Cue the lights. Cue the scene. Cue the lines. And cue the music. Live music, that is, from both orchestra and band students, who will be performing in this year’s musical ‘Anything Goes’ from February 6-9.

The musical, originally based off of a book, goes all the way back to the 1930’s and features characters seeking love on an ocean-liner heading from New York to London.

As the actors and singers in the musical prepare to catch wind for their roles, the equally important orchestra will have a big hand in transporting the audience back to a time when the only way to get away from the hustle and bustle of New York and the trauma of the Great Depression was by boat.

“It’s really really heavy in saxophone and brass” orchestra teacher Catherine DeVos said. “The jazziness really makes it sound like dixieland.”

According to DeVos, her orchestra class, comprised of strings, is starting to practice and get down notes. A select group of winds meet with some string players on Mondays and Fridays.

“The music is ‘swingy’ and jazzy and just makes you want to get up and dance,” Dance teacher and musical director Amy Moorhead said.

Although DeVos’ class is titled ‘orchestra’, the ‘orchestra’ in the musical actually refers to the whole sum of all strings, brass, winds, and percussion.

For some students, the coming together of all these instruments is something very special.

“The best part about [the musical] is learning about and listening to the songs,” sophomore Tina Lee said.

But getting all the musical scores down also presents challenges. Lee said that perfecting the timing of the music with the actors and musical participants is difficult.

And for senior Spencer Kim, the technicalities of the music itself are not the only challenge of being in the orchestra.

“It’s during the whole week, while we have very demanding school work and other extra-curricular activities,” senior Spencer Kim said. “It can take as long as five to six hours each night.”

Moorhead said that the full cast rehearses about 4 to 5 times prior to the actual performance, an increase from 3 in past years.

“It’s time-consuming to coordinate the actors, singers, and dancers with the live orchestra. Dialogue cues for songs need to be rehearsed, tempos, synchronization, etc,” Moorhead said.

According to Moorhead, more informal rehearsals will take from one to two hours, whereas formal dress rehearsals can take up to three.

Like many large-scales productions, Moorhead said that for a student production like this one, it is all about practice and collaboration between the musicians and performers.

“This kind of an artistic relationship takes time to build,” Moorhead said. “Sometimes the singers and dancers have to follow the music, and sometimes the music follows the singers, so it’s really a conversation, a give and take, between the student artists. It’s a collaboration between disciplines that isn’t seen in any other production at PHS on quite the same scale.”

In the end, Moorhead said students will have a lot to take away.

“I think the student artists earn, as well they should, a new level of respect among their peers through the process of the musical.”

‘Anything Goes’ will run from Thursday, Feb. 6 at 7:30 p.m. to Sunday, Feb. 9.