ONSTAGE
“Disaster”
Open-ended run at St. Luke's Theatre. $49.50-$79.50. 308 W. 46th St., New York. 1-800-432-7250, www.telecharge.com.
Accomplished 13-year-old actor-singer Jonah Verdon followed a tweet from his east Cobb County home all the way to off-Broadway, where he's playing boy and girl twins in the acclaimed musical spoof of '70s disaster flicks, "Disaster."
The tweet, from Seth Rudetsky, the show’s co-writer, actor and afternoon Broadway host on Sirius XM radio, was seeking a boy who not only boasted a great voice but also could act.
A home-schooled eighth-grader with a growing list of credits, including appearances with the Atlanta Opera and in the Alliance Theatre’s “Zorro” musical last season, Jonah figured he was just the kid for the job.
With his own Tumblr and Facebook pages and Twitter account, the effervescent teen has plenty of social media outlets where he details his on-the-rise career, describing most matters as “awesome” and ending most sentences with multiple exclamation points.
By now, you may be wondering how Jonah even knew who Rudetsky was, and why was the “Disaster” co-writer casting such a wide net for a child star when the five boroughs are chock-full of them?
Margie Verdon, who is chaperoning her son in New York, figures a Twitter prompt suggested Jonah follow Rudetsky, whose name was familiar to him. The 13-year-old follows many people he’s met through acting, as well as Broadway stars, producers and composers, performing arts venues, arts organizations and news outlets.
Hard to believe, but Rudetsky simply had not found a boy with the right combination of talents. But when Jonah, who was modeling a red cast on his arm from a bike accident, responded to the tweet with a homemade video in which he explained, “As you can see, I have had my own biking disaster,” the “Disaster” co-creator was intrigued.
The stars aligned because Jonah was already planning a trip to New York, having secured a singing spot in a competition at the Broadway supper club 54 Below. He sang Queen’s “Somebody to Love” there on Sept. 19, aced his audition for “Disaster” on Sept. 20 and moved with his mom to New York on Sept. 28 to begin rehearsals.
The show soon earned a rave review from The New York Times, which noted, "The young Jonah Verdon brilliantly captures the feisty cuteness of the kids who populated '70s movies and television shows, playing boy-girl twins in a running gag that has him slapping on a wig and baseball cap to play the tomboyish sister."
“A fantastic whirlwind” is how Margie Verdon described the dizzying ride. “Each day is a new adventure,” she added by cellphone last Friday afternoon while shepherding Jonah and visiting buddies from Atlanta to lunch.
Jonah’s dad, Mike, and his two little brothers arrived in New York on Monday, so the family can have Thanksgiving together.
Jonah’s mom credited two of the organizations where her son has trained, Atlanta Workshop Players and Broadway Dreams Foundation, with helping him stay grounded.
“They both do an excellent job of teaching the kids that success is always possible for you, but that, especially in this business, success can be fleeting,” said Margie Verdon, who works in a medical research practice in Woodstock. (Jonah’s dad is an environmental physicist.)
Still it must be heady for Jonah when he gets paid backstage visits by the likes of Tina Fey and Andrea McArdle, herself a former Broadway baby — all documented, of course, at jonahverdon.tumblr.com.
Jonah, talking via his mom’s cellphone with the same charisma he exudes on stage, said what impressed him was that even famous stars have a hard-work ethic. “I’m like ‘Wow, so they’re working just as hard as everyone else.’ And, like, ‘Yes!’”
“Disaster” is playing an open-ended run at St. Luke’s Theatre, with tickets on sale through February, and Jonah said with brio, “If I had control, I would stay in it forever.”
Sharing the stage with Rudetsky and a raft of other playful adult actor-singers has only made him more certain than ever that he wants to act forever.
“But also on the side, I would love to run a duct tape business,” added Jonah, who accurately bills himself atop his Tumblr page as “Actor, Singer, Duct Tape Sculptor, Kid Extraordinaire.”
