Braintree High School’s seniors are among its most important treasures. From senior night to senior privilege, Braintree High School does its best to ensure its seniors have a celebratory final year of regular schooling. One of the capstone events of senior year was always the Mr. BHS talent competition. In the spring of 2021 Mr. BHS was renamed BHS Pageant, and for the first time girls were allowed to participate.
The Pageant highlighted the talents of students from throughout the senior student body for a night of fun and friendly competition, with an audience consisting of people throughout the students and staff there to watch. Acting as a schoolwide fundraiser, students and their stories were introduced by teachers, and their following acts were evaluated by judges, who decided an overall winner for the night.
“It was always a huge event,” said former BHS Pageant host Mr. Flanagan. “Sold out every time I can remember.”
The BHS Pageant, formerly known as Mr. BHS, has been one of the standout events of Braintree High School’s senior year. 2016’s Pageant saw a full house, with the auditorium described as “sold out” by one of its competitors, and as one of the “most popular” events in the school. Seats were packed to the brim in a full house, and this was followed up by 2018’s Pageant hosting over twenty competitors. It seemed like the Pageant would never die.
But after the pandemic derailed the school system to an extent never seen before, the hype around the BHS Pageant began to die down. Crowds thinned; former participant Sidney Luckey recalls the lack of excitement for the event.
“There wasn’t a large following of people who were super interested in the show outside of those who performed,” said Luckey. “It wasn’t nearly as talked about as the upcoming Prom-Kings and Queens.”
This year, for the 2025 school year, the curtain has finally fallen on the BHS Pageant. After years of annual pageants, the BHS Pageant was cancelled. The Class of 2025 stated this was due to a lack of interest.
“It is a huge undertaking,” said Class of 2025 advisor Mr. Baker, “And we wanted to make sure that if we were to run it that it would be big and bold, and we weren’t getting that level of interest.”
According to Mr. Baker, this lack of interest was present both in the student body and among the potential nominees for the competition. Mr. Baker stated that this lack of interest has been a trend in recent years.
“There’s little show up for the amount of time and effort the event requires,” says senior class president Emily Tran. “and we had a lot going on to plan for senior prom.”
“It felt like last years’ Pageant was an event done merely because we had always done it, less so because students and teachers had any interest in it,” said Luckey. “That doesn’t take away the fact that it was a very fun experience that I would recommend to any school community. But I’m not sure, maybe events like these are growing less and less relevant with the prominence of social media and other aspects of modern student life.”
Mr. Flanagan remains hopeful that the event could come back to Braintree High.
“It is a fun event where kids can display their talents and have some fun with it,” said former Mr. BHS host Mr. Flanagan. “I understand things have changed in recent years, but I think we could also find a way to modify the event yet still keep the original spirit.”
