Review: We Are the Tigers

Review: We Are the Tigers  | Shifted Lens Theatre Company | Aurora, CO | Curtain Up! | Gina Robertson

Ready? Okay! Get your pom-poms up for this romping, dark comedic musical written by Preston Max Allen about a hard-luck team of high school cheerleaders who discover a serial killer is among them. Will they bond over their shared fear and grief while solving the mystery, or will they plant a bloody knife on the incoming freshman girl and use the tragedies to further their chances to win at regionals?

After three bloody murders, you might settle in for a ride, expecting to see the pretty, plucky cheerleaders get picked off one by one. Instead, the show decides it wants to have something of a plot rather than be a light slasher-film parody that ends with a pile of bodies. We get to know the girls individually, particularly their voices as they belt out musical numbers with surprising vigor and depth.

Danielle Morris and Gabrielle Knoop; Photo Credit: Cohagen Wilkinson

Riley (Kate Hebert) is the enthusiastic team captain of the Tigers’ cheerleading team, the “worst team ever.” She is fiercely determined to herd these unruly girls to victory this year, and Hebert’s performance is vibrant with just a hint of the unhinged hyper-fixation that will come through in the second act.

Riley’s best friend is Cairo (ThurZday), who delivers a show-stealing power performance as the strong, sarcastic Black girl decked out in bling, without descending into a head-wagging “talk to the hand” stereotype. ThurZday’s voice is soulful and smooth, soaring and dipping effortlessly through the songs in a way that makes them sound more profound than they are.

Chloe Wheeler is Kate, the smallest of the girls, representing the sadness of parting from friends and the struggle of watching someone ruin their life with substance abuse. Wheeler is focused and bright, delivering teen angst and confusion with a powerful voice that saves her from being overlooked or ignored.

All the girls have issues that would make an interesting plot to unravel, but none of their serious life dramas will be examined in depth here. Most of them serve as comedy.

Annleigh (Sabrina Patten) and Farrah (Gabrielle Knoop) are stepsisters who have chosen very different ways of dealing with the pressures of teen life. Patten’s Annleigh is self-righteous and churchy, properly conveying the gut-twisting conflict between staying pure and a desire for carnal satisfaction. Farrah is a party girl, and Knoop brings the same sense of decadent desire without any of her sister’s religious restraint. She’s here for a good time, not a long time.

2R to L: Sabrina Patten, Quinnie Wolfe, Kate Hebert, ThurZday, Asheala Tasker; Photo credit: Cohagen Wilkinson

Reese (Asheala Tasker) is out of place among these teen beauties. They show us how awkward and self-aware a girl becomes after years of being bullied by her peers. Reese knows she’s lucky to be there, but resents the others and wishes she didn’t want to be on the team. All of this comes through in Tasker’s performance, but the show doesn’t allow for any deep exploration of this or any other dramatic theme. Their wry delivery earns several laughs, such as when they speak to a murder victim, insisting that she’s okay.

Danielle Morris as Chess has the prettiest hairstyle, with pink bubble pigtails. She gets to sing a song about being addicted to pills and saying goodbye to her friend as she goes off to college, but we don’t get to know her well before she succumbs to the killer’s blade.

Mattie Wheeler, the perky blonde freshman who’s meeting the team for the first time, is played by Quinnie Wolfe with sad desperation to be liked that leads to severe consequences as she learns this group of girls are not to be trusted. With earnest optimism and Pollyanna’s insistence that every tragedy can be a positive or at least isn’t all that bad if you focus on the little things.

Ethan Pierce and Sabrina Patten; Photo Credit Cohagen Wilkinson

Annleigh’s boyfriend, Clark (Ethan Pierce), could be the standard horny teen boy stereotype, but he manages to bring subtlety to the song “Forever” and his pursuit of Annleigh. He wants it, sure, but he’s more willing to wait for it than she is. In that, we see his genuine attempt to navigate the difficulties of becoming an adult and being a good person. He may be the only character in this story who genuinely wants to be a good person.

Joining the team from a rival school is Eva Sanchez (Madelynn Guerra), who offers an outsider’s perspective on the Tigers’ dysfunction. Guerra’s Eva mostly observes and makes clever remarks about the dramatic events that brought her to the team, but she belts out “Shut up and Cheer” like she means it, and it’s clear even she is affected by personal ambition while planning her future.

The final scene features Kayli-Sue Sarbaugh and Chinwendu Nnanna as two new freshmen coming onto the team, representing the carrying on of dysfunction and tradition in this closed community.

It isn’t clear why, but the stage is obscured by a heavy, distracting fog from beginning to end. I’m as impressed as anybody by a good fog effect during live theater, but in this case, it might be more effective if saved for one or two dramatic moments. Folks with breathing issues may want to select a seat higher up and farther from the stage.

Beneath the fog, though, the set is striking. It is tidy and well-designed, with elements placed neatly around the center pit where an ensemble of musical players sits. The musicians are an enthusiastic part of the show, and the sound is great.  Designed by Matthew Rogers, the sound effects are chilling and precisely placed to heighten tension.

Director Lexie Lazear, choreographers Dallas Slankard and fight choreographer Chrys Duran have created stage movements for this large cast that snap together without feeling over-choreographed. One slow-motion fight scene is especially well synced and precise. Lazear makes some interesting staging choices that work well, such as placing duet partners on both extreme right and left sides of the stage and allowing their voices to come together without them.

Costumes by Angela Lazear are visually striking and often tell parts of the story without words. For example, with a glimpse of Mattie’s orange scrub suit, it’s clear without expository explanation what has happened in the jump from Act I to Act II.

We Are the Tigers is a fast-paced, darkly funny, and entertaining bit of theater brought to you by Shifted Lens Theatre Group and appearing at the Community College of Aurora, Fine Arts Building, through May 16.