Casting
the
children
in
W.C. Fields famously remarked “never work with animals or children,” because they’re
invariably scene stealers. School of Rock, the Andrew Lloyd Webber/Julian Fellowes
musical, based on the Richard Linklater movie, doesn’t have any animals. But it has children
… a lot of them. And many of them play musical instruments. Very well. Rob Colletti, who
plays Dewey Finn on the national tour - the role made famous by Jack Black – doesn’t mind
sharing the stage with a bunch of pre-teens. “Honestly, it is so surprisingly wonderful,”
he says. “They are so much more adept at music than so many of the musicians I’ve
played with professionally.”
Finding these quadruple threat kids – they all need to sing, act and
dance, in addition to playing rock and roll – is casting director
Merri Sugarman’s task. With a couple of associates, she’s
constantly scouring videos, going to open calls
and looking at agent submissions in New
York and around the country,
©Matthew Murphy
Theodora Silverman and Rob Colletti
in School of Rock.