When Clark Kent takes off his glasses, he’s Superman.

When Pat McRoberts puts on his glasses, he’s Buddy Holly, a forever-young rock ‘n’ roll icon brought back to life on the stage of the Westchester Broadway Theatre in Elmsford.

He’s not able to leap tall buildings in a single bound, but in “Buddy: The Buddy Holly Story,” McRoberts can lift anyone’s midwinter blues with a performance that rivals Indian Point in the megawatt department. He’s simply dazzling.

Buddy Holly was born Charles “Buddy” Hardin Holley in Lubbock, Texas, in 1936. His first contract, with Decca Records, misspelled his name as “Holly,” and he kept it that way. What he didn’t keep was the traditional country sound Decca wanted from him, and he and his band, The Crickets, soon lost their contract.

A friend introduced Holly to Norman Petty, who had a recording studio in tiny Clovis, N.M., and the sound that made Holly a household name was shared with the world.

As even the most casual rock ‘n’ roll fan will know, Holly died in a plane crash after a concert in Clear Lake, Iowa, on Feb. 3, 1959. That crash also killed Ritchie Valens (“La Bamba”) and J.P. Richardson, known as The Big Bopper, who recorded the song “Chantilly Lace.”

(New Rochelle’s Don McLean later called the crash “the day the music died” in his song “American Pie.”)

What some may not know is that Holly’s entire career lasted just 18 months and that he was only 22 when he died. He left behind legions of fans – including four boys from Liverpool who went on to become The Beatles, named in a tribute to The Crickets.

Holly also left behind a young, pregnant wife, Maria Elena, who subsequently miscarried.

That’s the cloud that hangs over “Buddy.” We know the story. We know it all ends with a plane crash in a snowy Iowa field.

But that cloud’s silver lining is the music, 2 1/2 hours of toe-tapping tunes that have the dinner-theater audience nodding their heads, clapping along and, at the slightest urging by McRoberts at the curtain call, dancing in the aisles. The first and second act each end with extended concerts.

Director Victoria Bussert has a rock-solid cast of musician-actors at her disposal and only brings the orchestra into the mix late in the show. For the bulk of the evening, it’s Buddy Holly and The Crickets, playing and singing.

Clearly, this is McRoberts’ show and he nails everything from Holly’s trademark hiccup singing style to the toothy grin and quirky head movements. He runs and slides across the stage on his knees, plays while he’s on his back on the stage. He’s an object in perpetual motion.

But it’s not just a musical performance: There’s a man behind the music and McRoberts fleshes him out.

The Crickets – Eric Scott Anthony as Joe B. Mauldin on bass and John Rochette as Jerry Allison on drums – are accomplished musicians and are convincing as Holly’s friends who eventually split with the talented singer over creative differences. Before they split, their joy in the recording studio scenes is infectious.

Angela C. Howell, who makes a comical turn as Petty’s wife, Vi, also serves as the show’s musical director. As Vi, she plays the piano – in pink slippers, a terry cloth robe and curlers in her hair on one number – and the celesta (a small keyboard instrument that produces a bell-like sound) on the song “Everyday.”

The first scene in Norm Petty’s Recording Studio is a revelation, as we glimpse Holly’s creative process – a playful let’s-try-this approach that produces such hits as “Peggy Sue” and “Everyday” before our eyes. The purity of the “Everyday” recording is indelible. We feel we’re present at the creation. That song will never sound the same.

The authenticity of the moment at WBT is slightly diminished by the prop department’s failure to find an actual reel-to-reel machine that works. Instead, we see two gray boxes with spools, but no action. Come on!

At the press preview, technical glitches kept the show from perfection, including a regrettable, sustained bit of ear-splitting feedback at the start and a phone that continued to ring after the receiver was lifted. These can be easily ironed out.

Steven Loftus’ set is an oversized jukebox – remember jukeboxes? – with huge, arching tubes of white fabric that take on different colors under lighting designer Andrew Gmoser’s powers.

Under the colorful arch is an upper playing area where DJs “spin” the records and some scenes are played. Flanking the stage are large, colorful 45-rpm records – remember 45s? – to help set the scene. Two of these rotate and serve as secondary playing areas.

One small note: 45s had a large black hole in the center – perfect for jukeboxes, but requiring a plastic disc to adapt to an LP player. The ones on Loftus’ set have a small white LP-like hole in the center – without the adapter – and look more like 78s.

Overall, though, the creative departments – lights, set, sound and costumes – help to evoke another time, when a skinny kid from Lubbock became a star playing a new kind of music.

Three of the evening’s most aerobic performances are delivered by Tamara Corbin, Angela Karol Grovey and Becca Lopez as the red-sequined backup singers at Holly’s final concert. He plays for a solid 25 minutes and they shake everything they have – in unison – for that entire time. It’s quite a workout, performed with flair and apparent ease.

In a simple but effective bit of staging, director Bussert starts the show with the band far upstage and, throughout the evening, Buddy’s mike stand gets closer and closer to the audience. As we get closer to him, he gets closer to us.

