On the evening of April 17, 2026, the lights in the Tennessee High School auditorium dimmed, and the stage was set for opening night as the Mighty Viking Players prepared for their debut performance of Emma! A Pop Musical.
“[Emma!] is based [on] the movie Clueless. . .[and] the book Emma by Jane Austen,” musical director, English I, and theatre teacher Amber Davis said. “It’s all 90s music, and it’s called a jukebox musical. We just [wanted] to do something this year that was fun and light.”
The musical, set in a private boarding school, follows the title character, Emma. The opening scene introduced two of her teachers, Mr. and Mrs. Weston, who were getting married as a result of her matchmaking.
“I would describe [Emma] as a girl who only thinks about herself and tries to matchmake everybody, and because she doesn’t know what she wants, it gets really messy,” senior Lola Lunsford, who played Emma, said.
As the production progresses, Emma’s pairing priorities pivot when she sees that her best friend, Harriet, seems lonely. In an instant, she dedicates herself to finding the “perfect” boyfriend for her.
“[Harriet is] bubbly, and for most of the musical, she kind of just follows where Emma leads,” sophomore Mollee McClain said about her character. “[In the end,] she discovers that she can be her own person.”
Emma, as a whole, is a silly, modern, high school rom-com and drama in which growth and self-discovery play out before the audiences’ very eyes.
![Lucy Millwood [left] and Sophia Streetman [right] with water guns in hand, getting prepared to eliminate their target(s).](https://thsmaroonandwhite.org/wp-content/uploads/2026/05/senior-a.jpg)
