Where are they now?

Former students of the Music Theatre Program are everywhere theatre is being performed, from Sheila Jones playing Nala in the Festival of the Lion King at Hong Kong Disneyland, back home to Tallahassee, where Leslie Flesner and Lynn McNutt joined Davis Gaines for a Benefit Concert of Carousel on the Fallon stage.

On Broadway this year the biggest news was Montego Glover’s Tony nomination for Best Actress in a Musical for her role in Memphis, in which she continues to perform for a second year. She also won the Drama Desk Award for Best Actress in a Musical, as well as the Outer Circle Critics Award. Memphis won four Tony Awards, including the one for Best Musical, and was filmed and shown in HD at movie houses in April. Fellow alum Kevin Covert was also in the show and the film. He, however, has now left the show and moved to How to Succeed in Business Without Really Trying. Julio Agustin performed the featured role of Ambite in Women on the Verge of a Nervous Breakdown and was presented the Gypsy Robe! Kristina Fernandez moved from the national tour of In the Heights to the Broadway cast. Jessica Patty just ended a year and a half with The Addams Family, where she played an ancestor and understudied Bebe Neuwirth as Morticia Addams as well as the role of Wednesday Addams. She has now moved on to The People in the Picture, understudying one of the leading roles. Heather Parcells has recently opened in the new musical Wonderland, where she is understudying the roles of the Mad Hatter and the Queen of Hearts. Jay Jaski is currently in rehearsals for the role of Lorenzo in Death Takes a Holiday, which will start previews on June 10.

Off-Broadway, Danielle Grabianowski is in Sleep No More with London’s Punchdrunk Theater Company. She also did her own solo cabaret show, The Girl with the Long Last Name. Elizabeth Burton and Johnny Machesko were both in the Off-Broadway show Angelina Ballerina, produced by the Vital Theatre Company. Jason Rowland was in the Off-Broadway musical An Evening at the Carlyle. Joey Haro and Mykal Kilgore were in the Off-Broadway production of Freckleface Strawberry. Chris Gleim was the evil Alec in Tess, A New Rock Opera based on Tess of the d’Urbervilles at the New York Music Theatre Festival, as well doing a ten-minute musical called Before the Flood. He also finished his fifth season doing the Radio City Christmas Spectacular at Radio City Music Hall. Elizabeth Stacey performed in the Drama League Benefit honoring Patti Lupone as well as a benefit honoring Larry Fuller.

Alumni you might have seen on national tours this year include Michael Fatica as Le Fou in Beauty and the Beast. Sarah Claire Smith was on the same tour, and Logan Denninghoff has recently joined the tour as Gaston. Mike Evariste is in Hair, as a part of the tribe and understudying the role of Hud, a role he played here at FSU. Tiffany Howard is in Mary Poppins. Holly Butler and Morgan Rose are both on the Shrek tour. Jennifer Swiderski is on the Mamma Mia! tour, swinging both Tanya and Rosie. Hardy Weaver is Al on the tour of A Chorus Line. DeWitt Cooper just finished the tour of In the Heights. Curtis Schroeger was on the South Pacific tour.

