Although New York City is less than 90 minutes away, Broadway stage veterans are coming to West Windsor on Saturday, January 11, at 8 p.m., for an evening of songs and stories that theater lovers and their friends will not want to miss. The night will be hosted by West Windsor residents Lori Chase, of “Last Comic Standing” and Broadway’s “The Full Monty;” and Marilyn Mangone Stoddard, director of High School South’s theater program and an actor in community theater. The performance will benefit the theater arts programs at South. “Theater programs are so important in high school. Teens are so proud to be cast,” says Chase.
“We are honored to have such incredible talent take the stage here at South,” says Stoddard. Performers scheduled to perform include Will Chase, former husband of Lori and father of their daughters, Daisy Elaine and Gracie Evelyn. Chase has been seen on the Broadway stage in “Miss Saigon,” “Rent,” “Aida,” “The Full Monty,” “Lennon,” “High Fidelity,” and more. He is also known for his television roles as Michael Swift on NBC’s “Smash” and as Luke Wheeler on ABC’s “Nashville.”
Performers also include Norbert Leo Butz, who has received Tony Awards for his roles in “Catch Me If You Can” and “Dirty Rotten Scoundrels,” has also appeared in “Rent,” “Wicked,” “Is He Dead,” “Enron,” and “Big Fish.” His wife, Michelle Federer, was seen in “Wicked” and “Three Days of Rain.” Becky Gulsvig was in “Legally Blonde” and “Hairspray;” and Catherine Brunell was in “Thoroughly Modern Millie” and “Les Miserables.” Charlie Pollack, on stage in “9 to 5” and “Urinetown,” will both perform and direct the show.
They will be accompanied by music director and concert pianist Eugene Gwozdz, who has played keyboards for “The Full Monty” and “Oklahoma” on Broadway. He also orchestrated the music for “It’s a Bird, It’s a Plane, It’s Superman” and was music director for “Baby” at Paper Mill Playhouse.
“The theater program at South is really special,” says Mangone Stoddard. “Yes, we have an incredible group of talented kids, but more importantly our experiences working (and playing) together provide the students with bonds and friendships that last a lifetime. This is a family. We are a family.”
It turns out that the theater community is really a very small world. “Theater folk often work during holidays and are far from their families and feel like orphans,” says Lori. “We build our own family support system. Many of us came to New York in the late 1990s and have become an East Coast family.” It was at a recent “reunion” that Lori Chase talked to them about doing a benefit show in West Windsor. “They all thought it sounded like fun.”
“There’s an incredible amount of growth that occurs when you are part of South’s theater productions,” says Stoddard. “These kids love and respect one another. They look out for each other. I see friendships formed that never would have taken place outside of this space. I wish everyone could see what I see and how at the end of each production we are all changed for the better.”
Members of South’s choir and the cast of this year’s spring musical, “Grease,” will be joining the Broadway veterans to perform a finale number from “Les Miserables.” Janice Chapin, the school’s choir director, will direct.
“The experiences the theater program provide are life changing. We know our stories,” says Stoddard. “Now we are looking forward to hearing stories from the professional actors about their high school theater experiences, and how they molded them.”
Lori Chase was raised in Bay Village, Ohio. Her father, an accountant, played jazz piano in college. Her mother, a former model, was a stay-at-home mom. “Neither was involved in the performing arts and they kept looking at me cross-eyed.” Her parents divorced 20 years ago. Her mother, Ronilee Noble, now lives in Kendall Park and is a realtor with Keller Williams on Canal Pointe Boulevard in West Windsor.
Chase was cast as the female lead in “Bells Are Ringing” when she was a junior in high school. “Since the lead role usually went to a senior, it was a turning point for me and a vote of confidence,” she says. As a senior she was cast as Adelaide in “Guys and Dolls.”
