Encore!

It was nearly 30 years ago when a group of students

from Flint, Michigan, made a glorious sound.

- Doe, a deer, a female deer - Doe, a deer, a female deer

- Ray, a drop of golden sun - Ray, a drop of golden sun

It was The Sound of Music.

The hills are alive

With the sound of music

That 1992 performance was the last time

most of them ever took the stage.

Decades later, these alumni have the chance to do

one of their favorite things,

because the cast of Flint Central's The Sound of Music

is reuniting for an Encore performance.

This is Encore.

Hi. My name's Michelle.

I'm gonna be your nurse this afternoon. How are you?

I absolutely love nursing.

It is a very, very rewarding job.

However, my coworkers,

they do make fun of me from time to time.

Good morning.

Because I sing randomly... ...throughout the day.

She yodeled back to the lonely goatherd

Lay ee odl lay ee odl-oo

Maybe get caught dancing in the hallways every once in a while. But...

uh, that's me.

The hills are alive

With the sound of music

That's all you get.

I went to, uh, Flint Central High School.

Uh, graduated in the class of 1996.

Today, I am a film director-producer, own my own company.

And it feels weird to be on this side of the...

this side of everything.

This boom mic ain't in the frame, is it?

It is funny that y'all bringing us all back

for this freaking play, of all plays.

I just, you know... I don't know, man. I... I love theater,

but as soon as you break out into song and dance, you've lost me.

Like, my mom made me watch movies like Yentl.

Have you seen Yentl with Barbra Streisand in it?

Okay. That's probably why I don't like musicals.

Flint's Classic Rock Authority, 103.9 The Fox,

scooting out the door, making way for DJ Chachi.

- Oh, yeah. - Hey. It's my turn.

Got that classic rock mixer coming your way.

Yeah, but, I can't wait. I got some good stuff for you tonight.

Detroit, basketball.

I've always been into being a DJ.

I'm the official DJ of the Detroit Pistons.

I've been on concert stages in front of thousands of people,

spinning records.

But a theatrical stage? That's a whole different ballgame.

So here's Daddy. See Daddy right here?

So we're singing that song, "Sixteen Going on Seventeen" right here.

Can you see your dad up on that stage

Singing like a buffoon

Back in the day, Flint was an amazing place.

But in the early '90s,

Flint started to decline.

Shortly after I graduated, they ended up shutting down our high school.

It's been closed for a number of years now.

So we're gonna do this at a different local high school.

But I would give anything to walk into Flint Central

and just kind of look around again.

Oh. Oh, my gosh.

Coming from Flint, all you hear is, "Oh, the water",

or you hear, "The plant shut down"...

...or you hear, "Oh, there's so many murders here."

And Flint Central High School was the one highlight...

that you could look at from Flint and say, "Man,

that high school has got a phenomenal drama and music department."

Oh, my God!

My freshman year when I did The Sound of Music,

I'm like, "Okay, this is my only play. That's it. That's over."

But you catch the acting bug. What I did as a sophomore, you doing it.

As a junior, you doing it. As a senior, you doing it.

- Oh! - Do we do the hugging thing?

Oh, God. Don't hurt me.

- Bitches. - Oh, my God.

Oh, God.

I think I was 17

when we did Sound of Music. I'm 44 now.

- Lisa, baby. - Oh, my God, Zak.

For me, high school was a lot of me standing in the outside looking in.

I didn't feel like I had a lot of friends because I lived on the poor side of town.

I didn't get to hang out with anybody.

My fear is they're gonna treat me like that person

and not the person that I am now.

- Oh, my God. - Hi!

Oh, shorty's here.

And I ain't gonna catch you no more, man.

- What's up, baby? You look great, man. - You look so good, man.

Oh.

How do you... How do you still have that?

Amy, she was that one, you know...

that I never got to date. She got away.

Oh, you look so good.

I knew you would, too.

Brett was like my brother.

He loved me so much.

