Happy to be “Miz”
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- January
- 11
“Les Miserables” ended its Broadway revival on Sunday after 463 performances, but the barricade springs up again this weekend, presented by schoolkids at Westchester Broadway Theatre in Elmsford.
Performances will be tomorrow, Monday and Jan. 19, with a junior cast of 62 and a senior cast of 68 taking on the challenging musical, scaled down slightly in a “school edition.”
Joey Sanzaro, 17, of Pleasantville, plays Jean Valjean, the man wrongfully imprisoned who is at the center of the story.
The performances are a co-production of Westchester Broadway Theatre and John Fanelli’s Youth Arts Center in Thornwood.
“It’s a story about redemption,” Sanzaro says, “and something we all go through in one way or another, maybe not on that scale. But we all feel kind of cheated from time to time.
“He feels that because he was cheated he has the right to seek vengeance,” Sanzaro says. “But he learns early in the story that there’s another way to deal with the unfair treatment: He decides to become an honest man. That change is hard.”
It’s also hard, one might imagine, for Sanzaro to switch gears to the other show he’s working on: Next month, he plays Willy Wonka in “Willy Wonka Jr.,” a production of Random Farms Kids’ Theater with performances Feb. 1, 2, 3, 8, 9 and 10 at the Tarrytown Music Hall.
Read about how two groups are settling into new homes HERE.
“It’s kind of goofy,” the young actor says. “He’s all over the place and he’s hard to read. Hopefully, when you see the show, whatever I say as the character, you should wonder: ‘Is he telling the truth or is he lying?’”
That’s the exact opposite of Valjean, he says.
“You have to know what Valjean’s about and believe him at all times,” he says.
In “Wonka” – which is based on the musical film drawn from Roald Dahl’s classic children’s story – Sanzaro sings the song “Pure Imagination.”
“Les Miserables” is full of suspense.
Will the little girl, Cosette, survive the evil clutches of the Thernardiers? Will the revolting students carry the day? Will Javert’s vengeance be served?
But sometimes, the greatest suspense is whether the actor playing Jean Valjean will be able to hit that high note in “Bring Him Home,” a song that was spoofed in the satirical sendup “Forbidden Broadway”:
“God, it’s high.
This song’s too high.
Pity me. Change the key.
Bring it down.
Bring it down.
It’s too high.”
No problem, Sanzaro says. The note’s easily within his range.
The young actor has appeared in Random Farms’ productions before: In “The Enchantment of Beauty and the Beast,” he played Clocksworth.
Anya Wallach, the founder of Random Farms, says Sanzaro was a natural pick for Wonka – and for Valjean.
“He has a beautiful voice and an understanding of the material that his age and maturity bring,” Wallach says.
With Youth Arts Center, then known as The Lighthouse Youth Theatre, he was in “Into the Woods,” where he worked with co-star Georgina Simon, who plays the comic Madame Thernardier in “Les Miz.”
Simon also alternates in the role of Willy Wonka at certain performances at Random Farms.
Wallach says Simon was “not the most likely pick for the part, but her incredible vocal range made it possible for her to sing in the man’s key so we just couldn’t resist her voice.”
Simon, 14, from Cortlandt, is a ninth-grader at Hendrick Hudson High School. She has been with Random Farms for years and was in Fanelli’s “Into the Woods” last year, playing Little Red Riding Hood.
She says playing Madame Thernardier is “an adventure,” allowing her to hit her co-star and “jump all over the place.”
How does Simon handle rehearsing two shows at once?
“Wonka just started, so it hasn’t been much of a conflict,” she says. “I rehearse with John on Thursdays and Saturdays, which is a lot different than Anya’s. John’s rehearsal period is a lot longer; Anya’s is for, like, three weeks only. We’ve been rehearsing ‘Les Miserables’ since September.”
Wonka is “totally, totally, totally different experience for me,” Simon says. “As Wonka, I can have my own creeps and crawls and make it my own. I’m definitely playing it different from Joey.