And then he is gone.

There’s plenty of music in “Buddy,” 27 songs from that prolific but too brief period. Among them: “Ready Teddy,” “That’ll Be the Day,” “Not Fade Away” and “Oh Boy,” songs that capture the rawness and purity that Holly embodied.

Act 1 ends with a memorable Apollo Theatre appearance, when the lily white Holly and The Crickets showed up in Harlem, where club managers had assumed their group was black. (Kudos to Derrick Cobey and Angela Karol Grovey for their work as the Apollo Main Man and Female Performer, two high-octane performances.)

The second act begins with several slow book scenes that cover a lot of ground but tend to drag.

Then comes the moment we’ve been waiting for: The final half-hour recreates that Clear Lake concert, including a hip-swiveling performance by Miguel A. Romero as Valens and a comic turn by Ryan G. Dunkin as the novelty-song singer The Big Bopper, gold-plated telephone at the ready.

The action builds to a fever pitch, giving us a glimpse into what it must have been like in the Surf Ballroom that snowy night.

A final tableau – with the ill-fated singers frozen in a spotlight after a ripping, good concert – drives home what was lost when that plane went down.

“Buddy: The Buddy Holly Story,” written by Alan Janes and Rob Bettinson, premiered in London’s West End in 1989 with Paul Hipp as Buddy and ran for 13 years. Hipp came to Broadway with the show in 1990 and was a 1991 Tony nominee for his performance, in a production that ran for 225 performances. A London revival, which opened last August, is still running.

WBT audiences won’t have that long. “Buddy: The Buddy Holly Story” runs through April 19.

Seeing “Buddy” will leave you wanting more and might send you to iTunes or Amazon.com to get the original works. That is a credit to the work now onstage at Westchester Broadway Theatre.

Oh boy!

Photo by John Vecchiolla: Miguel Romero (Ritchie Valens), Pat McRoberts (Buddy Holly) and Ryan Dunkin (The Big Bopper) on stage at Westchester Broadway Theatre in Elmsford.

‘Buddy: The Buddy Holly Story’

Where: Westchester Broadway Theatre, 1 Broadway Plaza, Elmsford.
When: Through April 19. Wednesday and Thursday matinees: lunch 11:30 a.m., show 1 p.m.; Thursday through Saturday evenings: dinner at 6, show at 8; Sunday matinee: lunch at noon, show at 1:30 p.m.; Sunday evening: dinner at 5, show at 7.
Tickets: $60 to $73, plus tax, depending on the performance.
Call: 914-592-2222.
Web: www.broadwaytheatre.com.

It’s a classic labor-management showdown. She wants a 7 1/2 -cent raise for her workers, he wants to show her who’s boss.

But Babe Williams and Sid Sorokin – the lead characters in “The Pajama Game,” running this weekend at Rye Country Day School in Rye – have another complication.

They fall in love.

Written by Jerry Ross and Richard Adler in 1954, “The Pajama Game” is best remembered for the songs “Hernando’s Hideaway” and “Hey There” and for Bob Fosse’s choreography on the dance number “Steam Heat.”

The musical – about a labor dispute in the Sleep-Tite Pajama Factory – shares the vibe of their other big hit, “Damn Yankees,” which took Broadway by storm the following year. Both shows ran for more than 1,000 performances.

If “The Pajama Game” proves that labor and management can come to a meeting of the minds, the Rye Country Day School production proves that athletes and musicians and faculty and students can work together. The cast draws from all aspects of the campus, says musical director Mary Marcell, who calls this show a “come y’all musical” with a cast of 48.

“It’s a faculty-student musical, but it’s a student experience,” says Marcell. “We want the students to have the full experience. But it’s great to have your chemistry teacher singing next to you in ‘Once a Year Day.’ ”

Marcell says she likes that “the overlap between the sports kids and the artists here is extensive,” Marcell says. “That’s one of the things that makes for a happy community in terms of supporting one other.”

The orchestra of 12 is a mix of faculty, students and professionals, with Westchester theatrical legend Donna Cribari at the piano.

Marcell says there’s an innocence to the musical that is endearing.

“It’s the original form of the stuff we now make fun of,” she says. “It’s not a joke of itself, but something like ‘There Once Was a Man,’ which is a big hoedown number. People either love or hate that song, but there’s something sweet about the originalness of ‘Let’s do a hoedown number’ the first time they’re telling someone they love them. There’s something very honest about that.”

Howe Pearson, who plays Sid – opposite Amanda Cole, as Babe – is president of the student body. He says Sid reveals much in the song “New Town Is a Blue Town.”

“He’s beginning to get comfortable in his surroundings,” Pearson says. “The song has a development from his being uncomfortable in a new town – which we all can relate to – to a more determined ‘This town ain’t gonna lick me’ attitude. ‘This one-horse, two-bit hick of a new town.’”

