When 7-year-old GiannaWinton, of Fort Myers,auditioned last spring for the role of a child in “Waitress,” a Tony Award-nominated Broadway musical taking the stage at Artis—Naples, it was to perform on the local stage.
Touring shows often cast child roles locally and choose two kids to share the role.
Gianna and 5-year-old Solei Bourgeois landed the role of Lulu. They were among two dozen girls vying for the part. When the show wrapped up its run, Gianna was asked to go on the national tour with the cast. It happened again with the show “Once.”
Nine-year-old Fort Myers actor Ashton Heathcoat is hoping he’ll get the same question when “Finding Neverland” wraps up November 16 at the Broadway Palm dinner theater. He is one of two boys playing Michael in the local production.
“If we get tour, then I’m going on tour,”Ashton says. “That’s a fun fact.”
Southwest Florida kids have a unique opportunity to be a part of big national tours, sometimes Broadway productions, when they come to the area — and sometimes the kids are asked to go on tour.
Gianna’s mom did it when she was a kid living in Allentown, Pennsylvania. She appeared in Broadway’s “Les Misérables,” “The Lion King 2: Simba’s Pride” and “The Who’s Tommy.”
“My mom thought it was for a Tommy tot toy, like a brand, and she did not know I was going to the rock opera ‘Tommy,’” Cyrsta Winton says with a laugh. “She was like, ‘No!’” But they went forward. The role required her to cut her hair like a boy, but “I loved it,” Crysta says.
She was in the production for 2.5 years.
“I got too tall, and they broke the news to me, and I was determined to go to ‘Les Misérables’ in New York,” Crysta says. But her agent said she was too young. Crysta auditioned anyway and became the young Cosette on Broadway.
Special to SW FL Parent & Child
Gianna Winton, 7, of Fort Myers
“That’s how it all started,” Crysta says.
Gianna loved touring with “Waitress” so much that she auditioned for the child role in “Once” at the Broadway Palm, and again she was asked to tour with the cast.
“I love being in front of people,” Gianna says.
With the cast of “Once,” Gianna and her mom left on a bus in mid-October on the national tour, which runs 20 weeks and eventually swings back through the east coast of Florida. Mom makes sure Gianna keeps up with her home-school lessons and helps her navigate backstage.
“It’s a once-in-a-lifetime thing,” Crysta says.
Local kids don’t always get asked to go on the national tour, says Brian Enzman, casting director and artistic producer of “Once.” It depends on the show.
Broadway Palm typically holds local children’s auditions about once a year, depending on the needs of that year’s productions. The staff post the auditions on the theater’s website, broadwaypalm.com, and on the theater’s Facebook page. They also try to get the word out via local media.
Often, the children auditioning have an audition coach or they’ve taken dance classes or voice lessons or had some sort of theater or performing arts experience, says theater spokesperson Melissa Vogt.
Gianna’s “Once” cast mate, Sarah Salerno, “was in ‘Annie’ when we did it last summer,” Brian says, “and I believe she was in ‘Elf’ here as well.”
However, prior experience and extensive training is not required, Melissa adds.
The four local boys currently in the Broadway Palm production of “Finding Neverland,” on stage now through November 16, have varying degrees of experience.
Special to SW FL Parent & Child
Ashton Heathcoat
We caught up with two of the boys before a show in October. Ashton Heathcoat, 9, plays Michael, while Benjamin Sabo, 12, plays Peter.
You might recognize Ashton. He was Beto in Season 2 of the Nickelodeon show “I Am Frankie.”
However, “Finding Neverland” was Ben’s first role outside of school productions. He was Horton in “Seussical the Musical” at Heights Elementary. Now he attends Cypress Lake Middle School in south Fort Myers.
“My vocal teacher, she told me about ‘Beauty and the Beast’ and I tried out for Chip originally, but I didn’t get the part, and then after we finished, they encouraged us all to try out for the ‘Finding Neverland’ boys,” Ben says. “And so we got what we needed to use to try out, and I practiced a lot and did very well.”
Ben practiced an hour every other day, sometimes learning lines, sometimes listening to cast recordings of the songs.
Special to SW FL Parent & Child
Benjamin Sabo
Ashton has been modeling and acting in commercials since he was 5, and he attends the Edison Park Creative and Expressive Arts School in Fort Myers, but “Beauty and the Beast” was his first musical.
“Then ‘Finding Neverland’ came up and my mom was like, ‘Ooo, you want to try out?’ and I was like,‘Yeah, sure!’” Ashton says. “So I practiced a lot, practiced a lot, the day came, and I got it.”
Ashton just might prefer the stage to the screen.
“’Cause you get to do it live and there’s an audience,” Ashton says.
That live aspect is alluring to Ben, too. One of his favorite moments is when he makes a surprise entrance on stage and the audience gasps. “There’s a lot of like ‘huh!’” he gasps and puts his hand to his mouth like a surprised audience member, “and so it takes a lot of my force not to smile.”
When we spoke, Ben hadn’t decided if he would say yes to a national tour.
“I’m not really sure. Because, I mean, this has been a really fun experience, but I do miss a lot of school,which was a big thing. And I do have a lot of friends inside of school,” Ben says. “It is very fun to do all this.And it is a lot of training. A lot of hard work. But once you get into the shows, it’s super fun.”
And the boys say they like that the cast treats them like people, rather than “just kids.”
No matter what the future brings, the experience brought both the boys and the moms new friendships.
“They’ve made really good friends thanks to that,”says Ben’s mom, Heidi, as the boys sit in the theater lobby with arms draped over each other’s shoulders like long-time buddies.
She says the cast and crew have made them feel welcome. They’ve been “very nice and willing to teach me things. They’re very, very kind,” she says. “I didn’t feel like an outsider.”
The next audition at Broadway Palm? It’ll probably be this spring for the von Trapp children in “TheSound of Music.”
Since going to press, we've also learned that "Waitress" is coming back to Southwest Florida in 2020, this time at the Barbara B. Mann Performing Arts Hall on the campus of Florida SouthWestern State College in south Fort Myers.
Courtesy of Broadway Palm
Gianna Winton plays Ivanka in the musical "Once" at Broadway Palm in Fort Myers. The show goes on tour starting October 5 at the Barbara B. Mann Performing Arts Hall.