- [Announcer] Turning now to an annual concert given by students in the University of Michigan musical theater program.

It's called "Lost in Ann Arbor," and it features songs selected by the senior class members.

This year's show takes place on Saturday, January 25th at Detroit Opera's Black Box Theater in partnership with the nonprofit organization, Cabaret 313.

"One Detroit's" Chris Jordan attended one of the show's coaching sessions and has the report.

(bright piano music) ♪ 'Cause when I look to the stars ♪ ♪ Where once was a wall is now a door ♪ ♪ To everything I've been waiting for ♪ - In a performance environment, we are collaborators, even though we're professors with the students, we are actually collaborating with them in their journey and their development.

One of the things that tends to empower the students is giving them the tools to make decisions, which I think with this particular performance, giving them the option to pick the song that best suits them.

♪ When I look to the stars - This is particularly designed for the students to express themselves, so they're very personal choices.

♪ I've been playing out a lot of hypotheticals in my mind ♪ - [Chris] "Lost in Ann Arbor," an annual performance by University of Michigan musical theater seniors, which is something of a rite-of-passage tradition.

Thanks to a collaboration with Cabaret 313, the students get to perform the show in Detroit on Saturday, January 25th at the Detroit Opera's Black Box Theater.

- I think it's gonna be a big celebration, a celebration of music, a celebration of people that love music, both on stage and off stage.

- The musical theater seniors always have a showcase in New York.

- Showcase is an opportunity for musical theater seniors to be able to enter into the industry and to perform a part of what we do for mostly agents in the business.

- Some years ago, Allan Nachman, one of the founders of Cabaret 313, he had the brilliant idea to have the musical theater seniors performed their material prior to going to New York, perform their material in Detroit to get their feet wet and get themselves grounded and ready.

- Our students come from around the country, some from around the world, and they represent the best.

And so to have this opportunity for them to perform in Detroit, it's like a preview.

- It's one thing to be in the classroom and learn as much as you can about the craft, but being able to connect those dots between what you're learning in the space and how to apply that on a stage and with audience members, that's something that's incredibly invaluable.

♪ It turns me right on when I hear him say ♪ ♪ Hey baby, let's get away ♪ Let's go somewhere, huh - Historically speaking, when musicals were done in previous decades, they were often tried out in Boston where they would cut an add songs frequently, so the term "lost in Boston" became a thing.

- Professor Brent Wagner, who's the founder of the Musical Theater Department, he started his own version of that with "Lost in Ann Arbor," where all of the students performed songs that they considered for showcase but didn't end up ultimately choosing.

And these songs that weren't chosen for showcase are songs that we still love and sometimes have really strong emotional connections to.

And so we're super excited to still have the opportunity to perform these songs and to share them with an audience.

♪ I'm gonna shoot for the stars ♪ ♪ This poor (indistinct) kid has joined the race ♪ ♪ I'll write to you all from outer space ♪ - I think often for showcase, we pick what we feel will show us off the best in a casting sense, but for this concert, we get to just sing songs that we love.

♪ I don't need a roof to say I love you ♪ - My showcase song shows the very bubbly side of me.

It's a Disney song, so I knew that I wanted to show that other deeper side of me, because I do very much have that deeper emotional side to me that when I do characters is not always seen as often.

♪ I don't need a roof to feel you near ♪ - The program is designed to give each student the versatility that they need, so we focus on a wide range of musical styles, and we make sure that the students have that rigor in our performance classes.

- It will behoove you to be versatile in this world of the performing arts of musical theater, especially someone like me who specifically focuses on non-traditional musical theater, contemporary musical theater.

Because what you see on stage, whether it's Broadway, off Broadway, regional, you're seeing a ton of genre crossover, genre bending, and it's really, really exciting.

♪ I've been playing out a lot of hypotheticals in my mind ♪ - [Catherine] Yes!

♪ (indistinct) down next to mine ♪ - One of the biggest things that I am taking away from this university is the pop rock style singing and really the appreciation for it.

Because when I came here as a high schooler, I really was only singing golden age soprano things.

That was just the voice teacher I happened to have at home.

And so I showed up here and I was like, "I don't know how to belt.

"I don't know how to do any of this."

And so that was honestly because the school is so focused on diversifying our musical awareness and appreciation.

♪ I see us in the park (gentle piano music) ♪ Strolling in the summer days ♪ Of imaginings in my head - I ended up going with, "Knocks Me Off My Feet," by Stevie Wonder, which I actually feel really good about, because I love Stevie Wonder, I love R&B.

It feels like very me.

It feels relevant to us being here in Michigan and Detroit where he's from.

I mean, I think it's very special to honor one of the Detroit greats in Detroit and to sing one of his songs.

♪ That makes me weak and ♪ Knocks me off my feet Having the experience of being coached by them so many years allows you to be able to coach yourself also in the moment, so it's more of a dialogue between the teacher rather than like oh, them telling you to do this and fix this.

- [Maurice] That's what should happen here.

- That's what should happen.

I totally agree.

- I thought about it.

I was like, we should just be modulating.

- [Both] Yeah.

- It's always important to be part of the growing and the learning process of these students.

And not only are they absolutely fantastic, but you're getting to see a one-of-a-kind performance that Cabaret 313 offers.

It's gonna be great.

- Overall, for the people going to see Cabaret 313, I'm really excited for our whole class to just kind of bring their A game for all of the songs that are really, ultimately, they're passionate, like the songs they're passionate about.

- They will not know what to expect, and they're going to see the Broadway stars of tomorrow on that stage, and that's pretty exciting.

♪ I don't want to bore you with it ♪ ♪ Oh but I love you, I love you, I love you ♪