For Cole, “The song ‘I’m Not at All in Love’ sums up Babe completely. She may say she’s not in love – ‘not a bit, not a pinch’ – and she completely is from the second she sees him. She’s got a rough exterior, but inside she really does have a soft side.”

Director Dick Pike directed “The Pajama Game” here 35 years ago, when it was the school’s senior musical. The seniors from that show are now eligible to join AARP and the building where the musical was staged is not there anymore, lost over the years to development of the campus, Pike says.

“We were much less perfectionists back then,” Pike says. “We didn’t have a performing arts center. We had a tiny stage. We had a much smaller cast.”

While the senior musical is no more, new traditions have taken its place, the most visible of which is that faculty join the students on stage in minor roles.

Choreographer Dulcie Arnold, who also designed the set, had an ace in the hole with RCDS admissions director Matt Suzuki, who dances up a storm alongside two students in the show’s signature number, “Steam Heat.”

“Growing up in Hawaii,” Arnold says, Suzuki “worked with a woman who had worked with Bob Fosse on Broadway. He works hard. It’s good for the kids to see, because he works so hard and this is really his busiest time of the year, but there he is, dancing with a bowler hat.”

Junior Amanda Cole, who plays Babe, says the cast is passionate about the process.

“Everyone on stage really wants to be there more than anything, including the faculty. They have hundreds of papers to grade just as we have hundreds to write, but they all want to be there. It’s fun because they add a whole different element to it. And Mr. Suzuki can dance!”

‘THE PAJAMA GAME’
Where: Rye Country Day School, Cedar Street, Rye.
When: 8 p.m. tomorrow and Saturday.
Tickets: $12.
Call: 914-925-4576.
With: Matt Reese, John Herbster, Billy Mills, Justin Wayne, Lucy Braid, Howe Pearson, Alex Wolitzer, Amanda Cole, Jesse Wayne, Anna Whitehouse, Emily Watson, Jackie Baron, Andrew Schneider, KJ DeSantis, Michael Stewart, Julia Sayles, Sarah Kaidenow, Raveena Aurora, Sarah Black, Sammy Coughlin, Katrina DeRosa, Abigail Doud, Micole Himmelfarb, Janelle McDermoth, Zoe Parker, Elisa Pelgrift, Becky Sackler, Jacki Sandling, Alexandra Shapiro, Amanda Shulman, Agatha Traveras, David Hinman, Matt Suzuki, David Tafe, Meghan Monahan, Mary Felton, Laurie Bartels, Maureen Irwin, Harriet Rofman, Mitzi Sales, Kristi Licare, Katie Sandling, Josh Geller, Andrew Nathanson, Rachel Blummer, Scott Wieman, Austin Kieffaber, Joe Ramsawak, Farina Alidadi, Johanna Mignon, Sarah Houis, Carole Mariani, Susan Temple, Kailyn Lazarus, Jake McCauley.

PHOTO by Mike Roy/The Journal News: Amanda Cole as Babe and Howe Pearson as Sid perform a duet during rehearsals of “The Pajama Game� at Rye Country Day School.

You’d have to have a really good memory to recall dining in Rye and having Martin Dockery as your waiter.

“I was so bad at waitering,” he recalls with a laugh. “I was never fired. Fired makes it sound dramatic, like there was a showdown. But so many places, the writing would be on the wall when my hours would just get cut down and there’d be someone new who’d I’d have to train and then, all of a sudden, I wouldn’t be on the schedule.”

At least he took it well.

“I wouldn’t argue. I wasn’t mad,” says the 39-year-old playwright and storyteller, who comes to Pleasantville’s Rosenthal JCC Theatre on Saturday with a one-man show called “Wanderlust,” about his travels from temp worker to West Africa in search of an epiphany.

Dockery has temped for nearly a dozen years, starting at the New York Stock Exchange, a job he chronicles in “Wanderlust.”

He worked there for several years – after his Rye waitering career ended – and made enough money to travel.

Then the serial backpacker returned to another temporary job, made enough money to travel again, and repeated the process.

The temping, which seemed like a good thing to do “in anticipation of other work” was a means, but to what end, he began to wonder.

“It’s a prologue to what you’re really going to be doing, but I’ve spent more than a decade in this prologue phase,” says Dockery, who is currently temping in the education department at the Museum of Modern Art.

“This isn’t my real job. It’s just something I’m doing in anticipation of what I’ll eventually be doing. But after a certain amount of time, you have to wonder if the anticipatory job is, in fact, your real job.”

That’s why he picked up and went to West Africa, landing in Senegal in 2004 with no plans between the day he landed and his return ticket five months later. His travels took him to 11 countries in that span.

“I had no idea where I was going to go or what I was going to do,” he says. “I didn’t know anybody.”

What he had was “this romantic idea that if you put yourself in some extreme location, like a great set, a great story should unfold. Lots of people before me have gone off to the desert and staggered around and had revelations and visions. I guess I fancied that if I staggered around a bit in this similar setting, that would happen to me.”

And that’s what Saturday’s show is about.

