A great BIG THANK YOU! to the cast of “If My Friends Could See Me Now”. We had tons of people and lots of press, and had a blast blowing the socks off the Time Warner Center.
The video is in the works, but here’s the cast list for those of you not in the loop:
Heather Jane Rolff (Vocals and lead performer)
Tia Marie Zorne
Leasen Almquist
Katherine Schickert
Elena Gronlund
Nanette Michele
Tracey Petrillo
Tara Siesener
Carolyn Ockert
Cameron Adams
Pam Bradley
Jessica Sheridan
Liz Raccaneli
Michele Cavallero
Maria Totten
Laquet Sharnell
Nick Kepley
Kathy Calahan
Amber Owens
Patrick John Moran
Natahlie Paulding
Aaron Kaburick
Justin Greer
Andrew Hodge
Laura Schutter
Melissa Lone
Sarah Hutchison
Joe Komara
Rebecca Magazine
Kasey Huizinga
Nina Ordman
Maire-Rose Pike
Kerstin Porter
Natalie Oritz
Katie Anne Unger
Nikki Ghisel
Dawn Rene Fowler
Jessica Wu
Leigh Vaynberg
Directed and Choreographed by Josh Prince
Associate Choreographer, Sloan Just
BREAK OUT IN SONG launches today! And here’s when and where it’ll take place:
PERFORMANCE TIMES
TONIGHT - Time Warner Center, 6pm
7/17/09 - South Street Seaport (Fulton and Front Street), 5:45pm
7/18/09 - Intrepid, 3pm
7/19/09 - Times Square (in front of the Marquis), 1pm
Arrive early. And please don’t ruin the surprise for those who may not know (assume people don’t).
Also be sure to check out some of our rehearsal footage below!
Ryan Mackey had a dream, and today it’s coming true. His theater group, Break Out in Song, is staging its first performance, a large-scale pseudo-spontaneous dance number at Time Warner Center. Think of it as street performance with Broadway choreographers, hours of rehearsal and hundreds of dancers. Bring your friends, but don’t tell them what’s going on—Mackey wants them to be surprised. You’ve called the performances “spontaneous.” Does that word really describe what you do?
Well, they are rehearsed. And on our website we are announcing where and when the performances are happening, because we want people to go. But at the same time we want people to be surprised. We want it to feel spontaneous, like in a musical. Not everybody reads the newspaper—that’s the audience we’re looking for.
How do you recruit performers?
We had an open call. People we were so nervous—it was sweet. We told them it’s not about how good you are, it’s about having fun. We just need to assess your dancing ability so we know where to place you. If you show up, you’re going to get cast.
Do you expect passersby to join in?
I hope so. It’s up to them. More than anything I just want to see their reactions.
Do the sites correspond at all to the numbers performed there?
Yeah. For the Intrepid, “Anything Goes” takes place on a cruise ship. And then the number from Sweet Charity, which we’re doing at the Time Warner Center, takes place in a dance hall that’s like a palace. The Time Warner Center is very shiny and big, kind of like a palace.
What are you hoping to accomplish?
I want to inspire audiences to go see a show. There’s nothing like a Broadway musical. It’s one of those art forms you either love or hate, but when it’s done well, people really eat it up. I’ve been in love with musicals since I was seven years old. I would love to inspire another seven-year-old. Really we just want to make people smile, make people happy. There’s something universal about music itself. Everyone has a song in their heart, and this is a way to let it out.
Break Out in Song’s first performance is Thursday at 6 at the Time Warner Center, 10 Columbus Cir. (at Broadway). The performances continue for three more days, at various public spaces around the city. The full schedule is online, at breakoutinsong.com.
Posted in Upstaged by Adam Feldman on July 15th, 2009 at 5:37 pm
Have you ever imagined what it might be like to live in a musical-theater world, where ordinary people broke out into song on the street, backed up by passersby who happened to fall into tightly choreographed dance routines? This week, aspiring producer Ryan H. Mackey wants to gives you that experience via an ambitious project he callsBreak Out in Song. Once a day for the rest of the week, an all-out production number will erupt in a public place, to the delight, Mackey hopes, of surprised spectators. “We’re on a mission to inspire future theater artists and audiences,” he says. “And maybe shake a few things up within the industry. Lord knows something interesting needs to happen.”
If the resulting numbers are anything like this famous clip of a similar stunt in Belgium—orthis even more famous clip of Improv Everywhere’s more local disruption—then New York is in for a treat. Here’s the current schedule:
7/16/09: “If My Friends Could See Me Now,” Time Warner Center, 6pm
7/17/09: “Don’t Rain on My Parade,” South Street Seaport (Fulton and Front Street), 5:45pm
7/18/09: “Anything Goes,” Intrepid, 3pm
7/19/09: “Consider Yourself,” Times Square (in front of the Marquis), 1pm
If you do go to these places to check out the singing and dancing, try not to give away the game to spectators who might be surprised to discover that all the world can be a stage.
The Antwerp train station filled with “Do Re Mi” from “The Sound of Music.”
July 15, 2009
YOU’RE standing there, on the street or in a store, when suddenly there’s music — and everyone drops their bags to sing and dance.
No, it’s not your Prozac speaking. It’s Break Out in Song, a public-works project that kicks off tomorrow.
At 6 p.m. in the atrium of the Time Warner Center — stand on the second or third floor for the best view — 45 “shoppers” will hoof it to the (recorded) strains of “If My Friends Could See Me Now.”
Can’t see them then? More Break Outs are planned Friday and Saturday, at the South Street Seaport and the Intrepid flight deck. The dancers are the same; only the show tunes will change. Talk about budget Broadway!
Thank YouTube, where another bout of choreographed “spontaneity” — commuters and passers-by gyrating to “Do Re Mi” at a train station in Antwerp — generated millions of hits and galvanized one man in particular: Ryan Mackey, the 31-year-old force behind New York’s Break Out.
“This is the idea I had forever,” says the former assistant director for Broadway’s “The Boy From Oz,” who says he cashed in his 401(k) to pay for the musical rights and the choreographers. (It helps, he says, to have a boyfriend in copyright law — and the performers are working for free.)
Not everything panned out as he’d hoped.
“I wanted to do ‘Seventy-Six Trombones’ in Times Square with the Brooklyn Steppers marching band, but I couldn’t get the rights,” he says.
Nor was he able to persuade the Top of the Rock to open its doors to “On a Clear Day You Can See Forever.”
Nevertheless, he’s hopeful — some corporate sponsors might come calling and pay for Break Outs of their own.
In the meantime, there’s always YouTube.
For more info, visit
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