Last Friday, Bwog attended the opening performance of Mayday, Columbia’s 130th annual Varsity Show. This year’s production was directed by Caroline Egler (BC ‘24), and written by Julian Gerber (CC ‘24) and Casey Rogerson (CC ‘24).

Returning to Roone Arledge Auditorium a year after the 129th annual Varsity Show, even the air feels different. As protests amass on campus, heavy police presence crowds the streets, and press setups seem omnipresent, attending the show this year is an entirely different experience. We have all been affected by these events in one way or another, and they have inevitably overtaken the majority of my thoughts. So when we say that the 130th Varsity Show was excellent, the statement holds all of this context within it. The show did not take my mind off of anything, but instead put what I was feeling out in the open through a poignant, funny, sardonic, and emotional show. 

This year’s production, titled Mayday, was able to create a meaningful story with shockingly prescient plot elements, compelling emotional beats, and an impressive theatrical ensemble. The story centers around a plane crash where four Columbia students, one from each of the four undergraduate colleges, who were on their way to a conference on President Shafik’s private jet, and while stranded, must struggle to survive, and struggle to make change on campus when they return. 

Cece, played by Njoki Tiagha (CC ‘27), is a CC creative writing student struggling to find her story. Bernie, played by Ana Valeria Vasquez Navas (GS ‘24), is a driven Barnard psychology student who has her whole life planned out. Seasar, played by Matias Hernandez (CC ‘26), is a passionate SEAS engineering student who wishes he could incorporate his passion for a capella into his life. Jen Studies, played by Morgan Johns (GS ‘25), is an unsuccessful politician who seems unable to find her own political voice. The four students face friction as they try to build shelter and fulfill their basic needs in an unspecified forest. After spending a week stranded, a group of Dartmouth students wander into their space, as they were apparently stranded near the school. They are rescued by President Beilock at Dartmouth, and they struggle to maintain their friendships and make changes to Columbia once back on campus.

Meanwhile, President Shafik (Kiana Mottahedan, CC ‘26) and her secretary, Hillary Clinton, (Anna Kasun, CC ‘24), consult past Columbia presidents to deal with the scandal. As the Baroness consults, The Book, which all previous presidents have used to navigate the problems of their terms, she is horrified to find that there is no entry for her issue. Her exclamation, “I can’t afford a scandal this early in my presidency!” stirred raucous laughter in the audience. 

Shafik’s attempts to quell upset on campus include starting a task force of seemingly non sapient personifications of the three Joe Coffees on campus, breaking into EC to steal Cece’s diary, blackmailing her, and hosting a “fireside chat” in Riverside, none of which effectively respond to the students’ complaints. It seemed almost clairvoyant that V130 centers around the Columbia administration’s inability to effectively deal with conflict, and its utter resistance to change. 

From the opening number, the cohesiveness of the vocal ensemble was excellent. One of the opening numbers, “Evergreen, Forever Blue,” was skillfully arranged and well executed, setting the tone for the musical quality over the course of the rest of the show. As Cece, Tiagha showcased particularly stellar vocals, although Mottahedan and the entire ensemble had moments to exhibit their exemplary talent as well. 

Additionally, the chemistry between actors Sarafina Belafonte (CC ‘26), Kieran Lomboy (CC ‘26), and Ryan Crawford (CC ‘27)—who played both the three former college presidents and the Joe Coffee taskforce members—was unmatched. The entrance of Crawford portraying a cunty Dwight D. Eisenhower and his banter with Belafonte’s Samuel Jackson I and Lomboy’s Samuel Jackson II was hilariously critical of Columbia’s founding fathers. 

In fact, many stand-out moments came from the less plot-central characters; the portrayals of student reporters through the Spectator reporter (Haley Lugg, GS ‘24), Bwog reporter (Abby Selvan, BC ‘25), and The Blue and White reporter (Zach Brown, CC ‘27) created some very funny moments as well; in a press conference early in the show, the Bwog reporter asks Shafik which is the sluttiest statue on campus, to which she answers The Thinker, after declining to comment on several other more pertinent questions. Although these were less pivotal to the plot movement of the show, they really shined, especially where chemistry between the main four was sometimes lacking.

Where Varsity Shows of yore have typically pulled inspiration from the past year of student life at Columbia, this year’s production took somewhat of a different approach, opting for a plot and jokes that were less temporally specific, and sometimes less specific to Columbia altogether. Granted, the show did take some moderate jabs at Shafik and the broader idea of a presidential scandal, painting her in its more pointed moments as a largely incompetent leader who will do anything to avoid accountability. But for the most part, the comedy relied on broader (and less recent) cultural moments like the 2016 election, the Boeing malfunctions, and the Pitch Perfect franchise. In fairness to the writers, this was an exceptionally difficult year to joke about. 

Still, it was certainly a curious decision for so much of the plot to follow Hillary Clinton, whose teaching position at Columbia was announced a year and a half ago. While Kasun was engaging and funny in her interpretation of the character and made a dynamic scene partner for Mottahedan’s Shafik, Clinton’s presence in the show meant much of the comedy relied on jokes about the 2016 election, which often felt dated and out of place. As opposed to pairing Shafik with a fellow administrator—like Barnard President Laura Rosenbury, who has had a greater presence in campus headlines—the choice to focus so heavily on Clinton, whose presence on campus has been far more scarce, made the show feel fairly dissonant from the lived experience at Columbia. 

This was true of several plot threads, from a running joke about Bumper from Pitch Perfect to the general plane crash premise itself, or the choice to focus so heavily on seniors and their impending graduation. For better or for worse, this year’s Varsity Show felt somewhat removed from the present moment. 

That said, even though many of the jokes were not explicitly specific, they were so clearly applicable to current events that they felt extremely relevant more in line with previous years’ time-specific jokes. For example, the upset caused by the main gates being closed, an EC party being shut down for “violating policies,” Shafik sending emails at three in the morning, and the “Don’t Say Plane” number in which press and others were advised not to speak directly about the plane crash maintained undeniable connections to current events. 

There were plenty more areas where the comedy felt fresh and funny. The inter-act video segment—a parody local news report in which various figures react to the news of the plane crash and rescue—garnered a well-earned round of applause and cheers from the audience. The segment also provided an opportunity for another beloved Varsity Show tradition, cameos from real-life figures like Professor Michael Thaddeus, Bacchanal headliner JID, the CU women’s basketball team, and even recent RuPaul’s Drag Race winner Nymphia Wind. A joke-dense interlude with impressive production value, it was an unequivocal highlight of the night. 

Overall, V130 provided a pertinent, if vague, acknowledgement of campus climate. There was an element of catharsis in seeing a criticism of the administration on stage in an artistic form for such a wide audience. Many cast members gave especially impressive performances, and the musical numbers were enjoyable and mostly cohesive. The work put in by the cast and crew during this chaotic and overwhelming time on Columbia’s campus was truly commendable. The aspirational version of this institution imagined in V130 gave us a few hours to immerse ourselves in what we want Columbia University to be, before reentering the world, hopefully given the spirit to create that change ourselves.

Images via Bwog Staff.