“I remember when I was in Anya’s shows when I was 11 and looking up to the older kids who were the leads. Now I’m one of those leads, I have that responsibility.”
It was a tough role to cast,” Wallach says. “We had to find someone who could sell the role with charm, but underneath, appear to not really like children that much. That’s a tough combination, but they both got it,” she says.
Fanelli says he’ll make full use of the actors and of the technical capabilities of the Elmsford theater.
“When I was there, I always billed our shows as ‘having production values you’re accustomed to seeing at Westchester Broadway Theatre.’ That’s still the same. We’re not cutting back at all.”
“Les Miserables�
Where: Westchester Broadway Theatre, 1 Broadway Plaza, Elmsford.
When: The senior cast performs at 10 a.m. today for local schools, at 1:30 tomorrow, (lunch at 11:45 a.m.); and at 8 p.m. Monday (dinner at 6:30 p.m.)
The junior cast performs at 10 a.m. and 2 p.m. Jan. 19, with no meal service before each show.
Note: In February, the show moves to Yorktown Stage, with the senior cast performing at 10 a.m. and 8 p.m. Feb. 8 and at 8 p.m. Feb. 9, and the junior cast performing at 2 p.m. Feb. 9 and Feb. 10.
Tickets: At WBT, $45 and $70 for tomorrow and Monday; $20 for Jan. 19. In Yorktown, $20; $15 for students and seniors.
Call: 914-592-2222 (WBT); 914-962-0606 (Yorktown Stage).
Senior cast: Christopher Barberesi, Ali Accumanno, Hannah Becker, Evan Bernardin, Kelsey Berro, Kristina Brooks, Jasmine Brumley-Taub, Brittanie Burke, Jamie Carino, Alyssa Cook, Travis Crowley, Emily Dalessio, Alexa DeFina, Allie Denburg, Samantha DeRosa, Ryan Duncan, Nicole Duquet, Tejan Edwards, Shantel Fields, Alex Gold, Jake Goldstein, Rachel Greenberg, Cory Gross, Angela Guzman, Allie Harte, Marissa Heintzman, Michael Herwitz, Elizabeth Holmes, Kristen Ippolito, Adam Jacobs, Ethan Jacobson, Dana Kaplowitz, Brody Karn, Danielle Kaufman, Kristina Koller, Matt Leonard, Evan Linden, Jenna Margiasso, Stacey Oliver, Elena Pascullo, Lindsey Pasieka, Cara Politi, Lexi Quinn, Carolyn Ress, Joey Sanzaro, Genevieve Scarano, Roma Scarano, Georgina Simon, Molly Simon, Max Singer, Nicole Spangenberger, Morgan Sullivan, Susie Svendsgaard, Keith Schwartz, Trevor Sideris,Emily Trias, Brianna Vaccaro, Aimee Vachon, Kayla VanCalcar, Stephanie Viegas, Ernest Zalamea.
Junior cast: Lily Allen, Alexandra Bradsell, Danny Cameron, Elana Cantor, Trevor Carr, Annie Corrao, Tomas Correa, Zoe Correa, Ashley Dassa, Andrea DeBonis, Carly Dieck, Eric Elson, Olivia Gatto, Sara Granda, Claudia Greco, Athena Hantzaridis, Amanda Higley, Kristina Koller, Anshuman Konuru, Juliet Leavy, Ryan Lerner, Melissa Magaliff, Lauren Moore, Michelle Morgenthal, Jennifer Morris, Allison Muccioli, Kimmi Naus, Sami Naus, Kate O’Brien, Ian Palmer, Alex Pasieka, Alison Peratikos, AJ Pope, Celena Santos, Carolyn Savoia, Allie Short, Rebecca Simpson-Wallack, Isabella Siniscalchi, Joey Staluppi, Matt Stout, Shannon Stout, Tim Stout, Morgan Sullivan, Brianna Vaccaro, Danielle Vantassel, Alexander Warne, Corinne Wolyniec, Catherine Zaccardi, Ashley Zeitler.



Peter D. Kramer







sweet, wish i was in town to see it!