Senioritis (musical)

Act One begins with a typical day at Erma Schmoe High School. Evelyn Cummings, a high-achieving, intelligent senior, is stressing out over the many exams she has to take. Her boyfriend, Jared, persuades her and all the other seniors to follow the lead of Babbers, the school slacker, and "chillax" for a minute or two. When they do, they are observed by Agents X and Y, two so-called "experts" on the topic of senioritis, who persuade Stanley Krasston, the school's strict assistant principal, about performing an experiment on Erma Schmoe seniors, giving them poor grades and S-A-T test scores, to see how they respond. Krasston likes the idea because it gives him a chance to embarrass the school principal, his old high school classmate Meg Wivvans, a ditsy ex-hippie who got into colleges from which he was rejected.

Everything goes according to plan, and the seniors get rejected by all the elite "Holly League" colleges. They react not by becoming more motivated, but by despairing and not bothering to go to class any more. Under pressure from her mother, in a last-ditch effort to rescue her resume, Evelyn breaks up with Jared to go to Athens for a study abroad program. A parent-teacher meeting to discuss the seniors’ poor performances is interrupted by a surprise visit by the global celebrity Madonjelina, who decides to adopt Babbers as her "torn and tattered teen." The students hear rumors about the experiment that was done on them. Led by Jared, they decide to experiment back by having the largest epidemic of senioritis the world has ever seen.

Act Two picks up the story four months later. The seniors are living in their school theater. After cutting class, pranking, and resisting authority for those months, the seniors founded Senioropolis, a commune based on the teachings of senioriticism. From Athens, Evelyn had sent Jared a plan for this society, and he brought it to life around the teachings of Babbers, alias "Seniocrates." When she returns, she and Jared get back together. Meanwhile, the parents are upset that their children have not been home in weeks and pressure the school superintendent to fire Principal Wivvans, who has tolerated the seniors’ occupation of the theater, and replace her with Assistant Principal Krasston, who promises a "crackdown."

Faced with the threat of being forced to shut down Senioropolis and repeat senior year, the seniors stage a "High School Mythical," starring Babbers as "Seniodysseus," who is lost at sea and must navigate the shoals of high school life. Madonjelina, now Babbers’ adoptive mother, drops by to see her son's performance, is given a starring role, turns the show into an instant world-wide sensation, and makes the seniors famous.

Even so, the superintendent is determined to make the seniors repeat their senior year, but just as she is about to announce her decision, Agents X and Y are unveiled as two high school seniors from Liechtenstein. The purpose of their experiment had been to slander American high school seniors as a way of enabling more Liechteinsteinians to be accepted by Holly League colleges. They are un-accepted, Krasston is fired, Wivvans keeps her job, and Madonjelina uses her clout to persuade the Hollies to pay the seniors (who are now global celebrities) to attend their schools. After Evelyn and Jared refuse the temptation of becoming "rich and famous," the Erma Schmoe seniors celebrate, off to better things with "admission to life."