On sept. 4, 2015, the Spring Musical for CHS was announced to be “Bring It On,” a modern musical created in 2012. However, on Feb. 18, 2016, a change in musicals was announced: CHS would still be performing a modern musical, but instead of “Bring It On,” the musical would be the 2012 revised version of “Godspell.”

“The primary reason for the change is because ‘Godspell’ will give our students a greater opportunity to succeed than ‘Bring It On’ would have,” John Burlace, director of “Godspell” and choir director, said.

While many students said they were glad the school would still be performing a modern musical, Lauren Alexander, a thespian who has performed in musicals for five years and sophomore, said she was confused about the choice.

“I was surprised just because we  had ‘Grease,’ which has pop (music), and then we went to ‘Big,’ which was really fun and modern, and then ‘Bring it On,’ which got changed to ‘Godspell,’ which are actually both modern musicals,” Alexander said.

Alexander said she prefers traditional musicals, which she defines as musicals from or before the “Golden Age” of musical theater, which took place from the 1930s to the early 1960s.

“I grew up on Rodgers and Hammerstein and the traditional (musical) movies,” Alexander said. “Growing up and watching them at home and just listening to that music, I think, just kind of made me a little partial to the traditional over the contemporary (musical movies).”

CHS’s choice in musicals has been a controversial topic for many years, Alexander said. According to a list provided by Jim Peterson, last year’s musical director and drama teacher, 14 of the last 18 musicals performed at CHS have been modern musicals, which are musicals from after the “Golden Age.” Anja Reese, “Godspell” cast member and sophomore, said that although she prefers modern musicals, she still finds the lack of variety disconcerting.

“While I prefer modern musicals, I think it’s important to have a balance of traditional and modern because both types are important to musical theater, and you can’t really have one without the other,” Reese said.

However, the trend of modern musicals has not been isolated to CHS. Charles Isherwood, drama critic for The New York Times, said via email that he has also noticed a transition to more modern musical stylings.

“There are so many new shows like ‘Hamilton’ and ‘Spring Awakening’ and ‘American Idiot’ and smaller Off-Broadway works like ‘Natasha, Pierre and the Great Comet of 1812’ that really get younger audiences, and younger artists, inspired by the form,” Isherwood said.

“Hamilton,” which made its Broadway debut on Aug. 6, 2015, was created by Lin-Manuel Miranda, the same man who made “Bring It On: The Musical,” the original choice for this year’s show. Alexander said she has noticed a surge of new musicals like this one in the past few years.

“Nowadays it seems like every other week there’s a new musical coming out, and everyone’s on their Spotify or Pandora playlist listening to it,” Alexander said. “I love how musical theater is becoming really popular, but I definitely don’t want traditional musicals to be ignored.”

Reese and Alexander both said that modern musicals are a lot more popular among students.

“I think that really has to do with the fact that people want to see the new, fun stuff, and people want to see exciting, new shows,” Alexander said.

Reese said that although she thinks the music style does have to do with what students prefer, she believes storylines are the main reason that modern musicals are more popular.

“I think that traditional musicals play it safe a little more in terms of ideas and storyline, while modern musicals are really out there with their music and their plot,” Reese said.

Many students said they were also surprised at the sudden change in the choice of musical, which occurred just over a week before auditions. “Godspell” also features a much smaller cast size with only 14 company members, which left some students a bit shocked.

Alexander said, “At first it came as a surprise and many were disappointed, but I believe it made us come to understand the high competition so everyone worked even harder toward their audition.”

In regards to the ongoing modern versus traditional musical debate, Burlace said he will most likely integrate more traditional musicals in the coming years.

“I would imagine there’d be a fair amount of more traditional musicals (at CHS) in the future,” Burlace said. “However, we must not underestimate the power of doing material that is modern, current and relevant to teenagers today. After all, musicals were once one of the sole sources of live entertainment in America; they were what was used to express the concerns of the time. That hasn’t changed, and we would be missing out on a lot of we ignored the canon of repertoire that has been developed by modern artists.”