The Dolphin Show is a non-profit student theatre organization that annually presents a large-scale student-produced musical theatre

Musical theatre

Musical theatre is a form of theatre combining songs, spoken dialogue, acting, and dance. The emotional content of the piece – humor, pathos, love, anger – as well as the story itself, is communicated through the words, music, movement and technical aspects of the entertainment as an...

 at Northwestern University

Northwestern University

Northwestern University is a private research university in Evanston and Chicago, Illinois, USA. Northwestern has eleven undergraduate, graduate, and professional schools offering 124 undergraduate degrees and 145 graduate and professional degrees....

.

History

A group of Northwestern University

Northwestern University

Northwestern University is a private research university in Evanston and Chicago, Illinois, USA. Northwestern has eleven undergraduate, graduate, and professional schools offering 124 undergraduate degrees and 145 graduate and professional degrees....

 men formed the Dolphin Club in 1939 to compete in Chicago

Chicago

Chicago is the largest city in the US state of Illinois. With nearly 2.7 million residents, it is the most populous city in the Midwestern United States and the third most populous in the US, after New York City and Los Angeles...

 area swimming meets. In 1940, the 15-member team held a swim carnival to to raise money to attend a Florida

Florida

Florida is a state in the southeastern United States, located on the nation's Atlantic and Gulf coasts. It is bordered to the west by the Gulf of Mexico, to the north by Alabama and Georgia and to the east by the Atlantic Ocean. With a population of 18,801,310 as measured by the 2010 census, it...

. The carnival and the meet were both successful, so the water show were repeated in 1941 and 1942. When World War II

World War II

World War II, or the Second World War , was a global conflict lasting from 1939 to 1945, involving most of the world's nations—including all of the great powers—eventually forming two opposing military alliances: the Allies and the Axis...

 forced the cancellation of the annual Waa-Mu musical, the club combined their tradition with some students from the Waa-Mu show to present an evening of song and dance called the Dolphin Show. The 1944 Dolphin Show was a musical revue called "Wela Kahau" including women's water ballet

Synchronized swimming

Synchronized swImming is a hybrid form of swimming, dance and gymnastics, consisting of swimmers performing a synchronized routine of elaborate moves in the water, accompanied by music....

 and the men's Dolphin Club. Poceeds from this show bought war bonds. In 1948 audiences returned to see a musical-comedy revue around the original Patten Gymnasium

Patten Gymnasium

Patten Gymnasium is a multi-purpose gymnasium in Evanston, Illinois. The original building, designed by George Washington Maher, opened in 1910 and was home to the Northwestern University Wildcats Basketball Team until 1940, when it was demolished and rebuilt farther north to make room for the...

 pool.
The Dolphin Show became jontly produced by the female Lorelei swimming club in 1949, but drifted away from its aquatic origin. The Dolphin Executive Board gave equal representation to both clubs who chose a theme for each year's show. In 1963 the production was no longer raising funds for the swim clubs. In 1964 the show presented Gilbert and Sullivan

Gilbert and Sullivan

Gilbert and Sullivan refers to the Victorian-era theatrical partnership of the librettist W. S. Gilbert and the composer Arthur Sullivan . The two men collaborated on fourteen comic operas between 1871 and 1896, of which H.M.S...

's The Mikado

The Mikado

The Mikado; or, The Town of Titipu is a comic opera in two acts, with music by Arthur Sullivan and libretto by W. S. Gilbert, their ninth of fourteen operatic collaborations...

around the pool.
In 1970, the group performed the musical Mame on stage at Cahn Auditorium.

Alumni include actors David Schwimmer

David Schwimmer

David Lawrence Schwimmer is an American actor and director of television and film. He was born in New York City, and his family moved to Los Angeles when he was two. He began his acting career performing in school plays at Beverly Hills High School. In 1988, he graduated from Northwestern...

, Warren Beatty

Warren Beatty

Warren Beatty born March 30, 1937) is an American actor, producer, screenwriter and director. He has received a total of fourteen Academy Award nominations, winning one for Best Director in 1982. He has also won four Golden Globe Awards including the Cecil B. DeMille Award.-Early life and...

, Richard Kind

Richard Kind

Richard John Kind is an American actor known for his roles in the sitcoms Mad About You and Spin City .- Early life :...

, lyricist Sheldon Harnick

Sheldon Harnick

Sheldon Harnick is an American lyricist best known for his collaborations with composer Jerry Bock on hit musicals such as Fiddler on the Roof....

, musical director Keith Dworkin

Keith Dworkin

Keith Dworkin is the co-adaptor of The Frogs by Aristophanes that was performed off-off-Broadway by Rising Sun Performance Company. He is also the recipient of the 2006 William Daniels Award for best musical direction for his production of Urinetown., but is best known for his musical direction...

, singer Ardis Krainik

Ardis Krainik

Ardis Joan Krainik was an American mezzo-soprano opera singer who was the general director of the Lyric Opera of Chicago for 15 years...

 and Kate Shindle who was Miss America 1998

Miss America 1998

Miss America 1998, the 77th Miss America, pageant, was held at the Boardwalk Hall in Atlantic City, New Jersey on September 13, 1997 and was televised by the ABC Network...

