The Waa-Mu Show, Northwestern’s student-written musical and oldest theatrical tradition, was just that for 92 years — one musical. Last year, it became a trilogy.
And this year’s “Arch Madness,” opening May 2, consists of four musicals, according to Waa-Mu music supervisor Prof. Ryan Nelson. As the show wrestles with dips in attendance and membership, this new structure, along with increased faculty guidance, alleviates pressure on students, Nelson said.
“It’s a much more academic approach to the creation of the show in the last two years than it has been previously,” Nelson said.
Last year’s audience was roughly one-third of its size prior to the COVID-19 pandemic, Nelson said.
With the show’s centennial approaching, team members want to increase attendance with marketing appealing to Waa-Mu alumni.
“The change this year is that we are really working to create a much more commercial, audience-friendly, ‘Go ’Cats’ celebration of Northwestern,” Nelson said.
Communication senior Evan Trotter-Wright serves as the show’s student executive board chair. He said the theme “Arch Madness,” a reference to Weber Arch, connects the opening number, closing number and skits between the four shows.
He said in the show, the Arch has powers to unlock alternate realities of Northwestern, which the four musicals represent. Together, they comprise the “Waa-Multiverse,” he said.
Nelson said writers will complete scripts by the start of March. In past Waa-Mu shows, one group of about 30 writers worked on one musical, members of the writing team said. Now, Trotter-Wright said three to seven writers work on each separate musical.
These smaller teams can work faster, Nelson said, allowing for more rehearsal time. Sometimes writers in past years would change songs days before the show began, he said.
Communication senior and Waa-Mu writing team representative Sadie Fridley said smaller teams also create more opportunities for writers to contribute. Previously, three to four writing coordinators assigned people to songs and made final decisions.
“Everybody knows when they’re writing now that something that they write is going to end up in The Waa-Mu Show,” Fridley said. “In previous years, you could write so many things and have them end up being cut.”
Weinberg senior Avery Powers has written for Waa-Mu since her freshman year. At first, Powers said she was skeptical about splitting the show into three acts.
But after she began working, Powers said she appreciated no longer having to resolve 30 conflicting opinions. Writers then could devote more time to exploring the show’s theme in their content.
“That is really great for both the learning process of writers, particularly younger writers who are getting involved for the first time, and also for less tension in the writers room,” Powers said.
Although students receive more mentorship under this new model, they are still in the process of reestablishing Waa-Mu as a registered student organization, which Nelson said dissolved in 2023.
Fridley joined Waa-Mu as a freshman just after the COVID-19 pandemic. The show returned in person to Cahn Auditorium in 2022 with fewer students involved after two years online.
During the rebuild, Fridley said budget changes and ticket sales burdened writers and performers.
“It felt like a lot of us were holding the show on our shoulders, especially in the production parts of it that we didn’t sign up to do,” Fridley said.
Nelson said following the 2023 musical, student leaders felt they no longer had the bandwidth for another show. The Wirtz Center has led its production since then, Nelson said.
While Nelson said Waa-Mu plans to reapply as a student organization next year, the structure of its creative team remains in flux.
“Because it’s changed so much, we’ve had to make up the structures as we go along, which has put a fair amount of pressure on a small amount of people,” Trotter-Wright said.
Faculty involvement lifted the weight, as students can now focus on aspects that interest them rather than show logistics, Fridley said.
Fridley started considering herself a performer and composer because of Waa-Mu. It introduced a new career path to her.
“There is no better way to learn than by doing it, and this is the biggest, baddest way to do it,” she said. “No matter how stressful it gets sometimes or how many changes it’s gone through, I have not learned as much in any other organization at this school.”
Email: desireeluo2028@u.northwestern.edu
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