The Class of 2010 once again proved that HMS students have both brains and talent as they sang and danced their way through All I Really Need to Know I Learned in Medical School, the 101st annual Second Year Show. Directed by Andrew Chao and Camille Powe, the production contained the usual pop song send-ups, large dance numbers, and merciless impressions of faculty members. As the new integrated curriculum guinea pigs, the Class of 2010 blazed a new educational trail during their first year at HMS, and their Second Year Show represented that journey—only with a lot more singing, dancing, and silly costumes.
In act one, the new first-years arrive on campus only to learn that one of them was let into HMS by mistake. As a result, an odd collection of students—the pediatrics gunner, the socially awkward social medicine groupie, the geeky HST student, the insensitive cultural competence advocate, and the dental student with bad breath—fret their way through classes, plagued with self-doubt and worry over who is the fraud.
The first year, or at least a loose interpretation of it, is played out onstage, with plenty of appearances by favorite preclinical instructors. PD-1 introduces the students to perhaps the worst patients they could ever hope to meet, and in anatomy class, the students are rescued from incompetence by a team of rapping faculty. A chain-smoking Allan Brandt (Craig Szela) takes the students to a make-believe island to find Paul Farmer (Steve Porter), where he is camped out with fellow social medicine superstar Jim Kim (Kenneth Bernard) and Angelina Jolie (Marie-Louise Meng), there to adopt her 17th child. Finally, it’s time for the Society Olympics—only this time, it is a “Dance Off of Doom.”
Taking a cue from the syrupy Robert Fulghum essay, “All I Really Need to Know I Learned in Kindergarten,” each scene contained a life lesson that one might learn in kindergarten, but would be applicable to medical school as well—say you’re sorry when you hurt someone, for instance. The theme took a backseat to the song and dance numbers much of the time, but that was just fine. It appears that many members of the Class of 2010 are not new to the performing arts, as evidenced by the abundance of stage presence and impeccable comic timing. Marc Walker, playing the HST student who can’t pipette (and there were plenty of cheap pipette jokes) had one of the strongest voices, which he used to its full potential in his performance of “Part of that World” from The Little Mermaid.
Ashley Orynrich, playing the dental student with bad breath, was noteworthy for her sultry rendition of “It’s Not That Easy Lovin’ Teeth,” set to the tune of the Kermit the Frog standard “Bein’ Green.” Clad in a red-sequined evening gown and surrounded by tuxedoed men with red roses in their teeth, Orynrich added a little glamour to the show, despite singing a song made famous by a Muppet.
During the intermission, Zirui Song treated the audience to a performance on the pipa, a traditional Chinese stringed instrument. Wearing Spiderman slippers and a floppy hat, Song began with “Twinkle Twinkle Little Star,” but soon launched into a complicated tune that undoubtedly impressed any pipa aficionados who were present.
The over-the-top faculty impersonations got many of the laughs. In “Heart Attack,” set to the tune of Justin Timberlake’s “Sexy Back,” a muscle-bound Dana Stearns (Chris Miller) took the opportunity to show off his biceps while performing CPR. A pert and perky Jen Stanford, played by Miya Bernson, summarized the “Key Points” of the show at various intervals. Even new HMS dean Jeffrey Flier, played by Rocky Samuel, was not safe from the lampooning.
And who was the mistake? Nobody, of course, because HMS faculty would never make a mistake. They were simply trying to teach the students, in the words of Kate Treadway (played by Devon Quasha), an “integrated life lesson.”