The problem he soon encountered was that nearly everyone in Africa spoke French, a language Dockery knew not at all.

“My ability to speak fluently to people was very encumbered,” he says.

Still, he kept a detailed journal of what he did, who he met and what they talked about, gathering stories from Africans and fellow travelers.

Performing “Wanderlust” is a different experience every time, Dockery says.

“I know what I’m going to say, but it’s not written down word for word,” he says. “It’s roughly the same each night, but I work off a mental outline. I’ve told it to myself several times and to Jean-Michele Gregory, the woman who’s directing it.”

But it’s not improvised, says Dockery.

“Extemporaneous is the best word, and it’s got a lot of syllables,” he says dryly. “It sounds good. I’m an anticipatory employee who does extemporaneous monologues. If I could just figure out how to put that onto a resume.”

Gregory encouraged Dockery – a Rye Country Day School graduate who won the Paul Newman acting award while getting his English degree at Kenyon College – to craft his experiences and journals into a piece of theater.

“The show is about the connections you make, even when you don’t speak the language,” he says.

“When you travel like this, even though you’re going there hoping for the big Hope Diamond moment – the epiphany in the sky – along the way you are having moments that are real and meaningful but that sneak up on you that are smaller but are as profound once you stop to recognize them,” Dockery says.

“The show is those moments strung together like some kind of necklace.”

Stepinac’s drama guru Frank Portanova dropped me a line to tell me about Friday night’s interesting fund-raiser for his club’s upcoming production of “Singin’ in the Rain.”

They’re calling it “Scarlett: Passion Behind the Fashion,” and it features Stepinac’s actors — and those actresses who come from other schools, one supposes — modeling clothes from the county’s top stores. It sounds a bit commercial to me, but if it helps Stepinac in its quest to set the bar ever higher, I suppose it’s not a bad thing.

Writes Frank: “Sponsors include: STEVE MADDEN, HOT TOPIC, SPORTS AUTHORITY, MACY’S, CACHE, NEW ERA, TOO CUTE, and MEN’S WAREHOUSE. MAC Cosmetics and LA BOTTEGA of White Plains will sponsor hair and make-up for all the models. Coupons during the evening will be distributed for prom dresses and tuxedos from the various stores.â€?

The event is Friday, February 29th at 7:30pm at Stepinac High School, 950 Mamaroneck Avenue, White Plains, NY. Admisison is $10.

For the record, I’m not going to prom this year.

It’s good to have friends in high places.

Last year, Bronxville’s kids heard from Marty Robinson, the man who designed the Audrey II plant in “Little Shop of Horrors.”

This year, for “Into the Woods,” Bronxville’s theater guru Peter Royal called none other than James Lapine. Apparently, Royal taught Lapine’s daughter back in the day and the ever-resourceful Royal — who’s busy readying “Into the Woods” for next weekend — contacted Lapine and asked him to drop by and chat.

The award-winning playwright and director will be at the Bronxville H.S. auditorium on Pondfield Road at 7:30 p.m. tomorrow — Thursday, Feb 28. All are welcome to hear Lapine talk about his life in the theater.

He won the 1985 Pulitzer Prize in drama for “Sunday in the Park with George,” and three Tony Awards — for “Into the Woods” in 1988, “Falsettos” in 1992, and “Passion” in 1994.

Might help Bronxville’s kids brush up for “Into the Woods.” For ticket information call 914-395-3208 or email dramatix@bronxville.k12.ny.us.

Kaitlin Ferrara talks about getting into character as “Eve” in “Children of Eden” at The School of the Holy Child in Harrison.

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Madeleine Pendergast, a senior at School of the Holy Child in Harrison, talks about playing Father in Stephen Schwartz’s “Children of Eden” this weekend.

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In the 1984 film “Footloose,” Rev. Moore – played memorably by John Lithgow – sees dancing as a sin against God.

The Rev. Stephen Norton, the producer of John F. Kennedy Catholic High School’s production of the stage musical “Footloose,” has a different take.

“I would tend to disagree with the reverend on that,” says Norton, who is also the school’s president. “I just see theater as a wonderful way – aside from athletics – that these kids can really express themselves and show off their talents.”

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Norton gave the green light to the show, in which rock ‘n’ roll outsider Ren McCormack brings dance to his new Bible Belt town, posing a direct challenge to the local preacher. “Footloose” runs this weekend and next at the school on Route 138 in Somers.

Norton, who has appeared in past Kennedy productions, says he hopes he doesn’t see himself on stage in junior Michael Fay’s performance as the preacher.

“Hopefully he’s not going to totally model himself after me,” Norton says with a smile. “I know I’m the head of the school here, but I hope I’m not always the heavy.”

Fay, 16, from Yorktown, says Moore is a man of strong convictions whose actions and motivations come out in the song “My Son Is Dead.”

“Everything he says, everything he does revolves around the fact that his son died at a young age after involving himself in parties and drugs and alcohol,” Fay says. “Everyone knows about the tragedy, and that changes everyone’s actions.”

