New Haven Register (Sunday) (New Haven, CT)
‘It changed my life’
‘THIS IS US’ ACTOR STARS IN ‘42ND STREET’ AT GOODSPEED OPERA HOUSE
Fans of the hit NBC series “This Is Us” still in mourning over it going off the air have an opportunity to scratch their Pearson family itch. And it’s right here in East Haddam.
Blake Stadnik, who played patriarch Jack’s namesake on the now-defunct show, is in a spiffed-up production of the classic Broadway musical “42nd Street” at the Goodspeed Opera House. Stadnik is totally aware of just how special his old show was, too.
“It really was. It was very much an honor to help tell that story. It changed my life,” Stadnik said just before rehearsal one morning. He played the blind son of ever-squabbling Kate and Toby, who would in “flash-forward” scenes be revealed to have become a successful musician. “I really enjoyed the fact that they showed a couple whose marriage ends but they remained friends,” he added.
Stadnik is equally aware of just how special the Opera House is, too. “I went to school for musical theater and coming out of school (the Goodspeed) is one of the places you always want to work. It’s got a stellar reputation and a history of making hits. But I’d never been up here, and coming across the bridge in East Haddam — it being right on the water — it’s actually magical. Being inside it and backstage — it’s an old vaudeville house — you can feel that history as you walk through the theater. The ghosts are among you.”
An activist for artists with disabilities, Stadnik’s sightlessness has not slowed him in the least; many viewers of his old show even thought he was “acting” when it came to being blind. “They wanted to know if I was a real musician after that,” he laughed. “But a lot of these same people wondered if that was really Mandy Moore singing during the show, too!”
Furthermore, the amiable performer is more interested in raising public awareness for people with disabilities in the arts rather than any “how inspirational he is” angles. He chafed at the notion. A gifted pianist, Stadnik has already toured “42nd Street” once before, during his pre-”This Is Us” days.
“I toured with this show for a year in 2015/2016, and after that ended got ‘This Is Us’,” he explained. “This is sort of a new imagination of the show. A new version sort of. We’re taking it into a bit more of a realistic place — a bit more grounded because every iteration prior it was very heightened and taken from the vaudeville tradition. The scenes in this are a bit more grounded and these people (it takes place during the Great Depression), they’re really going through something and this show within a show will save their lives if it becomes a hit.”
His Billy Lawlor character has been tweaked many times over the years, from who he was in the book to the film adaptation to the many musical productions. He may be getting his biggest overhaul to date right here in Connecticut.
“Billy Lawlor has been cartoonish at times,” admitted Stadnik. “This production we’re trying to give him much more of a journey and making him much more of a person, which I am loving.”
Who better to helm it than the very guy with the show from its inception?
“Randy Skinner was the dance captain and assistant choreographer for the original production back in the 80’s,” Stadnik relayed excitedly.” And then he was the choreographer for the revival in the early 2000s and then my tour. And now he’s directing and choreographing this one.”
The tap-dancing extravaganza, boasting such Broadway anthems as “Lullaby of Broadway,” “We’re In The Money,” “Shuffle Off To Buffalo” and, of course, the titular number, runs through Nov. 6.
As for a “This Is Us” musical, Stadnik laughingly agreed it’s possible, Milo Ventimiglia’s patriarch included. “We could definitely give Grandpa Jack something.”