Performer goes `On the Town' for first post-pandemic show

South Bay Musical Theatre production runs May14-june 4

Kayvon Kordestani describes the characters she plays in South Bay Musical Theatre's upcoming production of “On the Town” as being “on the D track.”

“I play three different characters whose names all begin with the letter D, but they're intended to be the same person.”

Voice teacher Madame Dilly is “always a little sauced up,” says Kordestani, while Diane Dream and Dolores Dolores are singers at different nightclubs visited by the show's three sailors on shore leave in New York City.

“I sing the same song poorly in both clubs,” Kordestani says.

“On the Town” is Kordestani's first show since the pandemic began. While she makes more money choreographing shows for South Bay theater companies, Kordestani is focusing on performing post-pandemic.

“I wanna make sure I get my caboose on stage,” she says. “My chorus cutie days are numbered.”

Kordestani grew up about a mile away from the Saratoga Civic Theater, where South Bay Musical Theatre performs. While she now lives in San Jose's Willow Glen neighborhood, she moved back in with her parents during the pandemic to help care for her ailing mother.

“Because South Bay Musical Theatre is so close to where I grew up, I think this is my 30th year” with the company, Kordestani says. “It's really special to me because of that. They've been very good to me and my mom. They let her come to rehearsals if I don't have a caregiver. They've kind of adopted her.”

Kordestani says her work over three decades with South Bay Musical Theatre has been split between performing and choreography. As a dancer, her forte is tap, a talent she shares with Gene Kelly, who starred in the film version of “On the Town.” In the stage production, however, the dancing is more balletic, which Kordestani finds challenging.

“Straight musical theater dancing is my strong point,” she says. “Second to tap is musical theater jazz.

I do have ballet training because they make you.”

To bolster that ballet training, “On the Town” cast members have been spending time at the barre at Zohar Dance Company's studio in Palo Alto.

Like many performers, Kordestani is happy to see live theater return postpandemic. She was rehearsing “Something Rotten” at West Valley Light Opera and “Big Fish” at Sunnyvale Community Players when the shutdown hit, and both shows were postponed.

“When they rebooted it,” she says of the latter show, “I switched from the cast to being the choreographer because I wasn't ready to be unmasked.”

Kordestani was also performing in “The Mystery of Edwin Drood” which was in the middle of its run at Foothill College when the pandemic ground theater to a halt. For that show's reboot, she said, most of the original cast returned.

“They never took down the set,” she adds.

“On the Town” runs May 14-June 4 at the Saratoga Civic Theater, 13777 Fruitvale Ave., Saratoga. Tickets are $24-$54 at www.southbaymt.com or by calling 408-266-4734.