Fay says it all comes to a head when Moore and Ren (senior Stephen Murray, from Somers) talk it out and realize they want the same thing.

“We’re both looking for closure,” Fay says. “I’m trying to find closure from my son’s death; he’s trying to move on from the fact that his father left his family. We’re both kind of aiming for the same thing, just in different ways.”

(In last year’s production of “Seussical,” Fay and Murray were on the same side, as the mischievous Wickersham Brothers who tormented Horton the Elephant.)

Murray says playing the outsider, Ren, is “therapeutic.”

“There’s all kinds of teen angst in him,” Murray says. “I get to let that all out.”

If the preacher and the rebel have loss in common, they also share Ariel, Rev. Moore’s rebellious daughter, played by senior Rebecca Forsythe of Mount Kisco. Ariel bristles at her father’s authority and falls for Ren.

Forsythe says Ariel’s situation makes it easy to play her – rigid father, dead brother, nobody listens – and her character’s anger and frustration build.

There’s also the comic figure of Willard, played by senior John Oros, who has a history with the musical: He has played Rev. Moore and Ren in two productions with KJK Productions. But he’s always wanted to play Willard, who befriends Ren.

“Willard was always my favorite part, but it just wasn’t my part at the time,” he says. “I love this show.”

“Usually, I’m playing character parts, like an old man, or last year when I played Horton. Finally, I get to be a kid,” he says.

Director Deborah Spahr-Puja says the uptempo score is full of moments when the cast of nearly 60 teen-agers get to be teen-agers, in songs like “Let’s Hear It for the Boy,” and the title song.

She says Norton supports the performing arts as strongly as academics and sports, a rarity at most high schools.

“For some kids, this is what they do,” she says. “They don’t do sports or aren’t as strong in academics. So Father Norton’s support is huge.”

Norton is less hands-on than he’d like to be.

“I have to be honest with you,” he says. “There are times when I sit there and I want to jump in more, because I love it so much.”

Fay says he’s finding plenty to work with in Rev. Moore.

For all of his rock-ribbed confidence, Fay says, there are moments when the preacher can’t take it and he humbly turns to prayer. In “On Any Sunday,” he prays to be given the right words to move and inspire his congregation. And in the song “Heaven Help Me,” he prays to reach his daughter.

Those moments, Fay says, reveal plenty about his character’s humanity, as he seeks God’s help in time of need.

Norton sees value there.

“When you’re ready to preach, if you’re not praying … In running this school, every single day you sit there saying, ‘All right, Lord. I hope we’re making the right decisions, and I hope I’m doing the right thing,’” Norton says. “So it’s cool to hear Michael’s insight into that. Of course, I wouldn’t sing it. I don’t have Michael’s voice.”

“Footloose”Where: John F. Kennedy Catholic High School, 54 Route 138, Somers.
When: 7 p.m. Feb. 29, March 1, 7, 8; 2 p.m. March 2.
Tickets: In advance, $15 adults, $12 seniors, $10 children and students with ID; at the door, $18 adults, $15 seniors, $12 children and students with ID.
Call: 914-509-1401.
With: AnneMarie A’Hearn, Katheryn A’Hearn, Chelsey Alfredo, Jesse Aprile, Christina Bauso, Nicole Bauso, Robert Bittlingmeier, Cameron Bock, Quinn Bolte, Casey Brehm, Jessica Bucaria, Bridget Callaghan, Stephanie Carson, Lisa Cioffi, LeighAnne Colello, Mickey Connelly, Allison Daddazio, Jason Davin, John Delfino, Matthew DiFrisco, Alyssa DiGrandi, Sarah DiRenno, Caitlin Durney, Chelsea Dwyer, Matthew Espejo, Courtney Fairweather, Michael Fay, Rebecca Forsythe, Kelly Foster, Kim Galaraga, Lauren Gillette, Tricia Giordano, Catherine Gold, Josh Gomez, Thomas Greco, Eamonn Hanley, Kathryn Haughney, Katie Heinzinger, Paige Hoffmann, Robert Irbe, Jen Kane, Christine Katt, Danielle Kloster, Emily Kozlowski, Meghan Lepore, LeeAnn Lisella, Brittany Lloyd, Warren Lucas, Alyssa Mann, Marsha Mariani, Melissa Marrero, Catherine McDougal, Kelly Mertens, Sarah Minch, Jonathan Mullen, Stephen Murray, Christina Oros, John Oros, Anthony Pais, Erin Pettit, Sara Pettit, Matthew Picarillo, Ellen Ring, Anthony Ruperto, Christina Ruperto, Michelle Santora, Brian Schwenk, Stacey Schwenk, Teresa Smith, Kevin Spillane, Joseph Spinelli, Stephanie Suarez, Richard Suñé, Nicholas Vandenbergh, Mary Vasile, Nicki Visovsky, Kathryn Windas.

