The unusual challenge of casting “School of Rock”: talented kids
“School of Rock” is so proud of its young stars that it bills them as “musical theater’s first-ever live kids rock band!”
Given the historical shortage of Broadway shows featuring elementary-age children, that’s very likely true. And the touring stage musical, which runs May 29June 10 at the Buell Theatre, certainly needs them.
Adapted from the 2003 hit comedy of the same name, “School of Rock” revolves around its budding musician-actors. Their innocence, cheeky determination and foibles provide adult protagonist Dewey Finn (played in the film by Jack Black) a steady backbeat of drama and laughs as he trains them for a battle of the bands, in turn helping them break out of their stuffy, private-school lives.
Think of this Broadway version as the movie plot in reverse, as overqualified,
experienced kids are often ignored in favor of raw musical talent.
Of course, the pressures of joining a national, multimillion-dollar touring production don’t exactly mesh with what anyone would consider a normal childhood. What about puberty and its effects on voices, or costume sizes? What about school? Friends? Family?
We talked to Merri Sugarman, casting director for the “School of Rock” tour, over the phone from New York City this month about the difficulty of catching kids in exactly the right moment, juggling their unusual needs, and what it’s like working with “School of Rock” songwriter and Tony awardwinning Broadway composer and lyricist Andrew Lloyd Weber.
Q : What kind of personality has everything you’re looking for? Is it just one type of kid, so to speak?
A: This is a show where we really try to stay away from showbizy kinds of kids. Sometimes that comes through in the audition, but you rarely see a kid who doesn’t want to be there. It’s just that there are lots of jobs for kids here (in New York) on Broadway, and a lot of the kids are very polished and have a lot of experience. Those are great attributes, but we need to have instrumentalists, so it’s a completely different kind of kid.
Q : So they should be musicians first and actors second?
A: Usually we start with instrumentalists. As long as they can carry a tune, we can coach them on the singing and the acting and the dancing — unless you find that they’re just completely unable to pick anything up. They have to be believable as elementary school kids, so you’re really talking about a small group that goes from about 9 to 11 years old. Sometimes we’ll go a little bit older with the swing kids (cast members who cover multiple roles), just because those kids have to be really smart and keep more than one part in their head.
Q : What age is too young for “School of Rock”?
A: We see kids sometimes who are 7 or 8 years old, and while every kid is different and there are different expectations, we’ve found in the past that that’s too young. Even if they’re incredibly talented and smart, there’s a lot to deal with backstage, like costume changes, and they have a lot of blocking (stage directions). That means they have to avoid big holes in the set where drum kits fly in and out, or they roll desks around the stage and sometimes it’s in a very small amount of space. On top of that, kids on tour have to adapt to different theaters and stages in every city. We need kids who have very large attention spans and are capable of staying focused and safe.
Q : I can only imagine how difficult your work is, since kids grow out of their roles so quickly.
A: Yes. And the touring show is different from the countrywide and worldwide search we did for the original kids. Now, as we replace kids in the touring company, we do two or three big casting trips a year in Los Angeles and Chicago and a third city, which always changes. There’s never a time when we’re not looking for kids. Their situations are so delicate, with families and guardians and schooling and development — particularly physically. The challenge with this that we don’t have with adults is that nobody’s a finished product. When the time does come, even for a kid we’ve met and auditioned in the recent past, we have to recheck their height and whether, or how, their voices have changed.
Q : How does the casting process work?
A: Besides those regular trips we also have a website where kids can constantly upload auditions (us.schoolofrockthemusical.com/auditions), whether they’re playing instruments or just singing their own stuff. We are always vigilant about looking at the website and the emails, and if we get a glimmer that a kid is right for the show, we send them our material to learn and selftape. After that, if I feel like it’s a kid worth exploring, we would probably audition them in person so that they could really work with our music director, both with the instruments and vocally, our associate director on the acting, and a lot of times, our choreographer with all of the dance combinations. Which is stuff you obviously can’t do via video.