Regionally, after leaving the tour of Beauty and the Beast, Michael Fatica is playing Harry the Horse in Guys and Dolls in Northport, New York,at the John W. Engeman Theatre. Nikka Wahl is still enjoying performing in the Las Vegas company of Jersey Boys, while Greg Mills recently joined the Las Vegas cast of The Phantom of the Opera. Leslie Flesner was Val in AChorus Line this past fall and is currently in rehearsals at the Kennedy Center for Follies. Also in the production of Follies as Young Buddy is Christian Delcroix. Justin Bowen just finished playing Hero in A Funny Thing Happened on the Way to the Forum at Papermill Playhouse. Before moving back to Broadway, Heather Parcells did a new musical, My Own Song, at Flat Rock Playhouse and Boeing Boeing at Cape Playhouse. Austin Owen was also at Flat Rock Playhouse this year, reprising the role of Leo Bloom from the national tour of The Producers and then later playing Robert in The Drowsy Chaperone. Julia Harkey played Amber in Hairspray at Beef & Boards in Indianapolis, Indiana. At Arizona Broadway Theatre, Shayla Benoit was in Phantom and Footloose and then was off to Wisconsin to the Armory Theatre for It’s Beginning to Look a Lot Like Christmas and most recently A Chorus Line. Becky Watson performed in a new musical called And the Curtain Rises at the Signature Theatre in D.C. Donna Rastorfer will be performing the role of Vera in Smoke on the Mountains in Branson, Missouri, for her third season. Jamie Katz worked at the Alliance Theatre doing Twist–An American Musical, directed by Debbie Allen, in which she understudied and performed the role of Angela. Summer Broyhill performed at Tuacahn as Jane in the post-Broadway regional premiere of Tarzan, as well as Demeter in Cats and Irene in Crazy for You, and has just returned from playing Cathy in The Last Five Years at Virginia Stage Company. In between she shot an independent film called The Splinter Head. Mark Stephens was in the Los Angeles premiere of a traditional London Panto of Cinderella, as one of the ugly Stepsisters. He also was Kodaly in SheLoves Me at Civic Light Opera of South Bay Cities. In Minneapolis, Beth Dwyer Mulkerron performed at the Milwaukee Rep, developing a new show called Hula Hoop Shaboop. She was in H.M.S. Pinafore at The Skylight and most recently was involved in a workshop reading of a new version of Big: The Musical. She has also made two recordings for Hal Leonard Corporation called All About Singing and Vocal Essentials for the Pop Singer. Curtis Schroeger has had a very busy year, doing Hairspray at Cape Playhouse in July and August, reprising playing a Pearlie for the reopened North Shore Music Theater's twentieth production of Christmas Carol in December, before joining the Lincoln Center Tour of South Pacific. Jess Hartman was the dance captain and swing for Arena Stage’s Oklahoma, which was nominated for 10 Helen Hayes Awards, and she will be returning to the show this summer. Annie Petersmeyer was also in Arena Stage’s production of Oklahoma! as Virginia and as the Ado Annie cover, which she got to perform. She was also in the Northern Stages production of Evita, was a back-up dancer for Alexis Foxe at the Medilla Light Festival in Puerto Rico, as well as a dancer in Times Square’s Broadway on Broadway Concert. Tyler Fish worked at Theatre by the Sea as Barnaby in Hello Dolly! Krystina Almaguer will be at Disney in Orlando for another year doing Disney Junior Live on Stage. Ryan Lingle did Mame in Coral Springs and is currently doing 42^nd Street at the Show Palace. Larry Alexander (Solowitz) played Billy in No, No Nanette, most recently the Narrator in Blood Brothers with Andrea McArdle, and will be playing Bobby in Company this summer in Naples, Florida. Denise Ashlynd was seen recently on The Comedy Awards on Comedy Central. Vince Kelly played the Bing Crosby role in WhiteChristmas for a sold out run. And even though Christine Long has moved to Belgium for the next two years, she will be coming back this summer to film the next season of WHADDYADO? – the nationally syndicated show that she has been hosting for the last five years. Lastly, and not exactly regionally, Lainie Munro was a Guest Entertainer singer on a cruise ship in Europe and the British Isles.

You may also be hearing the voices of our graduates, even if you don’t make it to the theatre! In addition to her Broadway work on Memphis, Montego Glover continues to do commercial voiceover work, plus this year she was the voice of Giraffe for Go, Diego, Go and the voice of Dance Trainer for Dora the Explorer – or you even might have heard her sing the national anthem for a New York Jets game! Nate Clark continues to do improv work but has also been doing lots of voiceover work for everything from Dell Computers to The Caddyshack 30th Anniversary DVD to weekly promos for KCRW, the LA Public Radio Station. And you can both see and hear Jason Rowland in any number of commercials!

And coming soon – Jessica Hartman is the associate choreographer for Lysistrata Jones, which will open Off-Broadway this summer. Mike Evariste will be returning to Broadway this summer in HAIR. Viveka Chandrasekaran is playing the role of Kate in Madame Butterfly with the Atlanta Symphony in June. Lynn McNutt is playing Mrs. Pearce in a production of My Fair Lady at Connecticut Rep with Terence Mann as Henry Higgins this summer. Austin Owen has been cast as the understudy for Huey in the first national tour of Memphis, which will go out this fall. Jessica Patty has been cast as the understudy for Eva in the Broadway Revival of Evita coming this February.

As for our newest graduates, Andrés Acosta will be spending the summer at the Lyric Theatre of Oklahoma, Jennifer Bell will be at Texas Family Musicals, Rachel Boone will be an apprentice at Maine State before leaving on the CATS tour in the fall, and Harris Milgrim will performing at the MUNY this summer.  

So be sure and watch and listen carefully, wherever you are. Chances are there is an FSU Music Theatre alum performing for you.