The Commercial Appeal - Go Memphis
Memphian lands role as Mayor of Munchkinland
The Mayor of Munchkinland was on the phone (and who knew they had phones in Oz?). His honor, better known as Justin G. Nelson, was discussing the national tour of “The Wizard of Oz,” which opens Tuesday at the Orpheum.
As it happens, the mayor is from Memphis where he developed the considerable skills it would take to land a part in the musical.
“I went to Colonial Middle and got i n the show choir i n seventh grade, and that’s when I found it,” Nelson says. He later went to Overton High School and was in choirs there as well as being involved in music activities at Greater New Shiloh M.B. Church. In 2004, he was in the children’s ensemble of a production of “Joseph and the Amazing Technicolor Dreamcoat” at the Orpheum, “and I was like, ‘Yes!’ That’s what I want to do!”
Between that Orpheum debut and the upcoming dates with “Oz,” Nelson built up a long list of performances at Playhouse on the Square, Theatre Memphis and Hattiloo Theatre. He won the first Gypsy Award for Ensemble Dancing at the 2013 Ostranders.
“I thank God for the gift,” he says. “I didn’t grow up taking classes — it was a raw talent that I gained. I went to lots of school dance events to feel the music. I have this passion for performing and inspiring young kids. I love yoga, I work out six days a week and do cardio, but it’s the moment of creating a new person on stage that is my passion.”
He got his chance to do “Oz” as a result of going to the Unified Professional Theatre Auditions at Playhouse on the Square for three years. The annual UPTA event is a national audition that brings together professional actors, production people and theater companies. Nelson’s auditions got the attention of the Joy Dewing Casting Agency in New York, and last year he found himself auditioning for “Oz.”
“I sang and made the cut, danced and made the cut and then went back to sing for the Mayor of Munchkinland, the Coroner and the Vicar,” Nelson says. “And I danced again. The following Monday I got a call at work from Joy saying I’d booked it. And I quit my job at Banana Republic.”
That was in May 2015. He came back to Memphis to perform at Playhouse in “The Gospel at Colonus” and “Billy Elliot” before heading off to “Oz” rehearsals last November.
The tour runs through next month, with stops in Cleveland, Fort Worth, Atlanta, Tampa and elsewhere. “It’s so refreshing to see different cities and see reactions from different cities. My favorite so far is San Antonio, because the audience is so interactive — they laugh and clap and cry at everything. It’s amazing to see that.”
“The Wizard of Oz” runs June 14-19 at the Orpheum, 203 S. Main St. Showtimes are 7:30 p.m. June 14-16; 8 p.m. June 17 and 18; 2 p.m. June 18; 1 p.m. and 6:30 p.m. June 19. Tickets $25 - $125. Info: 901-525-3000 and orpheummemphis.com.
DEDICATED TO DICKENS
Jason Spitzer is not terribly fond of directing. “It weighs heavily on me,” he says, “but I’m called on to do it from time to time, and I throw myself into it.”
He had, however, a particularly strong incentive to throw himself into helming “Oliver!,” which opens this weekend at Theatre Memphis. Spitzer is more knowledgeable than most about Charles Dickens, whose “Oliver Twist” first got the musical theater treatment in 1960 and has been wildly popular since. The reluctant director has also run the show for all of Theatre Memphis’ productions of “A Christmas Carol” since he revamped it in 2008.
“My enthusiasm for ‘Oliver!’ is part of what I bring to it because I love the classics, and this is one of my favorites,” Spitzer says. “Having read the Dickens books and written about them and knowing them as I do, the visual world that Charles Dickens creates is very important. His books have 50 chapters in them because they appeared over a two-year period in serial format, so there’s terrific description, not only about the characters, but also the locations and environment they lived in. Theatre Memphis has a tremendous production standard, and they’re working hard to create this world of Dickens, but in a different way than we’ve done with ‘A Christmas Carol,’ which is so well known to everybody, but not everybody knows ‘Oliver Twist.’”
He says that while productions usually take place around a single set, the Theatre Memphis version promises different environments for different locations. “One doesn’t think about ‘Oliver!’ as a show that will dazzle you — there’s no sequins or ostrich feathers — but when the audience sees what we have scenically and from a costume perspective, they’re going to be dazzled. The costumer, Anne Suchyta, has embraced this Dickensian flavor.”
Add to that the 50 people in the cast, many of them children, who will be singing and dancing all over. Much of that is in the hands of the choreographer, Amy Hanford, who is a veteran of wrangling stage dancers young and old.
So what’s the challenge to choreographing all these kids? “It’s all these kids!” she says. It takes a particular skill to get youngsters, often with scant experience, focused on hitting their marks, making their moves and not waving to the grandparents in the audience.
“I have to make sure it all flows and fits and make sure it’s clean and crisp and keeping with the integrity of Jason’s vision.”
“Oliver!” runs June 10-July 3 at Theatre Memphis, 630 Perkins Ext. Showtimes: 7:30 p.m. Thursdays, 8 p.m. Fridays and Saturdays, 2 p.m. Sundays. Tickets: $30; $15 students. Info: theatrememphis.org and 901-6828323.