BY ALANA ECKELS AND SARAH FADER

The cast of  Big Fish reacted with joy and excitement today to the high school musical’s 11 Gene Kelly nominations.

The musical was nominated for best musical, actor, ensemble, direction, lighting design, set design, music direction, orchestra, choreography, costume design, best crew/technical execution.

“I kind of wanted to collapse. I wanted to cry, but I didn’t want to cry,” junior Nick Cortazzo said after hearing he was nominated for best actor.

“I had tears of joy,” senior Liv Shoup said.

“I was very excited. I was very happy that all the work we put into it over the last few months paid off, “senior Zachary Blanner said.

Last year Baldwin’s musical had 10 Gene Kelly nominations. This year the 11 nominations for Big Fish made Baldwin the second-most nominated school, falling short only to Pittsburgh CAPA.

Cortazzo will be preforming a medley of his songs and the cast of Big Fish will be preforming its opening number at the Gene Kelly Awards on May 28 at the Benedum Center.

The nominations for best musical, actor, and actress were announced by Pittsburgh Today Live on KDKA-TV this morning and the rest of the nominations were posted on the Gene Kelly Awards website right afterward. That website did temporarily crash just as the announcements were made, causing a brief frenzy among the cast.

Cortazzo said he likes Baldwin’s chances of coming home with some awards.

“I think we have a good chance of winning,” he said.