It is difficult to imagine playing eight characters in a show, all requiring different costumes and wigs, but Heather Diaforli-Day, a music teacher at Community Middle School, is doing just that in “Jolson & Company” at Off-Broadstreet Theater in Hopewell. ##M:[more]##
She plays roles including Al Jolson’s mother, Mae West, Ruby Keeler, Josephine Dunn, and two of his wives. She sings duets with Bob Thick, the artistic director at the theater who is also portraying Jolson, when she portrays Mae West and Ruby Keeler.
Born in Princeton, Diaforli Day was raised in Kingston and attended Franklin Township Schools. It was in high school that she discovered musical theater and played the witch in “Into the Woods.” Later that year she played the part of the baker’s wife in the same show in college. “Sondheim music is difficult but I love it,” she says. “Into the Woods is my favorite show.” Although she did not see the original Broadway production, she does own the DVD and saw the show’s Broadway revival several years ago.
While at the College of New Jersey she also performed in “Three Penny Opera,” “City of Angels,” and “Brigadoon.” She graduated with a degree in music education. She has a master’s degree in musical theater from Boston Conservatory. Her dancing skills, learned while studying for her graduate degree, pay off when she tap dances as Ruby Keeler in this show.
She married Paul Day, a health and physical education teacher and football coach in Franklin Township, in July, 2005. The couple met while in high school. This is Diaforli-Day’s second year teaching music at Community Middle School. She also leads the seventh and eighth grade choirs and teaches first grade music at Maurice Hawk School.
Now in her seventh show at Off Broad-Street Theater, she has also been featured in “The Spitfire Grill” and “The It Girl.” “It is fun learning all about Al Jolson, his life, and what a wonderful entertainer he was,” she says. “It is interesting to see the connection with different people in his life.”
— Lynn Miller
Jolson & Company, Off-Broadstreet Theater, 5 South Greenwood Avenue, Hopewell, 609-466-2766. www.off-broadstreet.com. Musical captures Al Jolson, vaudeville, Broadway, and films of the times. $25.50 to $27.25. Friday, January 5, to Sunday, February 17.