Fort Hill Players presents Steve Martin’s “The Underpants,” directed by Karina Ramsey, March 14, 15, 21, 22 at 8 p.m.
and March 15 at 2 p.m. Performances are at the Rochambeau School, 228 Fisher Ave., White Plains.

Tickets are  $15, $12 for seniors and students. Call 914-309-7278. For directions, go to www.FortHillPlayers.com

From the press release: “It’s naughty. It’s bawdy. It’s Steve Martin’s humor at his irreverent best. The sex, the lies, the lingerie!  It’s 1910. Louise Maske, a pretty, young, German housewife becomes an instant celebrity after her underpants accidentally fall down while she is watching a full dress parade of the king.  Half the town is crazed with lust. Soon, men are lining up to live with the lady and her boorish husband, hoping for another glimpse of those famous, feminine unmentionables. Upstairs neighbor, Gertrude, cleverly fuels the frenzy.  Don’t miss this cheery adaptation of Carl Sternheim’s ‘Die Hose.’�

The Harrison Players will hold auditions March 6 and 9 for “Sentimental Journey: A Musical Flashback to the 1940s,” to be directed by Michael Mele, with musical direction by Heather Edwards and choreography by Paula Lamont. The performances will be May 17 and 18.

Producers are looking for singers and dancers of all ages and ask that interested parties arrive at the Veteras Memorial Building (at 210 Halstead Ave. in Harrison) with one song (bring sheet music) and dancing shoes.

Tryouts will be March 6 from 8 to 10 p.m. and March 9 from 2 p.m. to 5 p.m.

Questions? Call Jen at 914-630-1089 or email harrisonplayers@yahoo.com.

On the heels of an inspired and huge production of Arthur Miller’s “The Crucible,” which transferred to Manhattan’s Arclight Theater, The Schoolhouse Theater in Croton Falls last weekend opened “Appointment with a High Wire Lady,” Russell Davis’ intimate three-person play about love, loss and memory.

The evening is quieter and smaller than its predecessor and, in the end, less satisfying.

“Appointment with a High Wire Lady” involves Richard (Colin Hafkey), a catatonic man in a state institution who is visited by his ex-girlfriend, Louise (Yvette Lenhart).

The third character is Carla, a mysterious old patient who helps Louise break through and reach Richard. Carla, the play’s most unusual and compelling character (played by a luminous Ruth Reid), gets the least stage time.

In keeping with Schoolhouse tradition, the acting is first-rate.

Hafkey, Lenhart and Reid demonstrate an impressive command for the subtlety of their characters. Director Ray Munro’s staging is effective, with some memorable stage pictures, including the final moment of Act 1 when all three actors share one small space.

Hafkey as Richard is a man in the middle of a fog, unable to move or feel, trying to recall his past life but reduced to single syllables. He begins both acts in a catatonic state, mouth agape, staring off. As the action progresses and the fog begins to lift, Hafkey welcomes each revelation with a gee-whiz wonder that is charming.

Lenhart’s Louise is caught in the middle, intimidated by unfamiliar surroundings, feeling guilty at the loss of the relationship, yet wanting to help Richard recover and move on, as she has. When, late in the action, she relates a turning point in her life, the tears flow.

As Carla, Reid captures a woman in the throes of dementia who often delivers the funniest or wisest lines. When she returns to note that Richard is not in his customary chair, she tells Louise: “You moved him.”

And Louise has. Richard makes great strides.

What keeps the evening from advancing beyond a nifty acting exercise, however, is Davis’ dialogue. Having breathed life into these characters and put them in this visiting room, Davis too often relies on stiff dialogue and fixates on words: Louise has a “particular” face, time is “particular,” someone’s feet are “particular”; Richard once was “exuberant,” Louise was “exuberant,” Carla was “exuberant” in Croatia.

If one of the patients were fixated on these words, it could play as a nice character point – like Dustin Hoffman’s obsession with “Who’s on First” in “Rain Man.” But Louise, the nonpatient, uses these words, too.

John Pollard’s set is appropriately institutional – an effective mix of tiles, steel and bars that serves as a blank canvas onto which these characters dab bits of memory, real or imagined.

David Pentz’s use of fluorescent lights gives a stark state-institution feel to the proceedings, but later, when key monologues demand dimmer lighting, the fluorescents don’t shut off in unison and leave us waiting for that last light to flicker off before we can focus on what’s important.

Kimberly Matela’s costumes fit the piece. Richard’s Act 1 pajamas give way to a dressier outfit in the second act, revealing at first sight that the character has changed. Actually, everyone is dressier in Act 2, even Carla, whose slippers get a facelift.

The show’s title comes from a line in Carla’s final monologue, a speech that seems tacked on somehow. After two hours, the end comes abruptly.

The acting and direction is fine, but the script is a letdown. If two out of three is good enough, get to The Schoolhouse. Otherwise, there’s another appointment you might consider: with “The Crucible” in Manhattan.

PHOTO courtesy of the Schoolhouse Theater: Richard (Colin Hafkey), a catatonic man in a state institution, is visited by his ex-girlfriend, Louise (Yvette Lenhart).

