, we just never really, like, reconnected.

Wow. - I know.

Maybe this is the reconnection. Yeah, you're right.

- That's what I'm thinking. - Yeah.

- Kind of crazy. Still gotta see them dance.

And maybe we will be pleasantly surprised.

Five, six, seven, eight. Come on up.

- Come on up. - Come on, Jaimie.

- Yeah, girl. - Hey!

No, wait, who does that? What singer does that?

- Axl Rose. - Wow!

- Work. - Yeah.

- Yeah. - Faster.

I wouldn't say...

any of them are, like, natural dancers, but they have the willingness

to sort of just make a fool out of themselves.

And you gotta, like, be bad before you can be good.

- Go, Benaiah! - All right. Yeah.

She's got technique.

- Katie, Katie, Katie. You do like this.

- Hey. - (CHEERING)

- You guys. You guys. - Do you see her?

Ms. Dipuma!

- I know, I know. - My babies.

You get to work with my babies.

Ms. Dipuma was the English teacher and the drama teacher.

Ms. D was wild.