“The Producers” – Largest Staged Musical Ever at NHS
• Hundreds of Cast Members, Crew and Directors Were Involved
Mar 7, 2009 – Nutley High School's Academy of Fine and Performing Arts production of Mel Brooks' musical "The Producers" was, in the words of director Michael Cundari, "the largest staged musical to ever hit the stage at Nutley High School."
With more than 290 costumes, a 22-piece orchestra and a cast of more than 70 students, the musical was seen by more than 2,000 parents, neighbors and lovers of musical theatre – all of whom experienced a real sense of being on Broadway at the four (too few) performances on the NHS auditorium stage.
In fact, there were several Broadway professionals who assisted with the Nutley production in staging, lights, sound, and even teaching the cast the original choreography from the New York production.
Produced by "Friends of Nutley Singers," Cundari served as both the director and its musical director. Thomasina Hyland repeated her role in last year's "West Side Story" as the musical director and costume design. Angie Canuel was both the choreographer and staging director. Nicole SanGiovanni was the assistant musical director.
Featured in the cast were Sean Ulley as Max Bialy- stock, Daniel Fornasa as Leo Bloom, Sean O'Connor as Fran Liebkind, Christopher Mangum as Roger DeBris, Michael Egues as Carmen Ghia and Lindsey Hresko as Ulla.
The musical's story-line deals with sensitive topics including the Holocaust which led to a series of sensitivity classes for the Nutley cast and production crew. The students eventually decided "as a performing family" to send profits from this year's production to "The Survivor Mitzvah Project." Cast members also decided that in lieu of publishing the traditional brief biographies in the printed program, they would comment on other causes they found relevant.
Sean Ully, one of the two male leads, for example, spoke of the work of The National Economic and Social Rights Initiative, while Danny Fornasa, the other lead, discussed "One World Beat" and its world-wide message of hope through music.
Photographs featured on this page are from the March 6th production of "The Producers." The photographs were taken discretely by NJ Hometown, with permission from the rear of the theatre's auditorium.