.

Shows

The productions have been awarded Northwestern University's Center for Student Involvement's "Outstanding Theatrical Production", "Outstanding Producers", and "Outstanding Director" awards, as well as William Daniels

William Daniels

William David Daniels is an American actor and former president of the Screen Actors Guild . He is known for his performance as Dustin Hoffman's father in The Graduate , as John Adams in 1776, as Carter Nash in Captain Nice, as Mr. George Feeny in ABC's Boy Meets World, as the voice of KITT in...

 Awards, including "Best Musical."

Year	Show	Directors	Producers	Musical Director
2012	42nd Street 42nd Street (musical) 42nd Street is a musical with a book by Michael Stewart and Mark Bramble, lyrics by Al Dubin, and music by Harry Warren. The 1980 Broadway production, directed by an ailing Gower Champion and orchestrated by Philip J. Lang, won the Tony Award for Best Musical and became a long-running hit...	Emily Maltby	Jeremey Shpizner Lucas McMahon
2011	Ragtime Ragtime (musical) Ragtime is a musical with a book by Terrence McNally, lyrics by Lynn Ahrens, and music by Stephen Flaherty.Based on the 1975 novel by E. L. Doctorow, Ragtime tells the story of three groups in America, represented by Coalhouse Walker Jr., a Harlem musician; Mother, the matriarch of a WASP family in...	Michael Holtzman	Julie Boor Lucas McMahon	Liz Doran Patrick Sulken
2010	Parade Parade (musical) Parade is a musical with a book by Alfred Uhry and music and lyrics by Jason Robert Brown. The musical was first produced on Broadway at the Vivian Beaumont Theater on December 17, 1998. The production was directed by Harold Prince and closed 28 February 1999 after only 39 previews and 84 regular...	Scott G. Weinstein	Zachary Baer Tom Casserly Jamie Lynn White	Ian Weinberger
2009	The Wizard of Oz	Katie Spelman	Zachary Baer Tracy MacKenzie Kyly Zakheim	Will Curry Liz Doran
2008	Carousel Carousel (musical) Carousel is the second stage musical by the team of Richard Rodgers and Oscar Hammerstein II . The work premiered in 1945 and was adapted from Ferenc Molnár's 1909 play Liliom, transplanting its Budapest setting to the Maine coastline...	Tyler G. Beattie	Brittney Anne Bahlman Deanna Hope	Eugenio Vargas
2007	Into the Woods Into the Woods Into the Woods is a musical with music and lyrics by Stephen Sondheim and book by James Lapine. It debuted in San Diego at the Old Globe Theatre in 1986, and premiered on Broadway in 1987. Bernadette Peters' performance as the Witch and Joanna Gleason's portrayal of the Baker's Wife brought acclaim...	Travis Greisler	Dave Leuchter Evyn Williams	Joel Esher
2006	On the Town	Josh Penzell	Abra Chusid Whitney Frick	Keith Dworkin Keith Dworkin Keith Dworkin is the co-adaptor of The Frogs by Aristophanes that was performed off-off-Broadway by Rising Sun Performance Company. He is also the recipient of the 2006 William Daniels Award for best musical direction for his production of Urinetown., but is best known for his musical direction...
2005	How to Succeed in Business Without Really Trying How to Succeed in Business Without Really Trying How to Succeed in Business Without Really Trying is a musical with music and lyrics by Frank Loesser and book by Abe Burrows, Jack Weinstock, and Willie Gilbert, based on Shepherd Mead's 1952 book of the same name....	Evan Brody	Abby Wolbe Rachael Scholten
2004	Gypsy: A Musical Fable Gypsy: A Musical Fable Gypsy is a musical with music by Jule Styne, lyrics by Stephen Sondheim, and a book by Arthur Laurents. Gypsy is loosely based on the 1957 memoirs of Gypsy Rose Lee, the famous striptease artist, and focuses on her mother, Rose, whose name has become synonymous with "the ultimate show business...	Sloan Gordon Grenz	Danna Ginsberg Dana Oppenheim
2003	Evita	Jonathan Saylors	Chris Plevin Amy Ludwigsen	Cory Hills Daniel Singer
2002	Damn Yankees Damn Yankees Damn Yankees is a musical comedy with a book by George Abbott and Douglass Wallop and music and lyrics by Richard Adler and Jerry Ross. The story is a modern retelling of the Faust legend set during the 1950s in Washington, D.C., during a time when the New York Yankees dominated Major League...	Jessica Redish	Megan Felsburg Geeta Kharker	Greg Brown
2001	The Secret Garden	Matthew Trombetta	Kate Webster Karyn Meltz
2000	Kiss of the Spider Woman Kiss of the Spider Woman (musical) Kiss of the Spider Woman is a musical with music by John Kander and Fred Ebb, with the book by Terrence McNally. It is based on the Manuel Puig novel El Beso de la Mujer Araña...	Mikie Garver	Claire Yoon and Kim Kelly
1999	Guys and Dolls
1998	Sweeney Todd