[NEohioPAL] When Broadway Beckons -- Corey Cott and Ben Fankhauser in "Newsies"

[Bob Abelman]

When Broadway Beckons 

Bob Abelman

News-Herald, Chagrin Valley Times, Solon Times, Geauga Times Courier

Member, International Association of Theatre Critics 

 

This feature article appeared in the Times on 1/24/13

 

 

Every peewee league ballplayer has fantasized about breaking into the big leagues, just as every young swimmer or gymnast has envisioned an Olympic podium in the distance.  Some high school running backs strike the Heisman Trophy pose after scoring, but every player wants to.  

 

What is true about the aspirations of athletes also applies to artists.  And, in the theater arts, the fantasy of performing at the highest level takes place in New York City and on a Broadway stage.   

 

Broadway was certainly the dream of Orange's Ben Fankhauser, now 23, and Chagrin Falls'  Corey Cott, now 22, when they performed together throughout middle school and high school at Stagecrafters-a youth drama program that is part of the Community Education and Recreation division of the Orange School system.  In fact, they talked about it often but with no real comprehension that this unrealistic fantasy would become a reality or that it would do so in such rapid and astoundingly storybook fashion.

 

Ben was a wunderkind of sorts; a young performer who had the creativity, drive and discipline that made him a natural on the community stage.  He immediately grasped and mastered  material and owned audiences by way of his raw talent and the ease with which it turned every performance into something charming.   

 

His first Stagecrafters production was an unofficial, devised summer staging of the musical "Newsies" when he was in 3rd grade.  According to program coordinator Wendy Scott-Koeth, "Ben was so talented and had such an incredible work ethic that [director and husband] Jamie Koeth and I helped set up a Broadway audition for "Ragtime" a year later.  They loved him but he was too tall for the role.  That's how good he was at such an early age." 

 

Corey came late to the stage, shortly after his family moved to Chagrin Falls when he was in the 8th grade.  Auditioning with a pitchy version of "The Star Spangled Banner," he was assigned to the ensemble of "Les Misérables" in which Ben played a featured role.  Soon the two were inseparable on stage, performing together in "Sweeney Todd," "Jesus Christ Superstar," "Urinetown" and, finally, co-starring as Roger and Mark in "Rent" in their final Stagecrafters collaboration.

 

The Actors' Equity Association recently reported that only 38% of the professional actors who make up its membership work at any given time, and they work an average of 17 weeks a year.  Nearly 70% of these working actors earn $15,000 or less.  Despite the odds of future employment, Ben went to Ithaca College to pursue training in musical theater while Corey attended Carnegie Mellon University's School of Drama. 

 

While a sophomore at Ithaca, Ben auditioned for and was cast in the first National tour of the musical "Spring Awakening."   He returned to college to complete his senior year, acquired an agent and left for NYC after graduating in May 2011.  Shortly thereafter he landed the role of Davey in the Paper Mill Playhouse production of-wait for it-"Newsies."  "I had the show's songs in my audition book since I was nine," he recently told broadwayworld.com.



Originally a 1992 Disney live-action film, Disney Theatrical Productions developed "Newsies" for licensing as a stage musical in response to consistent and sustained requests from professional and amateur theatre groups like Stagecrafters.  

 

Set in New York City in the late-1800s, the musical tells the tale of Jack Kelly, a charismatic newsboy and leader of a ragged band of teenaged newsies, who dreams of a better life far from the hardship of the streets. But when publishing titan Joseph Pulitzer raises distribution prices at the newsboys' expense, Jack finds a cause to fight for and, with Davey's help, they rally newsies from across the city to strike for what's right.  

 

Paper Mill Playhouse-New Jersey's premier regional theater-hosted the show's four-week pilot production in the summer of 2011.  Overwhelming audience response prompted a transfer to Broadway's Nederlander Theatre for a limited run, with Ben continuing his portrayal of Davey.  The show was so successful that it was extended twice and has since been declared an open-ended engagement.  Ben has been on Broadway, doing 8 performances a week, for 41 weeks and counting.

 

"The Stagecrafters program gave me confidence in performing," said Ben during a recent interview in the Nederlander Theatre mezzanine between performances.  "College is really where I honed my craft, and a summer job performing at Cedar Point gave me a taste of what it's like to do theater for a living and how to take care of myself so that I could perform day after day."

 

It just so happens that Corey had auditioned for "Newsies" while still in college and before the show had gone to Broadway.  Last September he was brought in to replace veteran performer Jeremy Jordan in the lead role of Jack Kelly after the actor joined the cast of NBC's "Smash."   The boys are back at it again, but this time they are performing together on West 41th St. and 7th Ave.

 

"Having Ben in the cast was really a dream come true," noted Corey. "Not only is he a fantastic performer, he is a good friend. We have that family mindset established during Stagecrafters.  Ben introduced me to everyone in the cast and it kind of felt like I had a big brother leading me around for a bit."

 

"I didn't have anything to do with Corey's casting," admitted Ben, "but we had an immediate connection and old chemistry.  Playing opposite Corey each night is surreal and it definitely adds to the fun."    

 

It shows on stage.

 

The sentimentality that surfaces when sitting in the audience and seeing two familiar faces on a Broadway stage is, quite frankly, overwhelming.  Yet, all that vanishes midway through their first song together, which is an intense and riveting first act anthem called "The World Will Know."  From then on, the exceptional talent and highly refined stage skills of these two immensely likable performers take over.  Look closely, though, and you'll still see that semblance of little-boy pleasure and passion that got them to where they are in the first place and will very likely keep them there. 

 

To date, nearly 400,000 people have attended this Tony Award-winning show.  If that is insufficient evidence of the show's success, the cast album was recently nominated for a Grammy Award (to be announced February 10) and the cast has performed during the nationally televised Macy's Day Parade, on ABC's "Dancing with the Stars," and at the Walt Disney World theme park.  At last count, "Newsies" has 230,323 Facebook friends.  

 

Both boys are just as humble as the day they first stepped onto the Orange High School stage.  In fact, Corey's playbill bio thanks his fiancée (now wife), family, friends, teachers and God for his success.  The more seasoned and senior professional, Ben thanks his agents and the show's creative team.  And his Mom. 

 

"The beautiful thing about 'Newsies,'" adds Corey, "is that the group is a bunch of young bucks either right out of high school or right out of college. All of our dreams are coming true.  Every single night."

 
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