Broadway | Photo by Porchlight Music Theatre
New Faces Sing Broadway 1987 is a 90-minute production filmed in Chicago’s historic Studebaker Theater featuring Wright State University (WSU) alumna Isabella Andrews as well as nine other up-and-coming Chicago performers.
New faces throughout the years
New Faces Sing Broadway 1987 is directed by Christopher Pazdernick, hosted by Larry Adams with David Fiorello as director of music and arrangements.
Director Pazdernick has worked on New Faces for almost a year now because of delays due to the coronavirus. Before the coronavirus pandemic hit, there would have been two different live performance venues with around 150 audience members.
The event is now completely online and is available from Nov. 6 through Nov. 29 with tickets on sale for $25-$50 at https://porchlightmusictheatre.org/events/new-faces-sing-broadway-1987/.
“New Faces is one of a kind. We do three additions of them in a season and I have yet to see anything similar,” said Pazdernick. “In the 40s and 50s, there was a regular review series on Broadway that would introduce a bunch of up-and-coming performers to Broadway. While those were full-scale Broadway productions, that’s not what we’re doing, but that was our inspiration”.
Each season of New Faces features the songs from one year in Broadway history with the upcoming edition focusing on 1987. The production will have music from shows such as “Les Misérables”, “Into the Woods” and “Me and My Girl.”
According to Pazdernick, because New Faces is virtual, they hope to reach a wider audience to highlight the ten new faces and the Studebaker Theater. When filming the performance, the camera crew was able to film in all areas of the historic theater, moving from dressing rooms to wings to capture the performance like never before.
Isabella Andrews
“We look for two things when choosing performers. One is a unique sense of personality, we’re looking for individuals who are distinctive in some way. The second thing is that we’re looking for people who are really going to go places and we’ve had a lot of success with that, not that we can take credit of course,” said Pazdernick.
Andrews was elated to be a part of New Faces because of her history with theater. Her mother is an actor that has been in the Chicago theater scene for around 30-40 years.
“I’m excited to properly put myself out there in the Chicago theater scene. Growing up with my mom in the business, I’ve been raised knowing all these people as my mom’s kid. It’s a huge opportunity for people to see the new talent in Chicago as well,” said Andrews.
Andrews has been a part of several productions after leaving WSU with a BFA in musical theater. These include “Shrew’d”, “A Christmas Carol” and “Route 66.”
Andrews will be singing “Moments in The Woods” from “Into the Woods,” “Typical High School Senior” from “Smile” and “Music of the Night” from “Phantom of the Opera.”
WSU performing arts
According to Andrews, WSU gives students the platform to achieve their dreams.
“Wright State showed up on a list of top 25 musical theater schools in the Midwest, and I chose it because I wanted somewhere to start fresh. I was told by Joe Deer that his job was to create genuine working actors. It doesn’t matter where you end up going, if you are a working actor, that’s what’s important,” said Andrews.
Sophomore acting major Alexis Muhlenkamp decided to attend WSU when they saw Andrews perform “A Little Night Music” as a perspective.
“Wright State helps students to find a solid base understanding what you want to do artistically and then going into junior and senior years, professors sprinkle in business information like how to negotiate contracts, how to find a manager and what things you need to be a part of the Equity Association eventually,” said Muhlenkamp.
WSU also has professors that are constantly working in the industry and are integrated into the theater and performance community now.
A message to WSU students
“You are the best version of yourself that you can be and you can take that when you’re walking into a room at an audition, when you’re walking into a non-theater-related job interview, when you’re just walking down the street to meet a friend for coffee. You are the best version of yourself and you have a right to be here. Everything you do, you do because you should have this love for yourself. You have to love yourself first. You can’t give advice about being in this profession without giving advice on how to just live as yourself,” said Andrews.
Be sure to keep an eye out for another edition of New Faces Sing Broadway 1961 in December.