Chase was a student at Northwestern University, majoring in psychology with a minor in computer programming. She was bored, auditioned for “Mack and Mabel” and was cast. She met David Schwimmer, later known as Ross on “Friends,” and he invited her to be part of the theater department. “I performed at night and then stayed up late doing computer programming,” she says. “An agent came to see me and signed me for film, television, and theater work.”
When she was working on special projects at the Goodman Theater in Chicago, she was cast in the musical “Pal Joey” in her senior year of college. “My thoughts were that I’ll stick with it until it dries up,” she says. Meanwhile she had studied financial and computer programming; was an arts consultant at a mega church; and built a dance ministry.
She moved to New York City in 1994. “I hopped onto the entertainment train and thought performing and earning a living was not something I could do,” she says. “It was way beyond anything I dreamed up.” She was seen on Broadway in “Cats,” “Miss Saigon,” and “The Full Monty.”
During the run of “The Full Monty” in 2002 she decided to retire from Broadway. “I had a cathartic moment when I decided this has been great and I can’t believe I’ve been doing this for 15 years.” During the same year she performed a lot of stand up comedy and was a semi-finalist on “The Last Comic Standing.” “It was a lot of fun,” she says.
Married to Will Chase for 10 years, they divorced in 2008. “We are still friends and maintain a good relationship,” she says. Lori has been in a relationship with Scott Davis, an appraiser from Perkaise, Pennsylvania. Will is in a relationship with Debra Messing, his former co-star in “Smash.”
In 2007 she thought it was time to get a “real job.” She interviewed at Euromoney Institutional Investor, a company she was a big fan of, and was hired. She works in sales for the conference division where she advises and produces financial conferences.
Chase and her daughters moved to West Windsor from Montclair in 2012. “They were already involved in performing arts but I was not thrilled with the academic level at the schools and wanted to move somewhere where academics were important,” she says. “West Windsor came up number one for academics, art galleries, theater, culture, and community — it was everything I was looking for.”
Daisy is now a freshman at South; and Gracie is at Grover Middle School. Every other weekend they get on the train and meet their father at Penn Station. “They have a lot of fun as city girls for the weekend,” she says. In the summer they attend workshops and classes in New York City.
Daisy and Danny, Stoddard’s son, became fast friends when the kids went to the eighth grade dance together last year. “Marilyn invited me over and served grapes, cheese, and wine. We began chatting and I learned that she had grown up in West Windsor and was a choreographer. We became best friends for life.”
Danny has had leads in both his seventh and eighth grade plays and is playing the role of Sonny LaTieri in “Grease.” “He is showing a strong interest in the craft but is also interested in law enforcement like his dad,” says Stoddard, who graduated from WW-P High School and began working in the school’s theater department as a new college graduate in 1986. Her daughter Nicole, who appeared with her mother in “There Goes the Bride” at Off Broadstreet Theater, graduated from NYU with a degree in marketing, visual arts, and design.
Daisy will portray Patty Simcox in “Grease.” “She has a sense of humor that rivals her comedienne mom and she sang a beautiful solo at South’s choral concert in December,” says Stoddard. Gracie is cast as Gertrude in “Seussical the Musical” at Grover.
It costs a lot to put on a musical. Securing rights with the licensing company includes scripts for the directors, mini scripts for individual roles, vocal scores for the cast, a full conductors score, full piano score, and parts for the orchestra. Add in costumes, sets, props, and incidentals. The cost to the school may be close to $20,000 to produce “Grease” this spring. “The school and school board are very supportive, and have provided a beautiful state of the art theater, but ultimately, these productions are self-funded,” says Chase. “Without the funds and without people like Marilyn, theater productions would go away. I enjoy putting talent on the stage and it is giving me great joy to produce this event.”
A Broadway Evening, West Windsor-Plainsboro High School South, 346 Clarksville Road, West Windsor, 646-643-4947, www.seatyourself.biz/wwhss. Saturday, January 11, 8 p.m. $25 to $40.
