HOW THIS THEATER BUILT A CAST OF THOUSANDS
Generations of Children’s Musical Theater performers have come together to celebrate its 50th anniversary
Dressed all in white and with music swelling around him, 16-year- old Armand Akbari stepped onto the stage at the City National Civic Auditorium and joined a legacy that started decades before he was born. It was the kind of moment Children’s Musical Theater has learned to celebrate.
Akbari, the latest young actor to take on the lead role of “The Who’s Tommy,” was welcomed on stage during last month’s CMT Gold gala by John Pineto, Nick Spangler and Ryan Vasquez — the three actors who had preceded him during the 20 years the company has produced the show.
“The very first time I did that, in rehearsal, it was a surreal feeling,” said Akbari, a junior at Sacred Heart Prep in Atherton who has been acting with CMT since he was 10.
“Just looking at the three of them and knowing I was going to be following in their footsteps. It meant so much to have these generations of CMT around me. It was empowering.”
That sense of youth empowerment and history has been a hallmark of Children’s Musical Theater of San Jose since John P. Healy Jr. founded the group back in 1968 when he was just 17 years old. As the pioneering youth theater companycelebrates its 50th anniversary, CMT has built a powerful network of thousands of alumni, launched more than few Broadway careers and redefined what a children’s theater can be.
“‘I had no idea’ is the one line we hear more than anything,” said Kevin Hauge, CMT’s artistic director since 1996. “People hear our name and they see see dancing daisies and singing bunnies. We do that work, and we’re proud of that work, but it doesn’t define who we are.”
Like any organization of its age, Children’s Musical Theater has gone through its share of hard transitions and growing pains. In its early years under Healy as Cabrini Community Theater, it was based at the domed First Church of Christ, Scientist in downtown San Jose — dubbed the Palace of Performing Arts — with touring shows that went to county fairs, convalescent homes and even Disneyland.
After Healy left in 1982, the company continued under the leadership of a group of passionate parents until 1993 when CMT alumni Michael Mulcahy was hired at age 28 to be its first executive director. Mulcahy, who started performing at CMT when he was in elementary school, stayed on for eight years. And he really kicked off the company’s modern era when he hired Hauge as artistic director, who had directed a few summer shows.
“The reality was he created a level of production in the summer time that we couldn’t match the rest of the year,” said Mulcahy, who remains on CMT’s board and still performs in shows. “He came on in January, and we were off to the races.”
Not long after Hauge arrived, Mulcahy brought “The Who’s Tommy” — a then-recent Broadway musical based on the band’s 1969 rock opera — to Hauge’s attention, and CMT began charting a new direction into edgier waters.
Initially, Hauge thought the tale of a blind, deaf and mute child who becomes a pinball wizard and eventually a cult figure was “weird.” So, he listened to it again. “I still thought it was strange,” Hauge said, “but we were actively attempting to take on challenges that we thought people might not expect of a children’s theater.”
“Tommy” was CMT’s first multimedia show, though back in 1997, that meant slide projectors operated by hand at the Montgomery Theater. Over the next two decades, the company continued to push the envelope with productions like “Miss Saigon,” “Aida,” “Avenue Q” and “American Idiot.”
As its roster of alumni grew, CMT added a pair of Marquee Productions every year, shows that incorporate working adult actors and CMT alums. But despite all that maturity on stage, the company’s leadership has resisted dropping the word “children” from its name.
“The legacy is too important, and we are proud of the fact that we have children in our shows,” Hauge said. “We’d rather change people’s perceptions about what children’s theater can be — and is — than change our name.”
Part of CMT’s legacy is the policy of casting everyone who auditions for a show, even those with developmental or physical challenges.
That can mean huge casts with large ensembles for some shows, but it provides an exposure to the arts — and to other kids — that many wouldn’t otherwise get.
“I think my favorite thing about the job is that everyone who walks in the door is in the show,” Hauge said. “The fact is a lot of these stones come in unpolished and you find what they do really well. That’s the real magic of it.”
The 50th anniversary was celebrated with the CMT Gold event at the City National Civic in February, when dozens of alumni — including working actors — came back to perform. There’s also an alumni weekend planned August 3- 5, and the remainder of the season has something of a “greatest hits” feel. Marquee Productions opens “Guys and Dolls” at the Montgomery Theater on April 20, the Mainstage shows “Avenue Q” and “West Side Story” are coming up in May and July and the youngest performers in the Rising Stars division have “Seussical” and “The Wiz” before closing with “Robin Hood,” the very first show Healy did in 1968.
“I think there’s this legacy we have to keep and a momentumwe have to continue to build on,” said Dana Zell, a former CMT performer who became managing director in 2016. “We’re in a good rhythm right now as far as inspiring the younger kids to continue. But we are at a place where we want to do bigger and greater things without going beyond our capacity.”
For all the CMT alumni who have gone on to acting careers, Zell says, there are thousands of others who still benefited from the life skills they picked up in their performing days.
“They’re starring in whatever professional roles they have in life,” she said. “There are just as many talented alumni who are not on stage but are putting their mark on the world in so many different ways.”
Children’s Musical Theater alums on stage: Here are a few of the CMT San Jose performers who have gone on to careers on Broadway and elsewhere >> Alex Brightman: Nominated for 2016 Tony for Best Actor, “School of Rock” Ryan Vasquez: “Hamilton” national tour Alia Hodge: “Beautiful” national tour Aaron Albano: Broadway credits include “Newsies,” “Mary Poppins,” “Cats,” “Allegiance” Chelsea Stock: Broadway credits include Ariel in “The Little Mermaid,” “Something Rotten,” “Sister Act.” Nick Spangler: Broadway credits include “The Book of Mormon,” “Cinderella,” “It Had To Be You” Adrienne Eller: “Gentleman’s Guide to Love and Murder” national tour My’hala Herrold: “Book of Mormon” tour