Tribune/Cortney Maddock - Actors, singers and dancers with the Sierra School of Performing Arts rehearse a scene from the musical "Hairspray," which is one of five musicals being performed as part of the organization's third annual performance of "Broadway Bits."
Tribune/Cortney Maddock - Tracy from "Hairspray," played by Stacy Johnson, sings “Good Morning Baltimore.”
The performance combines some of New York’s most popular musicals with some of Nevada’s most talented actors, singers and dancers. This year’s “Broadway Bits” will include material from “Hairspray,” “Legally Blonde the Musical,” “Guys and Dolls,” “Seussical the Musical” and “A Year With Frog and Toad.”
As the actors and singers danced around the stage at Sunday’s rehearsal, the notes and numbers seemed to flow naturally. Each and every cast member made their part look easy, like anyone could do it — and that’s the point, according to SSPA artistic director Janet Lazarus.
“Our goal is to offer the greatest amount of opportunities to the student and the community,” Lazarus said in between acts. “SSPA is a training ground that offers more opportunities than most schools.”
Giving those opportunities to act, sing and dance is important to Lazarus, who started working on “Broadway Bits” in July. She said it took her about three months to find the musicals she wanted to have performed, pick the best songs from each and begin to write and edit the performance with the help of musical director Bill Quinby.
“It was more work than I had estimated,” Quinby admitted. “What I did was (take) all the music and scored it.”
Quinby, who has more than 30 years' experience as a musical director and has worked with the Brüka Theater, the Lake Tahoe Players and helped at SSPA camps for almost two years, said he scored 33 songs for “Broadway Bits,” which is almost twice the work of a Broadway musical.
All the music will be performed live by a house band to accompany the production’s singers.
To explain why someone would take on so much work, Quinby said the answer is simple: It’s all about opportunities, or, in the case of “Broadway Bits,” providing about 60 opportunities.
“‘Broadway Bits’ works like this, to give the students a primary part, so they all have speaking lines and parts,” Quinby said. “(Lazarus) had to narrow the parts down to two minutes and that gives everyone some time to shine.”
“Broadway Bits” incorporates about 60 people from different performance backgrounds and experience levels between the ages of 8 to older than 50.
Choreographer Padma Rothchild worked with the younger SSPA performers for “A Year With Frog and Toad” and a wide range of performers for “Hairspray.” Choreographer Adam Whitney put together numbers for “Legally Blonde the Musical,” “Guys and Dolls” and “Seussical the Musical.”
“(Lazarus) did a good job of choosing shows to utilize everyone in the cast,” Rothchild said. “I actually choreograph for studios, but I really love choreographing for theater. You can bring comedy into it and the dancers have acting experience.”
Rothchild said working for a theater production allows her to have fun and play with different styles of dance.
“That’s something I’ve had a blast with,” Rothchild said. “It’s a fun show and I’ve enjoyed just having free reign with it.”
For production manager Troy Reinhardt, making sure this weekend’s performances came together was a bit of a challenge, she said, but well worth any stress there might have been.
“Being a mom, too, it’s like starting at conception and planning for birth,” Reinhardt said. “I’ve seen it happen and I know it’s going to be great. There is a lot of anticipation.
“You’re just amazed at what (SSPA) can put together,” Reinhardt added. “SSPA has built a reputation for how it puts on a quality production.”
Lazarus, who has overseen every edit and dance move, been to every rehearsal and heard every note sung, is excited to see the community’s reaction to “Broadway Bits.”
“We have some of the best talent in the entire area,” Lazarus said. “In addition to newbies there are veterans. I want the community to understand that they aren’t getting an amateur production.
“It’s just a fabulous show with fabulous music, fabulous actors and fabulous singers,” Lazarus added. “The voices on this stage will blow people away.”
“Broadway Bits” will be performed Friday at 7:30 p.m., Saturday at 2 p.m. and 7:30 p.m. and Sunday at 2 p.m. Tickets are $16 for adults and $12 for students/seniors if purchased in advance or $20 for adults and $15 for students/seniors at the door.
Performances are held in the Proscenium Theatre in the Church Fine Arts Building on the UNR campus.
For more information and to purchase tickets, visit sierraschoolofperformingarts.org.
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