‘Appointment with a High Wire Lady’
Where: The Schoolhouse Theater, 3 Owens Road, Croton Falls.
When: Through March 9. Performances are at 8 p.m. Thursdays, Fridays and Saturdays and 4 p.m. Sundays.
Tickets: $25 on Thursdays and Fridays and $29 on Saturdays and Sundays.
Call: 914-277-8477.
Web: www.schoolhousetheater.org.
With: Colin Hafkey, Yvette Lenhart, Ruth Reid.
Next: The Schoolhouse holds a fundraising gala April 18, with Frank Ferrante’s “An Evening with Groucho” followed by the season’s final mainstage production: Neil Simon’s “Lost in Yonkers.”

 

Last year, playing John Adams in “1776,” Madeleine Pendergast helped to create the United States.
This year, her sights are set a bit higher: She plays Father in the School of the Holy Child’s production of “Children of Eden.”
Father. As in Creator of All.
“It’s scary,” she says with a smile. “God is God, obviously, and it’s hard to figure out how exactly to play him, her, it, whatever. It’s daunting.”
At the all-girl School of the Holy Child in Harrison, a girl was going to end up playing the ultimate authority figure. And who better than Pendergast?
She’s the only senior in the cast, a veteran of several productions, and she’s the president of the upper school student government, the equivalent of student-body president.
If the part fit Pendergast, director Jeremy Quinn says the musical fit the school.
“They wanted something that was worldly, contemporary with a worldly sound to it,” Quinn says. “The music in this score has lots of different styles from different cultures and that’s one of the things that this school focuses on.”
To help the audience make the leap and get beyond the fact that girls will be playing Father, Adam, Cain, Abel and Noah – in Stephen Schwartz’s story of creation and parenting – Quinn has his cast start the evening as an all-female theater company, gathering costumes and props and preparing to perform “Children of Eden.”
“Then there’s less difficulty believing that it’s girls playing boys and more of ‘Oh, it’s just an all-female theater company putting on the show,’” he says.
While she definitely has ideas of what God is like, Pendergast says she’s been following Schwartz’s script closely.
“He’s a much more Old Testament God in the script and I’m a more New Testament God believer,” she says.
“He’s very human in the play,” she says. “He makes mistakes and he learns, and, by the end, he’s become what we know as God. But he has to go through that growth period.”
Pendergast likes that much of the dialogue is repeated: “When I have a conversation with Adam, Adam will have that same conversation with Cain, and Noah will have that same conversation with Japheth.”
Freshman Kaitlin Ferrara, from Crestwood, is new to the school this year and brings an outsider’s perspective to the role of another newcomer: Eve.
“In the beginning, she’s young, so I can relate to her in many ways,” says Ferrara, confident and outgoing at 14.
“She’s funky, a little bit curious and a little sensitive, too,” Ferrara says. “The challenge for me is the second act, when she has Cain and Abel and she gets older and she’s a mother. A little harder to relate to that.”
For research, she spoke with her friend, Christina Bryde, who’s also in the show and who performed “Eden” in middle school.
“She told me all about it, and then I started Googling it and YouTubing all the songs – and I fell in love with it.”
Mamaroneck’s Eugenie Coleman plays Adam, a part she says requires that she forget some of what she’s learned.
“You have to disregard what you’ve been told about the Bible, because this is a new portrayal,” she says, adding: “You have to react to what God and Eve are doing and reflect on those characters.”
The first man is not particularly hard to play, the 16-year-old junior says.
“He’s just a father who wants what’s best for his family and kids,” Coleman says. “Once you think about that, it’s pretty easy from there.”
Raising a rebellious Cain on stage has given Coleman, a self-described “rebellious kid,” some food for thought.
“As Adam, I get offended when Cain runs away. I take it to heart,” she says. “I just have to think about how that affects my parents in real life when I do that.”
Then there’s the whole Adam-Eve thing.
“Being Eve’s lover is a little difficult because I have to wake up and kiss her on the cheek and be her husband, which is definitely nothing I’ve ever done before.”
Coleman has a favorite moment in the show.
“Father sings about us when we sleep, singing about the glories of fatherhood,” she says. “I really think my dad will like that scene because he’s really close to me.”

PHOTO by Tania Savayan/The Journal News: Kaitlin Ferrara, left, as Eve and Madeleine Pendergast as The Father rehearse for “Children of Eden” at School of the Holy Child in Harrison.

“Children of Eden”
Where: School of the Holy Child, 2225 Westchester Ave. in Harrison.
When: 7:30 p.m. Friday and Saturday.
Tickets: $10, $5 for students.
Call: 914-967-5622, Ext. 405.
With: Leslie Barnard, Meghan Barry, Tracy Brätt, Lauren Brown, Christina Bryde, Eugenie Coleman, Erica Cuscina, Jean Marie Downey, Kaitlin Ferrara, Sophia Golec, Noelle Grieco, Kristen Hudson, Julia Loughlin, Kimberly McIntyre, Emily Pascual, Mackenzie Pendergast, Madeleine Pendergast, Mallory Pendleton, Caroline Pinkowish, Meredith Piro, Catherine Rinaldo, Liz Schanne, Ali Skamangas, Rebecca Mulqueen, Elizabeth Dragomir, Kristen Brauer, Annie Trotta, Jacqueline Noack, April Ruiz, Rachel Power.

