The frequency of rehearsals is being kicked into overdrive; the singers are cramming lines into their craniums at every free moment of the day, and anxiety is high.

 It’s all for the upcoming musical “Babes in Arms,” which will debut Friday at 7 p.m.

It’s been 10 years since there has been a combined middle- and high-school show; for director Brian Frishman, it will be the first real musical that he has directed at the school.

The musical will combine singers and actors with orchestra students, who will be playing a score rented from New York publishing company Rodgers & Hart’s Theatricals. “They’re the big guys; everyone goes through them,” said Dan Ahlstrom, the show’s conductor.

The orchestra has around 15 members, and will include several professional musicians hired to help the cast and musicians out.

Jim Jordan is the musical director, voice coach, and accompanist. He will appear in the play as a pianist.

Jordan, who directs his church choir and puts on a cabaret each month, has been working with singers for over 17 years. He used to play at the Delta King Theatre as the main piano player for SARTA (Sacramento Area Regional Theatre Alliance).

Frishman said working with Jordan has been a positive experience for the students.

In addition, music teacher Bob Ratcliff will play the sax for the show, and Maurice Montgomery, a professional trumpet player, may perform as well.

The musical’s setting is a summer theatre playhouse by the beach, right outside of New York City. The focus is on the apprentices, who decide to put on a show to save the playhouse from going out of business.

But within this is a love story, which revolves around the characters of senior Mikel Follette, sophomore Claire Bauman, and senior Rachel Winfield.

Susie Ward (Bauman) falls in love with Valentine White (Follette), who, sadly, doesn’t love her back. Instead, he loves the childhood star Jennifer Owen (Winfield), who has been brought into the theatre’s company to help attract an audience.

The quest for true love proves difficult for White, as Owen is nothing more than a flirt; but he learns the hard way.

Other high-school cast members are seniors Katie Dulla, Madeline Owens, and Isabel Siragusa; juniors Kyle McNally and Hannah Rokni; sophomores Nick Foote, Emily Hirsch, Seth Katz, Sarah Rudy, Keele Shaw-Connelly and Hayden Winfield.

Crew members are senior Ally Bell; junior Joe Endicott; freshmen Zach Eltorai, Joe Hazelroth, Robbie Lemons and Marco Siragusa.

Although the musical has all the right ingredients to be excellent, there have been some mix-ups that set the musical back a few pegs.

 To start things off, rehearsal time has been limited due to the fact that the MP room is used for various after-school activities by the lower and middle schools.

 However, the cast reportedly started right after the previous play “Bronte” finished its final show, so it seems that there isn’t much that could’ve been done.

Secondly, there was some confusion about which version of the musical score to rent.

 “Between versions there are a lot of differences,” Ahlstrom said. The orchestra, not knowing that there would be such differences, received an indecipherable version, which set them back another week.

“As I understood it, [the incorrect score] was written by piano players and singers, so some of the octaves and notes were really weird for us,” said junior Kyle McNally, who will play violin in the orchestra and act as the narrator.

Sophomore Miles Bennett-Smith, another violinist, also feels very uncomfortable with the final score, as it is not only one of the hardest parts that he has ever played, but also the shortest amount of time he has had to prepare for such a piece.

In addition, junior Jeremy Tempkin must learn how to play a whole new instrument—clarinet— in three weeks. Hopefully his talent for playing saxophone will carry over.

But the orchestra couldn’t have gotten the score sooner.

 “With copyrights, we had to rent [the score] by week [for $45 per week], and we couldn’t afford it [for any longer],” Ahlstrom said.

Frishman said that the musical’s greatest challenge has been putting all the elements together: singing, dancing, and acting. But overall, he feels that they will be fine with the finished product.

Ahlstrom notes that all these emotions are very natural for actors.

“The idea of having enough time for a musical is non-existent; every actor that I’ve worked with feels pressed for time,” he said.