Q : Besides musical ability, what does this show require that others don’t? A certain comedic sensibility?
A: I wouldn’t call it comedic, but we definitely need a certain kind of energy from the kids. They have to be personable and lovable. And each kid is different. One might be a skilled guitarist, but in personality, he’s really more of a Lawrence than a Zack. Sometimes you can fit a square peg into a round hole, because necessity is the mother of invention here. Sometimes we need a kid who is sort of quiet, but then you start to see their personality come out during the audition process.
Q : And it is an actual process. It’s not just one or two meetings.
A: A lot of times their parents are flying in and out and traveling to get their kids to callbacks. And then their videos have to be approved, if we don’t have Andrew Lloyd Weber or the director in the room. There are just so many different steps. But there’s never been a case where any two kids were alike, and we love that. Some quiets are stonedfaced, and then they get behind the drums and become a star, like Gilberto Moretti (who plays Freddy) in our touring company.
Q : You’ve worked with Andrew Lloyd Weber quite a lot. What’s he like?
A: He’s very clear on what he wants, but very collaborative. In other words, if he doesn’t necessarily see the same things we’re seeing, or he’s only seen the video and not the kid’s journey through the audition process, then our creative lead gets on the phone or they meet about it. Or we wait to hire the kid until Andrew can see them (in person). I like to say that the reason a casting director is hired in the first place is because the creative team trusts that we understand what they want.
Q : How is this different from other Andrew Lloyd Weber shows? What else have you worked with him on?
A: We’ve cast “The Phantom the Opera.” We cast “Cats.” We cast “Jesus Christ Superstar.”
Q : The revivals?
A: The original and the revivals. It’s very much like what happens with other shows: You go through all this stuff initially and hope that when it’s time to replace someone, you know your needs better than you did in the beginning. Everybody tends to stick to their own departments and then we come together at the end. But first and foremost, Andrew cares about them as musicians.
Q : How many kids
A: Oh my God. Three zillion? I mean, thousands over the course of my carer. I cast for film and TV when I first started in L.A., and then moved to New York and started working for (Tara Rubin Casting). We have shows with kids between the ages of 8 and 17. We cast “Dear Evan Hansen” and “Les Miserables.” We have two little boys in “A Bronx Tale.” My kids files are thick.
Q : Are you a parent?
A: I don’t have kids. But it’s really interesting, because I have kids in my life personally in a lot of different ways. I’m a big sister. I have godchildren, and nieces and nephews. Having an affinity for kids and the language that they speak is important. And patience! Just because you don’t get what you need from them on the first meeting doesn’t mean that it’s not there. That’s one of the things I hope I bring to the table, because they’re screening with me before they ever see a director or choreographer or anybody at Really Useful, which is Andrew’s company.
Q : Which areas of the country are better or worse?
A: These kids don’t always come from areas where there are the biggest arts communities. Our Tameka character, for example, has us doing a lot of outreach in places where there are gospel summer camps and churches, because that’s the kind of voice we’re looking for. A lot of times the kids who are really good are the kids who can afford to take lessons, and so we often start in major cities like L.A. and New York. But we’ve done really well in Atlanta, which was kind of a surprise. We do well in places with huge improv scenes, or amazing theater communities, like Minneapolis, Toronto and Chicago.
Q : Have you ever been spectacularly wrong about a kid?
A: Sometimes I’m wrong. I was wrong once in 1992 (laughs)! Sometimes you hire a kid and you realize that for whatever reason, it’s not a good match. Touring is really challenging. There are parents who leave spouses and partners and other children behind. But because they’re kids, you know that there’s going to be an end in sight. So parents usually say, “This is the opportunity of a lifetime, and we have to figure out how to make this work” — knowing that in a year they’re probably going to be too old or too big to continue on.
John Wenzel: 303-954-1642, jwenzel@denverpost.com or @johnwenzel