SARAH GAWRON
The Broadway mega-hit “Disney’s Beauty and The Beast” makes a return visit to Hartford’s Bushnell on May 6-11. An adaptation of the 1991 Disney film, with music by Alan Menken, lyrics by Howard Ashman and Tim Rice, and a book by Linda Woolverton, “Beauty and The Beast” ran on Broadway for over 5,400 performances to become Broadway’s eighth longest-running production in history.
Westfield High School graduate Sarah Gawron plays the roles of “Silly Girl” and “Enchanted Object” in the Bushnell-bound national tour. As a kid, she began studies at New England Dance and Gymnastics in Westfield, but when she performed in a high school musical production of “Oklahoma”, she realized that musical theatre was her mission.
“I was mesmerized by the musical ’42nd Street’, which I saw at Springfield Symphony Hall”, says Gawron, “so I majored in musical theatre at James Madison University in Virginia. I did summer stock, and when I graduated, I moved to New York. I ended up joining a children’s theatre company in South Korea. We performed musicals like ‘Jack and The Beanstock’ and ‘Alice in Wonderland’ in English to Korean audiences who love theatre. American musicals are popular there”.
“I’d never travelled before, and I love to travel”, says Gawron, who has been crossing the country in “Disney’s Beauty and The Beast”. “I joined the company last year and did my first performances in Nashville.”
Gawron plans to remain with the national tour through mid-June.
“Being with ‘Disney’s Beauty and The Beast’ has been a wonderful experience”, says Gawron. “The musical is definite family fare, and it’s fun performing for young people, who may be at a live theatre performance for the very first time. When I was a kid, my sister and I would choreograph our own routines to a cassette recording of the movie soundtrack”.
Since her Westfield days, Gawron has compiled an impressive list of credits. At the Papermill Theatre in New Hampshire, she performed as Sally Brown in “You’re a Good Man, Charlie Brown”; as Graziella in “West Side Story”; as Bird Girl in “Seussical: The Musical”, and as Flossie in “On The Town”. In regional theatres, she has performed in “Christmas Spectacular”, “The Lost Colony”, “The Wild Party” and “Urinetown”.
Gawron is based in New York City, when she’s not on tour. She still polishes her dance moves at the Broadway Dance Center and the Astoria Fine Arts Center. She says that choreographer who has most influenced her is the late Bob Fosse.
Gawron’s family still lives in Westfield, and she’s looking forward to the performances at The Bushnell.
“It will be a great reunion with family and friends” she says.
Gawron is one of a handful of Westfield folks who have gone into show business. Don Pardo, the voice of “Saturday Night Live” since its premiere, was born in the Whip City (but grew up in Norwich, CT). Anne Pitoniak, the two-time Tony Award-nominated actress (for “Night Mother” and “Picnic”), called Westfield home.
The Bushnell run of ’s “Disney’s Beauty and The Beast” has family-friendly performance times: evening performances on Tuesday through Friday at 7 p.m.; matinees on Wednesday at 10:30 a.m., Saturday at 10:30 a.m. and 4 p.m., and Sunday at 2 p.m.
For tickets: 860-987-5900 or http://bushnell.org/
For more information on the “Disney’s Beauty and The Beast” National Tour: http://www.beautyandthebeastontour.com/
Mark G. Auerbach studied theatre at American University and the Yale School of Drama. He’s worked for arts organizations and reported on theatre for newspapers and radio.
