There's No Business Like Show Business

East Lyme's Pennsylvania Avenue may be a long way from New York's 42nd Street but there was a full house and a lot of dancing feet at Broadway Kids & Company School of Performing Arts open house in Niantic last night.

With stars in their eyes and songs in their hearts, kids of all ages were there to sign up for upcoming classes in theater jazz, tap, ballet, lyrical, and hip hop dance, as well as acting classes and private vocal lessons starting in September.

Founded in 2000, Broadway Kids & Company specializes in musical theater and typically puts on two to four shows a year at regional theaters including the Ivoryton Playhouse, the Garde Arts Center in New London, and the Katherine Hepburn Theater in Old Saybrook.

This year, Waterford students from Broadway Kids & Company also performed in the much acclaimed WATERFORDrama production of Les Miserables at Waterford High School. There are shows for the older kids, including adults, and shows for the younger children so they can get the feel for the footlights.

The primary goal of the company is to provide theatrical training for children but there are plenty of classes for adults too, from tap and jazz to yoga and zumba, and maybe a little hip hop too. Vocal lessons are open to all ages and there are usually roles for adults in the company's musical theater productions too. 

Broadway Kids & Company's new location is about 1,000 square feet larger than its previous location in the Bridal Mall in East Lyme. The facility now offers not just one but two dance studios and a vocal booth. There's a large greenroom which offers ample space for the company's growing collection of costumes too. 

"I wanted the New York Studio feeling," said Broadway Kids & Company founder and Artistic Director Kristin Burrows.

It's a far cry from where the company started. 

"We started in the basement of my home," said Burrows, who lives in Waterford. "The kids called themselves 'the basement kids.'"

Today, she said, many of those original "kids" are in college, studying theater and music.  

Broadway Kids & Company will have its official ribbon-cutting ceremony the week of September 10. To sign up for classes or for more information, call (860) 691-0060 or email broadwaykidsco@sbcglobal.net.