Broadway Ladies: Miss August 2011: Alexandra Socha

Ms. Broadway August 2011

Alexandra Socha

WHY SHE'S MS. BROADWAY: Well, she is part of  an all-star cast of one of off-Broadway's new musicals.  She more than holds her own in this company.  She made her Broadway debut in 2008, as a replacement Wendla in Spring Awakening.  Later, she would open to great notices and audience apathy in Brighton Beach Memoirs, part of what was to be The Neil Simon Plays.  Regionally, she co-starred in We Always Lived in the Castle.  More recently, she has been off-Broadway in The Dream of the Burning Boy, a hit play as part of Roundabout's Underground.  Her career is definitely on the rise, and now with Death Takes a Holiday, it makes perfect sense that Alexandra Socha is August's Ms. Broadway.

OTHER INFORMATION:
Birth date: April 10, 1990, making her 21!
What you might have seen her in:  Broadway: Spring Awakening, opposite Kyle Riabko and Hunter Parrish; in The Neil Simon Plays: Brighton Beach Memoirs; Off-Broadway: The Dream of the Burning Boy, Death Takes a Holiday; Regional: Yale Rep's We Have Always Lived in the Castle co-starring with Jennifer Gambatese; TV: The Big C, White Collar.
Where you can find her on the Internet: She is on MySpace, Twitter and Facebook.  http://roundabouttheatre.org/offbroadway/deathtakesaholiday/index.htm

IN PHOTOS:

Headshots

Spring Awakening with Hunter Parrish,

Kate Burton and Gerard Canonico

With her Spring Awakening cast mates

at various press and charity events

Brighton Beach Memoirs

We Have Always Lived in the Castle

The Dream of the Burning Boy

Death Takes a Holiday

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Jeff
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On the Radar: We Have Always Lived in the Castle

Based on the novel by Shirley Jackson, We Have Always Lived in the Castle is the second recent musical that has caught my eye as having much potential.  Jackson, author of the famous The Lottery, is one of my favorite storytellers, and this story just about screams for theatrical treatment.  Will it succeed as a musical?  That remains to be seen.

The world premiere production of the piece opened Thursday night at Yale Rep, and like the other "On the Radar" piece this week, much of what draws me to the work is the potential story.  The Yale Rep press release succinctly describes the story thusly: "We Have Always Lived in the Castle is a haunting, lyrical, and darkly humorous new musical based on the 1962 novel by Shirley Jackson, author of The Lottery and The Haunting of Hill House.

The Castle Company

Acquitted of a horrible crime six years ago, Constance Blackwood lives with her devoted younger sister Merricat and their uncle Julian in what was once the home of the richest—and most envied—family in a small New England town. Constance tends to the house and garden while Merricat invents magical charms to protect the surviving Blackwoods from the townspeople’s prying eyes and vicious gossip. But talismans may not be powerful enough to keep the sisters together when their handsome cousin Charles comes to visit."

Creepy?  Interesting? Poetic?  All of the above!

Jenn Gambatese and Alexandra Socha

Jenn Gambatese and Sean Palmer

Of course, the creatives behind the piece bear interest and responsibility, and both are relative unknowns/just starting out on long careers.  "Composer Todd Almond’s recent projects include this season’s Girlfriend at Berkeley Repertory Theatre and On the Levee at Lincoln Center Theater's LCT3. Playwright Adam Bock and director Anne Kauffman previously collaborated on the plays The Typographer’s Dream and The Thugs, for which they both received OBIE Awards."

I know that the actors who perform in intial readings and performances either stay with the project to the end (like Benjamin Walker and Bloody Bloody Andrew Jackson) or come and go from the piece as time and project needs fluctuate.  Still this initial cast of leads should earn the work some serious looks and credibility: Bill Buell (Equus, Titanic, Urinetown) , Jenn Gambatese (Hairspray, Tarzan, Is He Dead?) , Sean Palmer (The Little Mermaid, Saturday Night Fever, Fosse) and Alexandra Socha (Spring Awakening, Brighton Beach Memoirs).  The ensemble is equally full of Broadway experienced talent.

Gambatese and Palmer

with Ensemble

Alexandra Socha

The current production is designed by David Zinn, scenery (In the Next Room), Ilona Somogyi, costumes (Atlantic Theater Company, The Vineyard, Playwrights Horizons) and Stephen Strawbridge (Bernarda Alba, The Glorious Ones).  Clearly, this show has been given the full New York-bound treatment.

Here is a clip from the show in performance.  I think the songs have a definite Adam Guettel feel, with a touch of LaChuisa and Kitt... which naturally has its roots in Sondheim.  What do you think?




(Photos by Joan Marcus)

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Jeff
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