Superheroes, referees, aliens, cheerleaders, minions, lifeguards, basketball players, and many more costumed characters eagerly filed into school for a late start on Shushan Purim March 6.

School started at 10 am that day because of the festivities the day before on Purim, with first period and davening cancelled.  After just one 45-minute class, everyone headed for the JCC lobby ready to show off their costumes and participate in the talent show.

“The acts this year varied, but I’d say overall it was far superior to any of the past talent shows I’ve seen at Shalhevet,” said senior Josh Goldner, who co-emceed the event with fellow senior David Lorell.

Josh and David were reprising their comic role for the last time after many consecutive years stretching back to middle school. This time they started with a 15-minute video about an alternate Shalhevet, where History teacher Dr. Michael Yoss had been selected as General Studies principal and had led the school into tyranny with students as his slaves.

With music from Prince of Egypt (“Deliver us!”) pounding in the background, students and teachers were shown carrying desks, Derek Orenshein mopped the bathrooms, and former teacher Chris Buckley was locked away with David Lorell in a dungeon in the basement.

Then the show officially started and it was time for students to start performing and showing off their talents. The first to perform were the Shalhevet Choirhawks, who performed a rendition of “Al Hanisim” with the Chanukah lyrics nes gadol haya sham (“a great miracle happened there”) changed to Esther v’Mordechai for the occasion.

Next junior Daniel Soroudi and freshman Ilan Bouskila, dressed as karatekas, performed a fake karate fight in which they kicked, punched, and fought each other. Neither of them really won, rather they ended the scene on an argument that had absolutely nothing to do with karate.

Senior Rina Katzovitz then performed original stand-up comedy. Rina joked about her height, the color of her hair, and that fact that no one seems to take her seriously because she is short.

In the next act, senior Rachel Glouberman and junior Laly Chriki, for the second year in a row, sang a duet together accompanied by junior Jacob Dauer on piano. This year they sang “Turning Tables” by Adele.

Next, juniors Daniel Soroudi and Eric Bazak dually performed the tongue-twister rap “Alphabet Aerobics” by Blackalicious. This rap goes through every letter of the alphabet and makes a sentence out of only words with that letter. Daniel and Eric performed this challenging rap without error, and brought the house down.

After this act the whole auditorium went dark. All of a sudden on the stage, three balls lit up, and junior Mark Miller started juggling to a whoosh of oohs and ahhs from the audience. Making few mistakes, Mark started off juggling three balls, then quickly evolved his performance to include four.

Following this act, with the lights still off, music from the movie High School Musical started playing. Seniors and Firehawk basketball teammates Zev Marcus and Simcha Halpert, with a flashlight-spotlight on them, started lip-syncing the song “Breaking Free,” a duet between the main boy and girl protagonists in the film.

Then the lights came on and the whole basketball team started dancing to the song “Get’cha Head in the Game,” followed by “We’re All in this Together,” where the whole team performed a synchronized dance. The dance ended with junior Seffi Arnan doing a handspring off of the stage as the auditorium erupted in applause.

The final act of the show was a skit depicting a mock interview of candidates for Shalhevet’s new principal position, written by Josh Goldner. On the committee were Dr. Michael Yoss, played by freshman Noah Mermelstein; Roen Salem, played by Ruthie Skaist; a “random Ramaz singer” played by Rabbi David Stein, and Head of School Rabbi Ari Segal, played by junior Henry Wineburgh. Also parodied in the sketch was Dr. Yoss’s assistant, junior Mati Davis, played by Rabbi Ari Schwarzberg.

Principal candidates were Mrs. Atara Segal and Ms. Katya Malikov, played by themselves; Mr. Roy Danovitch played by Reb Noam Weissman; and former teacher and coach Mr. Chris Buckley, played by Daniel Steinberg.  Mr. Buckley won the position.

The sketch caused the auditorium to burst out in laughter.  Some of the jokes poked at Rabbi Segal’s “Kosher Korner” videos, Dr. Yoss’s temperament, Mrs. Malikov’s bluntness, and an epic mother-daughter fight between Mrs. Segal and her actual daughter, freshman  Noa Segal.

After the talent show, students were invited into the gym to play on different moon bounces. But most opted to going to the front patio of the JCC, where they took pictures of each other in costumes.

Class started again at 12:15, but no one seemed to really go to class. For the rest of the day, people seemed to just wander around and take pictures outside on the patio.

Dismissal was Friday usual time, at 2:00.