Monmouth celebrated a “Night of Nostalgia,” featuring Lucas Grabeel on Friday, Sept. 13, in the Pollak Theater.
At the end of Welcome Week, the Student Activities Board (SAB) made an announcement that included a video of Lucas Grabeel, who we all know as Ryan Evans from our childhood favorite movie, “High School Musical,” (HSM), announcing he will be performing on our very own stage. Lucas Grabeel is an actor and singer who you may also know from “Switched at Birth” or “Halloweentown High.” During quarantine in 2020, he began making his own music using experiences from his life, hopes, dreams, and even heartbreak as inspiration.
After a line formed out the door of the Pollak Theater waiting for the event to begin, Lucas Grabeel started the night by coming on stage and performing the first song in “HSM” titled, “Start of Something New.” This song foreshadowed a fun night full of new music.
Grabeel followed this performance by singing four original songs. The first song, titled “Hotdogs and Butterflies,” was a soft acoustic piece about his home in “the Sticks, Missouri”. As a kid, he longed to be in the city; however, once he got there, he missed his home, where he got the inspiration for this song. The next song had a darker vibe, titled, “Big Bad Wolf,” which was written about his childhood. The students at this event were a part of the first crowd ever to hear this song, a heartwarming piece about reaching out to people who may need help or reaching out if we need help. Lastly, he performed a song, usually a duet with singer Sarah Lake, about his girlfriend, who visited Monmouth to see him perform.
The audience learned personal facts about Lucas Grabeel that one could not find online. Walking down memory lane, we learned that he moved to Los Angeles, California, at 18-years-old and worked at a Blockbuster store. After filming his first Disney Channel original movie, he went back to Blockbuster. After his second Disney Channel original movie, he did not have to return due to its wild success and the start of the new franchise.
A short while after teaching the audience about his childhood, he jumped into another Disney classic from the movie “The Little Mermaid.” Using an analogy for becoming a part of Hollywood, he sang a beautiful rendition of “Part of Your World,” and did his own spin on it, adding his personality and humor.
As the audience got a little antsy waiting for the “HSM” songs to be performed, everyone was very excited to hear him sing a Sharpay and Ryan Evans classic, “What I’ve Been Looking For.” Thinking he would continue with the songs we all know and love, a few people seemed to have lost attention when he turned back to singing his own original songs.
Though the music was fantastically done, a lot of his songs involved serious matters that not everyone was able to relate to, including a song he performed for the very first time. At this point, he was losing the audience, as a lot of them started to scroll on their phones and a few even left. It was obvious that the Monmouth study body was there to sing songs from our childhood together, which was a little hard to do with songs we’d never heard before.
Beginning to end the night, he broke out another fan-favorite, “You Are the Music In Me,” which got the audience’s attention right back on him. The crowd turned on their phone flashlights, waved them in the air, sang along, and even shouted out praise when Grabeel opted up on a few notes. After an hour of performing, he sang his last song, which was once again not a song from “HSM,” but instead a song about his childhood with several shoutouts to different song titles from the movies.
As people began exiting the theater, the SAB announced that there would be a chance for a meet and greet with the star. Students quickly crowded back into the theater where one by one, people took pictures with him, had him give shoutouts to family and friends not in attendance, and asked him quick questions. One student even had a Star Dazzle Award for him, a callback to ‘High School Musical 2’.
When asked if he had any words of inspiration for Monmouth’s study body, he started by expressing his thanks to Monmouth University and the students who attended, saying how grateful he was to have had the opportunity to perform, share stories, and music with everyone.
“Say yes to everything. Get out there and explore and learn as much as you can in and outside the classroom because this world needs more smart people and more experience. Be open and lead with love. If someone is disagreeing with you, try to love them more than hate them,” Grabeel said.
