March 26 marked the opening night of “The Guy Who Didn’t Like Musicals,” presented by Ferris State’s theatre department, bringing together students and faculty for a night of song and dance.
Originally produced by Starkid Productions, the musical blends comedy and horror as a man named Paul navigates a world where people suddenly begin singing and dancing against their will. This happens after a meteor crashes into a production of “Mama Mia!” in the fictional town of Hatchetfield, where aliens begin to infect the citizens.
The production ran from March 26 to the 29, making Sunday the final performance.
For the cast and crew of this year’s musical, production was both a creative challenge and a rewarding experience.
The production was selected by theatre director and assistant professor of humanities, Dennis Henry. Henry played a key role in guiding students through the creative and technical challenges of the show. Drawing both on student input and his own vision, Henry helped bring the quirky, high-energy musical to life.
“The Guy Who Didn’t Like Musicals” was the most requested in the play suggestion box I keep in my classroom,” Henry said. “I hadn’t heard of it, but I found out that the original production was available on YouTube. So I watched it, and I thought it was hilarious and a little crazy and just right for us.”
The production’s flexibility also aligned with the theatre program’s emphasis on student involvement. However, bringing the show to life came with its own challenges. Because many cast members were already familiar with the original version, Henry mentioned how important it was to create something new.
“The big, flexible cast size allows us to include as many performers as possible,” Henry said. “Since the cast knew the original production, it was a challenge to make this production ‘our own’ and not try to imitate the talented performers from the original.”
One thing Henry mentioned was how well the students fit into their roles and their ability to fully embody their characters on stage. Preparation for the show began months in advance, with students dedicating significant time both in and out of rehearsal.
Henry also mentioned how the demanding rehearsal schedule reflected the cast’s dedication to the production.
“This was an outstanding cast. The actors fit their characters well. One of my favorite songs is “Inevitable,” Henry said. “It is the final number and the entire cast is involved. It is also the revelation of the surprise ending. We started rehearsing in late January and met four times a week for about eight weeks. The cast started their memorization work over the winter break.”
At the center of the story is Paul, who is the guy who doesn’t like musicals, played by fourth-year Digital Animation and Game Design Jason Zawacki. Zawacki brought energy and humor to the role, capturing the audience’s attention from the very first scene.
Unlike the character he plays, he really enjoys musicals, so it was entertaining for him to be in this role.
“It was really fun to play this character, because in the songs that I am not in, I was backstage, literally just dancing to them, just vibing out so much, but then I have to go on stage and act terrified of them,” Zawacki said. “It was. It was definitely fun to just have that difference.”
Zawacki mentioned how difficult it can be early on, while trying to figure out how he wants to portray a character. In a production like “The Guy Who Didn’t Like Musicals,” he mentions how figuring out what movements and intonations he wanted to use for Paul took some time to get used to.
Trying to find how you want to play the character is usually a struggle for me early on, but as the shows go on, you just get more and more comfortable,” Zawacki said. “You really lock down how you want to play the character, and how you want the character to come across to the audience.”
Since this was likely his last performance at Ferris, Zawacki reflected on his first performance and how much he and the rest of his peers had grown. He mentioned how this was one of the tightest productions he has been a part of during his time at Ferris in terms of everyone
“I know for me, this is like the best possible final show that I could have had here at Ferris and I feel like a lot of them share the same sense of it, that it was just one of the best possible shows to have had as our final one,” Zawacki said.
Digital Animation and Game Design senior Micah Graham shared a similar sentiment regarding the production. One of the most memorable moments for him was also the final song, where the whole cast came together for the final number.
“This production has been significantly different from everything else I’ve done in that it’s just so tonally different and so irreverent,” Graham said. “It takes so many of the things that make theater fun and interesting and flips them on their head and spins them around, so as someone who’s been in it for so long, it was so it was such an interesting take on all of these tropes I’m so intimately familiar with.”
Reflecting on both the production and his time in the program, Graham said the most meaningful part wasn’t just the performance itself, but the growth he witnessed in himself and others.
“It’s honestly kind of magical, seeing the difference between read-through and the final show,” Graham said. “I’ve watched the people who have been around me grow. It’s so interesting, and that has always been my favorite part to an extent. Theater has been one of the main things that’s gotten me out of my shell. I went from not talking to anyone to starting conversations with anybody.”
For many of the students involved, “The Guy Who Didn’t Like Musicals” was more than just a production and it was more of a culmination of their time, growth and connections. The two shows scheduled for the 2026-27 academic year will be announced in May, with details on auditions to follow.