What They Do For Love

Thirty years ago this week, A Chorus Line moved into the Shubert Theater where, for the next 15 years, its cast was asked by director-choreographer Zach: “Why did you start dancing?” Seventeen characters questioned their own motives in wanting to go into musical theater. They eventually admitted, “Where’s it getting us?…a lot of people are feeling that way, and they’re getting out of the business fast…there’s no security…no promotion and no advancement…no work anymore…they’re not doing big musicals like they used to.”

Yet another hundred people just got off of the train, plane, and automobile — and here they are, in New York City, at the five-week Marymount at the York Summer Intensive to learn and perform. These 24 young hopefuls, ages 18-23, come from near (Matthew Maisto: Long Island) and far (Lindsay Bruce: Calgary) or both (Pasha Prakasa was born in Indonesia but now resides in Queens). They represent a new generation that still wants to perform the same show eight times a week instead of becoming rock or film stars.

Jacob Michael Warren, the youngest of the bunch, considered a career in rock. He wrote some songs that he recorded on a home-made CD. “But in a rock band, you just do music,” he says. “In a musical, you get to do everything.” The theater bug also bit Erin Williams, who is from Memphis — the land of blues, country, and Graceland: “I was a cheerleader in high school, and when our drama department was doing Crazy for You, I thought, ‘Well, why not try out?’ Until that happened, I had no idea what I was going to do with my life. Now I do.” Says Jennifer Wren, “There’s not a day I wake up that I don’t want to do musical theater. I get a heightened emotion that only comes from singing live and baring my soul. It’s the most powerful form of entertainment.”

Says Abel C. Horner, “When I’m working in the outside world in a regular job, it kills me sometimes and I crash and burn. But when I’m doing this, I get that adrenaline rush both from inside me and from the audience’s reaction.” Haley Richelson says: “You have days when you struggle, but if you’re meant to do this and you really love it, there’s no question that you have to. The answer at the end of the day is always yes.”

The kids spent the first two weeks learning and refining the rudiments of song and dance, and taking master classes with such artists as Nicole Fosse. For the ensuing three weeks, they rehearsed and rehearsed their respective revues. One group of 12, under the direction of Michael Montel, did We Sing, while 12 others under the direction of Luis Perez did Twelve Typical People. Don’t assume from the title of the latter show that it had a mundane cast; the typical people described were the characters that the kids portrayed, but these sure aren’t typical kids. They’d better not be, considering the tough business they’ve chosen. Notes Stefanie Crane, “Interesting that the first line of our revue was ‘I sing because my future’s uncertain.’ In an acting career, you know your future is uncertain. But I’m at home with that uncertainty.” To that, Jenna N. Ushkowitz adds, “I like the lines ‘I sing because I’m barely beginning.’ It’s that drive and passion that keeps us on our toes, always working, always pushing.”

Funny that she says “on your toes,” a phrase associated with dancing. All these kids would have had an easier time of it 50 or 75 years ago, when musicals had a singing chorus, a dancing chorus, and actors. Now, they must be triple-threats. Says Halee Culicerto, “I’ve always felt very comfortable with my singing, fairly comfortable with my acting, and as for my dancing — well, I can tap my foot. Ananda [Bena Walker, her choreographer at Marymount] said, ‘You can do more.’ Now I can.” Horner sees it the same way: “I came in here thinking ‘I can’t dance.’ Now I can, and not just because we had dance class every morning. We had teachers who are responsive to questions.”

Of course, all of them would love to be cast in the upcoming revival of A Chorus Line or in the new musical The Color Purple. Hell, they’d be happy to take over as a swing in The Phantom of the Opera or a fork in Beauty and the Beast. They know, or think they know, that “there’s no security…no promotion and no advancement…no work anymore.” Yet they’re here in a program that’s the brainchild of Patricia Hoag Simon, who started it because she fondly remembers her experiences when she was their age.

“Joshua Logan came to our school and put on a new musical, Huck and Jim on the Mississippi, by Bruce Pomahac,” Simon says. “Logan was at the end of his working life but still passionate about new material and was convinced that there was great benefit in working on it in an educational environment. When I was fortunate enough to be made coordinator for musical theater at Marymount Manhattan College, I began to envision a summer stock company of young people taking classes with wonderful teaching artists and performing in new musical works rather than the standard summer stock fare. I knew I wanted to partner with a professional theater company that had a catalogue of good shows and developed new work, so I contacted Jim Morgan [the York Theater’s producing artistic director].”

Says Morgan, “Our interests here at York are so similar to what Pat’s doing at Marymount. We’re both interested in new works and new writers, so it seemed like a natural fit.” Hoag Simon nods: “I want this generation to be excited about these writers so that, when they go off and form their own theater troupes, they’ll say, ‘You know, I performed in this revue when I was in college and there was this great song from a show called Little by Little.”

Neither of the two revues, I’m happy to say, started with “Another Op’nin’, Another Show.” Nor did they include the jukebox musical’s favorite entry, “It Don’t Mean a Thing (If it Ain’t Got That Swing).” According to Perez, “We took a look at the new musicals that the York had produced either on their mainstage or in their developmental series. In fact, two-thirds of the songs we used came from the shows in development.” Montel adds, “We had so much right here. Along the way, we found plenty of material that seemed to suit the kids; so many of these songs turned out to be written for people in this age group. We’re also teaching them about the whole new rash of young writers out there.”

Richelson tells how the auditions worked: “Luis took four people who might be good for the song, had them sing 16 bars of it, and then said ‘Thank you.’ I got the song I auditioned for, even though I didn’t like it that much. Now I know that’s because I only got to sing a bit of it. When I got the whole thing, it was 18 pages and more of a challenge than I’d ever expected.” Says Jordan Kai Burnett, “I’m doing a wonderful song by Michael John LaChiusa — ‘Fraud,’ from Broken Sleep — that I’d never get to do in the real world. I liked learning it raw without having heard someone else do it.” Jessica E. O’Brien agrees: “All your life, you’ve heard recordings or seen performances on stage or in movies, so it’s hard to create something that’s your own. With all this new material, I had to ask myself, ‘What’ll I do here? How does this affect my character? Who is my character?’ ” Matthew Maisto says” “Many musical theater programs around the country have intensives like this, but this is the only one that focuses on where music theater is going as opposed to where it’s already been.”

When I ask the kids who their musical theater heroes are, Valerie Zbytniewski says: “Mine are everyone in this room. I look every day at all these people and I can’t even believe how talented they all are, and that they’re standing next to me. I know they’re going to be somewhere some day.” Comments Jim Morgan, “”By the way, 24 is exactly double the number of kids we had here last year. And we expect to accept 36 next year.” Those interested in attending in 2006 should send an e-mail to psimon@mmm.edu.

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[To contact Peter Filichia directly, e-mail him at pfilichia@theatermania.com]