Photo Coverage: Leadership and Public Service High School Kicks of "NBC�'s Smash�': Make a Musical" Initiative

Leadership and Public Service High School in Manhattan was selected as one of the first 20 schools across the nation to participate in "NBC's 'Smash': Make a Musical," a new initiative from NBC and iTheatrics' Junior Theater Project that builds self-sustaining musicals in schools.

As party of the initialive, yesterday, May 17, the students and teachers opened Guys and Dolls JR. as their first-ever musical. The show will also run on Saturday, May 19th in the auditorium of Economics & Finance High School. Check out photos from the show below!

Tickets for the show are $6 for adults and $5 for children at the door.

Like everything else in the area, Leadership and Public Service High School was heavily impacted by the events of 9/11. The school is located a block south of the South Tower and had to be evacuated after the second plane hit. The engine of the second plane landed on Leadership's roof, and the school building itself was used as one of the morgue sites in the aftermath. The school was so badly damaged by the debris from the explosions that it closed for a year for structural repairs. And it has taken the school over a decade to slowly heal from the economic, psychological, and sociological toll the tragedy took.

"NBC's 'Smash': Make A Musical" is intended to be a part of that healing.

Additional schools participating in the first 20 schools to take part in "NBC's 'Smash': Make a Musical" program are:

The Academy at Westinghouse in Pittsburgh, PA
Brittany Woods Middle School in University City, MO
Desert Sands Middle School in Phoenix, AZ
The Falcon Academy of Creative Arts in Mogadore, OH
Independence Charter School in Philadelphia, PA
KIPP Bridge Charter School in Oakland, CA
Leadership and Public Service High School in New York, NY
Middleton Street Elementary School in Huntington Park, CA
Morris E. Ford Middle School in Tacoma, WA
Place Bridge Academy in Denver, CO
Renfroe Middle School in Decatur, GA
Sharpstown High School in Houston, TX
Stroud High School in Stroud, OK
Trillium Charter School in Portland, OR
Trimble Tech High School in Fort Worth, TX
The University of Chicago Charter School Woodlawn Campus (UCW) in Chicago, IL
Watershed High School in Minneapolis, MN
Watertown Middle School in Boston, MA
Wheaton High School in Silver Spring, MD
W. H. Oliver Middle School in Nashville, TN