Some top local talent will join Broadway veterans on Saturday when the Disabled Persons Action Organization presents "Best of Broadway."
Adams native and acclaimed soprano Lisa Vroman will make her first visit to Watertown since performing in a similar DPAO presentation four years ago. She will share the bill with baritone William Michals who, like Ms. Vroman, has appeared on Broadway and as a soloist around the U.S.
Joining them will be the father-daughter team of Watertown residents Kevin T. Mastellon and Ticia K. Marra.
Ms. Vroman, a 1975 graduate of South Jefferson Central School in Adams and a 1979 graduate of Crane School of Music at SUNY Potsdam, recently ended a four-day "Broadway Showstoppers" engagement in Philadelphia with the Philly Pops. The Pasadena, Calif., resident then returned to California to perform in a one-day Walt Disney Celebration.
On Nov. 14, she will debut at the Michigan Opera Theater as Charlotte in "A Little Night Music."
Ms. Vroman, who is just as comfortable singing Stravinsky as she is singing Broadway, made her Broadway debut with "Aspects of Love," and she is the first to have played both Fantine and Cosette in "Les Misérables." She starred for several years on Broadway as Christine Daaé in "The Phantom of the Opera," garnering Theatre Critics' awards for the role in a record-breaking run in San Francisco. She also starred as Rosabella in "The Most Happy Fella," making her New York City Opera debut.
Last year, her engagements ranged from a Carnegie Hall debut with the New York Pops to a starring role as Lili Vanessi in "Kiss Me Kate" with Glimmerglass Opera in Cooperstown.
It's obvious Ms. Vroman has no trouble finding work.
"I enjoy keeping going," she said earlier this month from Philadelphia's Rittenhouse Square during a day off from her performances. "On my days off, I'm working, learning music for the next show."
But the singer managed to squeeze in some free time in August when she married jazz musician Patrick O'Neil at a friend's home in Adams.
"It was nothing fancy," Ms. Vroman said. "We just wanted simple. I do big productions for a living. The last thing I wanted was a big show for a wedding."
The couple met in 2004 on the Queen Mary II, where Ms. Vroman was on board with friends from the San Francisco Opera.
Being married hasn't slowed down her schedule, but she admitted, "I'm looking forward to that at some point. I'm going to eventually give myself a time frame. I'm working toward all these things. I'd like to teach, eventually."
Ms. Vroman said it's discouraging to see school music budgets cut.
"I see so many music budgets cut without it being considered first," she said. "I was a school athlete also. But some kids don't have a choice now. To cut an arts budget is a crime. I've witnessed over and over with troubled teens — music is what saved them."
Ms. Vroman paused a few times in her conversation to greet passing dogs being walked on the square. Animal welfare is also something she'd like to get more involved in. She's done benefit shows for the cause and said she is in the beginning stages of developing a show with an animal welfare theme.
But for now, she has a full plate of concerts in the U.S. and, next year, in Europe.
"It's wonderful to travel and to make music," she said. "I might as well do that now, while I'm still enjoying it.'
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Mr. Michals made his Broadway debut as the Beast in Disney's "Beauty and the Beast." He is appearing in the revival of Rodgers and Hammerstein's "South Pacific" at New York's Lincoln Center. He's had non-Broadway roles such as Javert in "Les Misérables," Billy Flynn in "Chicago," and Don Quixote in "Man of La Mancha."
New York City Mayor Rudolph Giuliani called upon Mr. Michals to open the Dec. 11, 2001, memorial service at ground zero with a solo, a cappella rendition of "Let There Be Peace On Earth."
Mr. Michals performed a similar DPAO Broadway show in Watertown six years ago, when he joined another north country resident who found Broadway fame: 1979 Watertown High School graduate Ted Keegan.
