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| Hugh Panaro as The Phantom with Samantha Hill as Christine Daae. |
NEW YORK CITY-- In 2003,
The school's cramped gym could no longer contain the mass of electronic equipment, booming talent pool and expanding audiences required of an ambitious musical, so artistic director George Budoloski relocated to the 1,600-seat Burton Cummings Theatre. The idea was to give his triple threats, teens who could sing, dance and act, an experience they would not ever forget -- the opportunity to perform one of the great theatre works on a historic stage where the likes of Charlie Chaplin, Harry Houdini, Bob Hope and Winston Churchill had stood.
Fast forward almost a decade and a couple of those student performers are sitting in a stylish meeting room in the office of Cameron Macintosh, the man behind the international stage hits Les Miserables, Cats, The Phantom of the Opera, Miss Saigon and Mary Poppins.
Samantha Hill and Josh Assor remember Grant Park's Les Miz as the starting point for careers that have landed them both on Broadway. Hill, 25, is the Christine Daaé alternate in The Phantom of the Opera, while Assor, 24, plays the featured dance role Neleus in Mary Poppins.
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| Josh Assor. |
"We were working on the assumption that if we gave them everything we can to make them great, they will rise to that," says Budoloski in a recent interview. "We wanted them to know what it's like -- whether they went off to be lawyers -- to be in as professional a show as we could create."
After Les Miz, Hill and Assor took radically different routes to the
"I got angry, saying, 'Dad, people just don't go to Broadway,' and told him I'm not going to be on Broadway," says the fresh-faced soprano from
The Hill family will join her for Christmas in
Assor, who grew up in Garden City and Tuxedo, was a world champion tap dancer and was the only Canadian to win a scholarship to train in
"Broadway was never really part of the plan," says the diminutive, dark-haired Assor, who originally thought of a future in architecture. "It was too far-fetched."
While on the road as far south as
"Opening night was a crazy blur," says Assor. "It was the most surreal moment ever, but it wasn't as scary as I thought it would be. Getting the big tour in the
Hill made her Broadway debut Nov. 12 as the innocent chorus girl who becomes the obsession of a mysterious disfigured musical genius in The Phantom of the Opera at the Majestic Theatre.
"I was prepared but every time I stumbled, I was thinking, 'This is Broadway, people don't make mistakes,'" says Hill, who last season appeared in August: Osage Country (Royal Manitoba Theatre Centre), Annie (Rainbow Stage) and Spring Awakening (Winnipeg Studio Theatre). "I'm told that's definitely not true. It was crazy, but the bow was one of the biggest thrills I'll ever get."
Hill regularly performs twice a week but has performed as many as five days in a row when needed. She is contracted through February in Broadway's longest-running show but her stay could be extended now that she has recently received the endorsement of Phantom's original director Harold Prince, a towering figure in American theatre and winner of 21 Tony Awards. Earlier this month he came to see Hill perform.
"Hal Prince came at intermission to tell us all we had done a great show," says Hill, a graduate of the universities of
Assor is on an open-ended contract that sees him performing eight shows a week as a statue that comes to life with a major dance routine. He needs 20 minutes in the makeup chair to get his body painted silver and his face painted with tiny cracks. The physical demands are a continuing challenge.
"It requires constant maintenance for your body," says Assor. "You have to be on top of it; you never can be lazy. You have to stay in shape because you never know when you will be out of a job and have to start auditions again."
The pair is ever grateful for the training they received from Budoloski, his wife Robin Dow, Kimberley Rampersad and others. They set the standards that students like Assor and Hill have built their careers upon.
"We had dance in the morning, singing after school," says Hill. "I worked harder in high school. It set me up for the hard work that's required in my career."
Assor dedicates a lot of his success to the teaching of Rampersad, a dance instructor who also often performs at Rainbow Stage and RMTC.
"That they are on Broadway at the same time is the fun thing, but I'm not surprised," says a proud Rampersad. "We are a city of 700,000 and I could name half a dozen people off the top of my head who are on Broadway."
Besides Hill and Assor, Jeremy Kushnier, one of
What Assor and Hill have learned is that Broadway is just another stage, not all that different from the ones back home.
"I've tried to bring a Broadway performance to every show I've done," says Hill. "It's not like I've got to Broadway and now I'm going to work so much harder.
"I've worked with some amazing people in
Republished from the Winnipeg Free Press print edition December 20, 2012 C1
