Theater Review: 'Miscast' by Bright Young Things of Connecticut

Review by Nancy Sasso Janis

The Bright Young Things of Connecticut produced a(nother) sequel on the stage of the Phoenix Stage Company in Oakville this weekend. The theme of the latest cabaret was “Roles We Shouldn't Get to Play: A Miscast Cabaret.”

Bright Young Things is a group of performers under the age of 30.

In January, The Bright Young Things brought a large group of favorite villains to this venue in a musical cabaret called “It’s Our House Now.” The set list included the songs performed by the villain in a wide variety of Broadway musicals, films and television and internet series.

On social media, organizers had described this musical cabaret as “a miscast performance (that) features singers presenting numbers they’d NEVER be cast in for the original show.” The matinee I attended was a fun performance of gender-bending, age-inappropriate, and ‘against type’ performances. I loved the funny touches added to some of the numbers and the sometimes cheeky introductions to the various songs.

The cast of the cabaret included Chad Celini, Destiny Whitten, Emily Paris, Katerina Levasseur, Katherine A. Griffin, Matthew Benson, Syd Sebastian and the incredibly talented Killian Meehan.
The first act opened with a song from the Muppets “We’re Doing a Sequel.” It was followed by miscast songs from “Dogfight,” “Waitress,” “Spring Awakening,” “Guys and Dolls” and “Hadestown,” until ending with “Money, Money, Money” from “Mamma Mia!” Katerina sang “What Do I Need with Love” from “Thoroughly Modern Millie.”

It was fun to see girls singing “Sherry” as the Jersey Boys, and Syd taking on the character of Adolpho in “Drowsy Chaperone” and Aladdin in “One Jump Ahead.” Chad shone in “I Won’t Say I’m in Love” from “Hercules.” I enjoyed the choreography of the girls in “Brotherhood of Man” from “How to Succeed” and the vocals of Destiny and Katerina for “What You Own” from “Rent.”

The second act opened with a grown up(ish) company version of “It’s a Hard Knock Life” from “Annie.” Matthew got to sing “World Burn” from “Mean Girls,” and Katerina led the company for “Beauty School Drop Out” from “Grease,” with Killian wearing the infamous pink wig. Katherine sang another song from “Annie,” “Maybe,” with Matthew a riot as a remarkably accurate Sandy the dog. The boys sang “Mama I’m a Big Girl Now” from “Hairspray,” and the entire company performed “Seize the Day” from the movie version of “Newsies.”

Katherine got to be Shrek for “Who I’d Be,” and Killian performed “They Just Keep Moving the Line” from the television show “Smash.” Destiny showed off her voice with “Step One” from “Kinky Boots.” Emily had great comic timing in many of the numbers.

Griffin choreographed all of the dances with assistant choreographer Matthew Benson. Kudos to Stage Manager Daniela Perez for holding it all together.

Al Hathway was in charge of the lighting design. Costumes and props (think Shrek ears) were provided by the host venue, Kaso Dezine LLC and Paula Murphy.

All of the cast members work as co-directors. Killian’s mom Paula Murphy, the company manager, and Phoenix Stage Company were the producers of the cabaret.