"West Side Story" Showcases Great Young Talent

Posted by Bruce Miller
My daughter and I went to see SPARC’s production of West Side Story this evening, and were once again blown away by the young talent. Standouts in the large cast include:

Jeanna Daniels who plays Maria, making her SPARC debut. Jeanna is a college student at AMDA (American Musical and Dramatic Academy) in NYC. She sings like an angel, with one of the clearest and most effortless sopranos I’ve heard in a long time. She's perfect for this role.

Chris Adams who plays Tony, returning to SPARC after playing the title role in Pippin and Munkustrap in Cats. Chris attends college at VCU and J. Sargeant Reynolds, and I continue to be completely impressed by his beautiful voice and charm.

Gianna Barone who plays Anita, returning to SPARC after appearing as Ronette in last summer’s Little Shop of Horrors. Gianna is also a student at VCU, and has the powerhouse voice and great dancing abilities to prove it.

Kate Belleman, playing Margarita, whose face and dancing light up the America number. Kate is a student at UNC-Greensboro and returns to SPARC after 2005’s Pippin (and many previous productions as well).

Christian Griggs-Drane who plays Baby John, making his first appearance with SPARC. Christian, a junior at Appomattox Regional Governor’s School, has Baby John’s wide-eyed innocence down just right.

Anna Maples who plays Anybody’s and sings the Somewhere solo. Seriously. Until I read the playbill to write this post, I had NO IDEA that the spunky, fun actress playing Anybody’s was the same magnificent singer who raised the roof with Somewhere. Anna is a junior vocal performance major at VCU, and definitely a talent I need to know.

Calvin McCullough who plays Bernardo in his SPARC debut. Calvin is in the theatre program at VCU, where he appeared in Smokey Joe’s Café and Volume of Smoke. He’s also an alum of Sycamore Rouge in Petersburg.

Robert McKenna who plays Action and is making his SPARC debut. Robert is a musical star at Benedictine High School, with a bright future ahead of him. He’s a believable tough guy who can sing and dance, and they’re hard to find. Trust me. Really hard to find.

Andrew Schappacher who plays Riff and is an outstanding alum of Barksdale’s summer musicals at Steward School. It’s hard to believe that Andrew is only a sophomore at Clover Hill High School. He’s such a talented dancer, constantly improving singer, and committed actor. You can't take your eyes off him. I’ll go see Andrew in anything and consider myself blessed.

Michael Willoughby who plays A-rab and is making his SPARC debut. Like Andrew, Michael has a lot more maturity than one would expect from a high school sophomore. He attends Powhatan H. S., and like Robert McKenna, he’s nailing the talented tough guy thing.

Grace Adams, Jason Campbell, T J Ellis, Michael Hawke, Michael Hoke, Amanda O’Toole, Zack Rogers, Andrea Ross, Liz van’t Riet and Chris Withers are all honored members of the Barksdale and Theatre IV families, and they all do us proud in West Side Story.

The show closes tomorrow, so if you haven’t seen it, please do. West Side is one of the greatest American musicals of all time, and the talented young actors in the SPARC production deserve all our support.

--Bruce Miller

"High School Musical" Megamix

I know I’m beginning to wear out my welcome, if there ever was a welcome, with these endless blog entries about Disney’s High School Musical. It’s a big show, and it’s important to me to give every kid his or her due. So, with respect and appreciation, I’m going to zip through the final ten actors who make our “megamix” of a cast so mix-worthy.

T J Otey is a rising junior at New Kent H S—quite a few of these kids have been dealing with a loooooong commute to be a part of this show. T J is the one who gives a quiet and slightly tone deaf audition in the audition scene, prompting Ms. Darvus to admire his tennis shoes and suggest that he help out with costumes.

Amanda O’Toole is a rising junior at Atlee H S, and she studies dance at Shuffles Dance Studio. She appeared in Pippin with SPARC, and is rallying pep as one of our cheerleaders.

Johanna Reckenbeil is in the a cappella and show choir at Godwin, and she studies dance at Richmond Dance Center, but this is her first theatrical production. She plays one of our “brainiacs,” and adds persuasive hand motions to that section of Counting on You when they sing about Rosa Parks.

Kristin Ricca is back for a second summer, having played Cha Cha last summer in Grease. There’s a really great photo of Kristin dancing with Robert Watkins, last summer’s charming Danny Zuko, about six blog posts back. Kristin is a rising junior at Deep Run H S, and a proud alum of Christian Youth Theatre and the Latin Ballet of Virginia.

Zack Rogers is also a returnee from Grease, and a rising junior at Thomas Dale H S. He has two stand-out moments in the show. He gives an ear wrenching vocal performance in the audition scene, and he finds surprising depth in the movements of a worm.

Andrea Ross is our third Grease alum in a row. She is a rising sophomore at Henrico H S’s Center for the Arts. In the audition scene, she belts out the song like a soulful American Idol contestant.
Hali E. Russell just graduated from Varina H S, and is pleased to be in her first musical. She appears as the “brainiac” who loves hip-hop.

Ariel Spagnolo is a rising junior at Deep Run H S, where she recently played Audrey in Little Shop of Horrors. She’s one of our beautiful cheerleaders, and lends her acrobatic skills to several musical numbers.

Suzanne Spicer was the one that we wanted last summer, playing Sandy in Grease. She just graduated from Godwin H S, and credits much of her theatrical success to her twelve years as a student at HATTheatre.

Molly Underwood will soon be a senior in the Math and Science High School at Clover Hill. So of course she’s playing a skater babe in DHSM.

As Porky Pig would say at the end of a Looney Toons cartoon, “Th – th – th - that’s all folks!” Since I’m feeling pretty loony myself right about now, I’ll leave it at that. All of us at Barksdale and Steward are proud of everyone associated with Disney’s High School Musical. I hope you’ll make it a point to stop by in the next two weeks and take in their show.

--Bruce Miller