Got an update on the awards-formerly-known-as-the-Helens from Danielle Rudess.

She’s hired an assistant to oversee the judging and will adopt a numerical tallying system similar to the one they use at the Paper Mill Playhouse — with an online evaluation form.

This is the note Rudess sent to her contacts. She asked me to post it here, which I’m glad to do.

If your school hasn’t received an application for this year, Rudess wants you to contact her, via email at thehelens@aol.com or at 845-826-2049.

Here’s that judging note:
“Hi Friends,
I am sending this group email out to those of you who might be interested in acting as judges for this year’s HS Theater Awards. We will pay you $75 for each show that you attend and evaluate. You need to attend a minimum of 3 local high school productions. You will need to fill out an extensive online evaluation form after you see the show. The shows begin on the weekend of Feb. 22 and run through the end of April. You can choose which dates work for you. The shows take place in Westchester, Rockland and Bergen counties. We do not pay for transportation. You can usually bring a guest with you. Most of these productions are quite good. My daughters love to attend with me.
IF A MEMBER OF YOUR IMMEDIATE FAMILY IS IN THE CAST OF ONE OF THE PARTICIPATING SCHOOLS, YOU ARE NOT ELIGIBLE TO JUDGE. IF YOU ARE WORKING ON THE PRODUCTION TEAM OF ANY OF THESE PRODUCTIONS, YOU ARE ALSO NOT ELIGIBLE.
If you are interested in acting as a judge,please contact our judging coordinator, Mary Resanovich. Her email address is: mres1022@optonline.net
She will get you all set up.
Since one of my daughters is performing in one of the participating high school’s shows, I have removed myself 100% from the judging process. So, please do not even tell me if you will be judging this year.
Thanks so much for your support for this wonderful program which means so much to the talented theater geeks in our local schools.

I used to judge high-school forensics tournaments. It’s really a blast.

PHOTO: By Tom Nycz of The Journal News

I’ve been all over the place the last couple of weeks, dropping in on rehearsals of Harrison’s “Miss Saigon,” Rye Country Day’s “The Pajama Game,” School of the Holy Child’s “Children of Eden,” Kennedy Catholic’s “Footloose,” Rye’s “Li’l Abner,” Bronxville’s “Into the Woods,” Byram Hills’ “Les Miserables,” North Rockland’s “Wizard of Oz,” and Pleasantville’s “Fiddler on the Roof.”

Some shows are further along than others, but the work is getting done.

The rehearsal process continues.

Lines are being learned.

Sets are being built and everyone seems to be committed to making their shows the best they can be.

I’m heading to Irvington tonight to see what I understand is an amazing staircase they’ve built for the Harmonia Gardens scene in “Hello Dolly!” We’ll also film more “Building Character” segments there.

I think you’ll like what we’ve been doing with these: talking with actors and actresses about how they turn words on a page into living, breathing characters. They’re pretty thoughtful people. I’ve been enjoying meeting them. I think you will, too.

Our Web guru says we might be rolling out a new LOCAL THEATER page—with the archive of Building Character videos—in the next week or two, so bookmark that: www.lohud.com/localtheater.

Here’s a photographic sampling of where we’ve been, thanks to photographers Tania Savayan, Dave Kennedy and Carucha L. Meuse.

PHOTOS
Top: Pleasantville High School students, from left, Liane Tomasetti, Jennifer Grom, Jenna Margiasso, Elizabeth King and Stephanie Corvino who play Tevye’s daughters in “Fiddler on the Roof” rehearse Feb. 13, 2008 in Pleasantville. (Tania Savayan / The Journal News)

Next: Byram Hills High School students Jonelle Jentilucci as “Fantine” and Ronnie Crecco as “Valjean” rehearse a scene from “Les Miserables” Feb. 13, 2008 in Armonk. (Tania Savayan / The Journal News)

Next: The cast of “Li’l Abner” works on a musical number at a rehearsal for the upcoming production of Li’l Abner at Rye High School Feb. 12, 2008. ( Dave Kennedy / The Journal News )

Next: Harrison High School student Devon Krobetzky, 15, who plays John in “Miss Saigon,” is flanked by Eva Mangone and Jen Parravani during rehearsal for the production Feb. 1, 2008 in Harrison. (Tania Savayan / The Journal News)

Bottom: Kennedy Catholic High School students rehearse scenes from “Footloose the Musical” in Somers Feb. 8, 2008.( Carucha L. Meuse / The Journal News )

Here’s this week’s “In the Wings” video segment. Enjoy.

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