Porchlight Music Theatre NEW FACES SING BROADWAY 1987

Appropriately wide-eyed and full of wonder—as Sondheim’s lyrics in Moments in the Woods from 1987’s biggest Broadway hit Into the Woods requires—Isabella Andrews emerges from a sea of red velvet chairs in Chicago’s historic Studebaker Theater. In another time and place, this budding musical theater star would have made her entrée between tree props. You too though, might find yourself newly appreciating the similarity that had eluded our notice before.Orchestra seating is like a forest thicket. Let’s pretend, says this moment—as did the 16 songs before, and the finale Music of the Night from Phantom of the Opera that followed.

Christopher Pazdernik (the director of New Faces Sing Broadway 1987) presses nearly every nook and corner of the Studebaker Theatre into service for this showcase of the ten fresh faces of musical theater starring in this production. From powder room, to back staircases, balcony, box seats, and then — almost as an afterthought—the actual stage, the camera makes the Studebaker a fellow rising star. That sense of the Studebaker’s star power comes across all the more when Porchlight Music Theater Artistic Director Michael Weber narrates a performance interlude photo documentary about this historic building, and the history that has been made in it.

A History-In-The-Making Porchlight Music Theatre Event

Maybe it’s because we are in such a history-rich cultural setting—or maybe because many of us have been trained to think in America’s Got Talent terms—that you too may find the back of your mind in a guessing game as to which of these new shoots on the ever budding musical theater talent pool we’ll someday say – “..we saw them way back when and before….”

Before they sing and take on the persona of the character they are playing, we are treated to meeting their real-world persons, learn their preferred pronouns and some fun facts about them—such as Kelan M. Smith being able to play ten instruments, to Devon Hayakawa’s report that she tends to sneeze when she is full.

Larry Adams as the emcee helps along this sense of cultural history-in-the-making. We learn he was a one-time new face singing Broadway who went on to star in Broadway’s Phantom of the Opera, among many miles of other credits on Broadway, Off-Broadway, in touring productions, and many Chicago musical theater hits. It’s his job to present the Broadway history of the title year, 1987 and all the GEE WHIZ facts and factoids this writer, as others, expects—and gets—from a Porchlight Music Theater deep dive into Broadway history.