After I graduated high school, a bunch of my friends were going to the Chicago open call for performers at Disney theme parks and managed to convince me to come along. I had never taken a real audition and was totally unprepared. I had no dance shoes or sheet music, so I went barefoot and sang “Miracle of Miracles” from Fiddler on the Roof (the only show I had done in high school). I pulled the choreographer, Barnett Ricci, onto the floor to sing to her (clueless!). Stunned, in part out of curiosity, they gave me a job as the boy singer in Fantasy Follies. While I was in Orlando, another group of friends decided to go to Pittsburgh, Pennsylvania, to audition for the Pittsburgh CLO to try and get their Equity cards (this was pre-union Disney days) and I tagged along. Sound familiar? (I brought shoes and music this time). We all camped out in a hotel room together near the Benedum Center and once again, I sang “Miracle of Miracles” as my up-tempo. I made my Equity debut as a tap-dancing crow in The Wizard of Oz, a coronet man in Funny Girl and sporting a Mohawk as The Wild Horse in Annie Get Your Gun. That winter, I went to my first Broadway open call at the Equity building. It was a madhouse, something like 700 guys. I sang my lucky song and got the job. The show? Fiddler on the Roof. “Miracle of Miracles” indeed!
