Mark Myars
"Footloose" may be the debut Broadway show for 20-year-old Mark Myars. But if you feel he's got something special as a dancer‹for no one in the show dances with greater spirit-lifting flair or precision‹you're hardly the first to take notice.
Myars was winning national titles even before moving from his hometown of Pittsburgh, Pa., to New York after high school. Dance Educators of America voted him "Mr. Dance" when he was just 17. Dance Alliance selected him as "Most Outstanding Dancer"‹choosing him over regional winners from all over the country‹when he was just 18.
Following high school graduation, Myars moved to New York with little more than a couple of savings bonds, prepared for the standard hard-knocks "dues-paying" period. But except for the first month and a half, when he was a host at the All Star Cafe, he never had to take a day job. His steady-working, fast-track progress as a dancer augurs well for the future.
He nailed his first audition, for the Radio City Christmas Spectacular ("a perfect way to spend your holidays"), getting a small feature spot in the "Carol of the Bells" number. In the spring show there was more featured work, including a display of his tumbling‹"and that's a big stage to tumble across." He moved on to work with the New York City Opera ("Carmina Burana") and productions of "Gentlemen Prefer Blondes," in Westbury, Long Island, and "On the Town," at Stages St. Louis (as one of the pas de deux dancers).
And now there's "Footloose," which is as exhilarating a display vehicle for dancers as has opened on Broadway in years. The basic plot? Kids want to dance; adults don't let them; kids finally get to dance. This is essentially a show you go to for the dancing, not the plot‹the exuberant, irrepressible, we're-young-and-glad-to-be-alive dancing. And no dancer more fully embodies the essence of the show than Myars.
On the ensemble routines, he always seems to be giving a little something extra; on a straddle-jump in the air, for example, he just seems a little more fully extended, a little more free of gravity. Besides the ensemble routines, he gets to bounce on a mini-trampoline, clamber up ladders, leap, swing from ropes, walk on his hands, and tumble seemingly at will. Actors' Equity considers such extra bits "hazardous," and he receives "hazard pay" above regular scale. He refers to it simply as "all that good stuff; I like that the show's so physical, so intense."
When the cast exits at the end of Act Two's first scene, Myars briefly has the stage to himself. He puts a button on the scene by turning and, with deceptive casualness, executing with lan a heart-catching front aerial‹a full flip in the air, without using his hands. The spirit of youth, which the show suggests cannot be denied, feels completely encapsulated in that one impeccable moment.
As for Myars, he knows he may have career possibilities beyond just dancing. He's taken acting classes and is currently taking singing lessons. His whole look‹fresh-faced, open, innocent‹should work for him. And that joy he projects doesn't seem feigned. This Broadway newcomer explains, "I just love dancing so much. It's easy to do something, you know, when you love it so much."
Perry Laylon Ojeda
Qualities like charm and sexual magnetism are hard to define...but easy to spot and hard to resist.
Perry Laylon Ojeda displayed these qualities during his nine-week run earlier this year at New York's Duplex cabaret in his critically acclaimed semi-autobiographical solo show, "The Trick" (about an openly gay Mormon actor‹like Ojeda‹unexpectedly finding love). Now he's getting the opportunity to shine before a much bigger audience, portraying the romantic sailor, Gabey, one of the six principal roles in "On the Town" (directed by the masterful George C. Wolfe), currently in previews at the Gershwin Theatre. This is Ojeda's first Broadway lead, and could provide a breakout career opportunity for him.
It's lucky for Ojeda he's got that charm thing going for him; otherwise it would be very easy to get overlooked on a stage shared by such enormously appealing performers as Jesse Tyler Ferguson and Lea
Perry Laylon Ojeda
DeLaria, who got terrific notices during the show's Summer 1997 Central Park tryout (which Ojeda was not in). Three reviewers chose the exact same words to sum up the endearing Ferguson‹"a musical-comedy find"‹and the brashly funny DeLaria won an Obie Award.
Ojeda's charisma enabled me to forgive him‹just barely‹for arriving a little late for our interview. I sat inside the restaurant where we'd agreed to meet, watching nonplussed while he schmoozed unconcernedly with a friend on the street for several minutes. I finally had to go out and get him, before he wasted any more time. I can't say that made a great first impression. Nor was I impressed by the way that‹in his enthusiasm to talk about himself‹he repeatedly cut me off during the interview.
But when Ojeda flashed his big, brown, warm, puppy eyes, and perfect toothpaste-ad grin, filled with such enthusiasm over the direction his career has taken, I felt happily reminded of the energy he can bring to the stage. And after finally apologizing for making me wait for him, he told stories engagingly.
Ojeda grew up poor in a small Michigan town, vowing as a kid he'd never work in the grocery store that his parents owned (and had even named after him: "Perry's Market"). He loved the theatre.
At age 10, he began checking out volumes of "Best Plays" from the library, along with the related original-cast albums. He would read the scripts of shows like "Oklahoma," setting down the phonograph needle on the cast album every time he came to a musical number in the script. Then he'd listen to the song, read more of the script, and listen to the next song.
Except for one year, he never did have to work at his folks' store. He worked in regional theatre. When one reviewer said he didn't have the pipes to sing Rodgers and Hammerstein, he found a voice teacher to help him for free. When there weren't enough jobs, he wrote solo shows for himself, guided by top performance-artist Tim Miller. And when auditions weren't going well enough, he took a course from casting director Barry Moss which he found invaluable; without it he says he'd never have gotten the job in "On the Town."
Now, he's excitedly got a designer (the start of his "entourage," he semi-jests) working on an outfit for his November 19 opening-night cast party, and he's sure he's going to make it big in the business‹"A List" is how he puts it, although he and his friends have wondered if he made the right choice in accepting this role, since he received several other tempting job offers at the same time.
Youth needs confidence, and Ojeda has definitely got that‹and charm‹which for audience members can sure be fun to be around; however, for this interviewer, it's more fun talking with the pros who show up on time, and then fully listen to what's being asked.
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