Cedar Park Tonight is back tonight for one night only. Students and teachers from all different organizations will come together in the Performing Arts Center at 7 p.m. for the annual show, with a new twist of an added talent show. 

“We’re kind of going back to our roots by incorporating some of the talent show into the variety show,” Broadcast adviser Anthony Garcia said. “It’s going to bring back an opportunity for students to showcase their talent and win an award if they are the most talented, but then also still include some of those fun games that you’ll see teachers versus students in that you like, like Spit Talk or Hot Ones.”

Cedar Park Tonight is the annual variety show put on by the Broadcast program with help from the PAC interns. It started back in 2017, during Garcia’s first year at Cedar Park.

“We were trying to decide how to revamp what had been a longtime talent show that [the Broadcast program] had done in previous years, so we were willing to try to mix it up and spice it up,” Garcia said. “That was around the time when Carpool Karaoke started and Jimmy Fallon had just started [hosting] The Tonight Show, and so all those things were super popular. We wanted to try to incorporate that type of late-night variety show element with what was already a traditional end-of-the-year event.”

Senior Ben McDanald played a pivotal role in last year’s show, performing in a musical number from “Something Rotten”, being in various games, and, most importantly, as Gabe the Giddy Gorilla.

“The cast of last year’s musical ‘Something Rotten’ performed the number ‘Willpower’ at CPT last year,” McDanald said. “As part of the cast, I was in that number. I also had what we’ll call a ‘special appearance’ later in the show where I dressed as Gabe the Giddy Gorilla, and I hid under a pile of boxes set up resembling a desk with a tablecloth and some desk items atop it. [Host] Jack Polishook interviewed Mrs. King at the desk, and upon his command, I exploded from underneath, scaring Ms. King and the audience. Jack, to my surprise, put on a chicken costume, and we engaged in a dance battle. I believe he won.”

The night will showcase a lineup of talented students, including junior Frank Song playing the guitar, sophomore Braden Collinsworth’s unicycle routine, and Cedar Park’s newest club, the Garage Band.

“I think it’s so cool that we’re having a talent show,” McDanald said. “I mean, this kind of brings you all the way back to elementary school. That was always like a classic thing that we got to do then, and it’s kind of fun having the opportunity to do that again, especially on such a big scale.”

Tickets are available at this link.