And, I know, I kind of felt bad that I didn't ever date him,

but I wasn't ever afraid to date him.

It's like when your favorite couple on TV is, like, so close

and they don't quite get there and you're like...

That was Brett and Amy.

- Oh, my God. - Yeah, man. Yeah.

I haven't seen Sam in forever.

Probably, since right after I graduated college.

Yeah.

Seeing Kristy was emotional.

That was my homie, you know? It just brought back

so many memories of just our friendship

and being so close in high school, and me not seeing her for all these years.

He used to be this short, pudgy kid.

And he came in, and I was like, "Sam, you're, like, tall, skinny.

"You have a deep voice now."

That was quite a shock to see that.

I have three daughters. Uh, they're all grown now.

My oldest graduated college,

and then had my first grandson.

I'm dad and granddad now, so... ...Papa.

Joi!

Oh, my God. Oh, my God.

Oh, my God!

These people were my family at school.

And since then,

I've done theater in New York, and in Queens,

and in the surrounding areas.

I did Ragtime, the musical.

I was associated with Mamma Mia for a long time.

I did the tour, and I did Broadway.

And this is where I got it from. I got it from these people.

- Yes. - Yeah, Jesus Christ!

- Oh, my God. Jacob. - Yes!

I'm surprised to see Jacob, 'cause I haven't heard much about him,

what he's been doing.

- Hi. How are you? - Hi. Good. How are you?

- It's been a minute. It's been a minute. - Hey, you look good, man.

Jacob kind of lost himself, I think, his junior year.

I don't know what happened after that.

Like, "Is he gonna show up? Like, we don't know."

Good to see you, man. Long time no see!

Coming in and seeing everyone for the first time,

I... I think I had more worry how they would view me

because, unfortunately, I keep feeling like,

"Man, I didn't know these people well." As well as I should have.

- Right. Right. - Hey, you guys.

- Hello. - Hi.

- Welcome back to high school. - Hey.

- My favorite place. - Good to be back.

I'm excited to hear about, um, Flint Central High.

I know we're, you know, being hosted

by Swartz Creek Performing High School.

We're doing this show at Swartz Creek High School.

But it really kind of breaks my heart that we're not doing this

in the auditorium at Flint Central High School.

As much as our hearts are all full from just seeing each other,

if we had that extra layer of being in our old school,

I know it would be... It would be amazing.

My name is Coy Middlebrook. It's Coy, like "Boy" with a C.

- And Ricky. - Hello.

- Ricky. Ricky. - Hey, Ricky.

I worked on Broadway, in the national tour of Cats,

and then in Fosse. And now I work on the other side,

- choreographing and directing. - Hi, guys. I'm Carmel...

- Hi Carmel. - ...like the candy,

depending where you're from...

...or how you pronounce it. I'm actually Australian.

- So happy to be here with you guys. Yeah. - Thanks for being here with us.

- Thanks for having us. - Yeah. We are...

Yeah. We are so excited. And it's a huge week.

I mean, the fact that we are going to remount

- your guy's production in a week's time... - Less than a week.

- Less than a week. - Less than a week.

- Thank you for being real about that. - Thank you.

It's less than a week. So, with all that said,

we got to get to work.

Lisa, come on over.

Lisa then.

What did you play in the 1990 production?

I played Sister Bertha, the nun who doesn't particularly care for Maria.

- Kristy. - I played the Mother Abbess.

- Were you a senior or junior? - I was a senior.

- Sam. - Honestly, I didn't...

like, I didn't have like a real, like...

Well, we're gonna change that up.

Yeah. That's right. Yeah.

- There it is. - Joi then.

I was the Baroness.

- The Baroness? - Yes.

- Zak. - I was Herr Zeller.

- It's Brett. - When we did Sound of Music,

I had the biggest crush on Amy.

Oh.

She was Liesl and I was Rolf.

Yeah.

- Amy then. - Adorable.

- Anything you'd like to let us know? - Well, I just wanna give a shout-out

to my daughter. I'm doing this for her.