'Choices: A Rock Opera,' Chappaqua Homecoming With Broadway Dreams

CHAPPAQUA, NY — When the curtain rises at the Chappaqua Performing Arts Center over Veterans Day weekend, two Horace Greeley graduates performing before a hometown crowd will take a step toward realizing a fledgling production's Broadway ambitions, after early performances created an immediate buzz.

Elana Cantor and Katie Weinstein told Patch that the roundabout journeys, which brought the two former schoolmates together in front of the footlights where they grew up, make the early success "Choices: A Rock Opera" is enjoying that much sweeter.

While Cantor enjoyed success honing her craft on the left coast, she is no stranger to the Chappaqua Performing Arts Center. Cantor grew up performing on the CPAC stage with her children’s theater group she was involved with in high school. She said that this opportunity gives her a rare chance to perform in her hometown again.

"It feels right," Cantor, a recent UCLA graduate, said. "It feels like things have come full circle."

Weinstein, who now lives in Manhattan, has not performed in musical theater since middle school. The recent Cornell graduate's passion was always dance. The serendipity of her mother, Dawn Levy-Weinstein, who has lived in Chappaqua for 23 years, being involved in the project and the fact that the production was being workshopped in the Hudson Valley, led her to step out of her comfort zone. It will also give her a rare chance to perform for friends and family close to home.

"Honestly, I've always thought of myself as a dancer," Weinstein explained. "If it weren't for 'Choices,' I don't know that I would have considered musical theater, but this really just feels like it was meant to be."

As engaging as the story of two charismatic hometown performers pursuing careers in the arts and perhaps a chance at immortality on the Great White Way is, it is the Faustian tale of a fictional rock idol that will take center stage once the lights dim.

Broadway’s MiG Ayesa, of "Burn the Floor" and "Rock of Ages" fame, stars in "Choices: A Rock Opera," a new musical with an original score by John Krupa about a driven but naïve lead singer of a 1980s spandex-wearing, hairspray Rock band.

According to producers, lyrical melodies uniquely juxtaposed against heavy metal guitars and screaming synthesizers, are helping to gain "Choices" many fans. The Rock Opera follows the lead singer on a journey through roadblocks, dilemmas and moral ambiguities while a mysterious man promises super-stardom, friends and fans, and a captivating woman shows him a world beyond his passionate focus that has garnered the band’s success, yet which has stunted his own personal evolution. Torn between a life of domestic bliss and a life of fame, can he make the true choice?

Well, you'll just have to see for yourself.

The musical is billed as an introspective, authentic depiction of the pulsating and electrifying '80s Rock era, while the story is the music in this modern coming of age musical for all audiences.

John Krupa directs a cast of 16, including Krupa and Ayesa as well as Nick Celio, Layla DaVias, Ronnie DiMaria, Annemarie Josephson, Christina Labrador, Joe Leo, and Dave O’Briskie, with Holly Block, Lielle Burk, Elana Cantor, Elle Randall, Moriah Ritchie, Katie Weinstein and Mia Williams.

Orchestrations by Artie Dillon, Mike Rosenman, Tommy Vinton and Grammy Award-winning producer William “Bill” Wittman (Kinky Boots, Cyndi Lauper), who are also members of the band, are rounded out by Hank DeCora, Jonathan Flaks and Felix Guiffra.

Following successful, sold out April workshop productions of "Choices," three performances will now be staged over Veterans Day weekend at 8 p.m. on Friday, Nov. 11 and Saturday, Nov. 12, with a 2 p.m. show on Sunday, Nov. 13, at the Chappaqua Performing Arts Center.

The Veterans Day performance of the show will be a fundraiser for the nonprofit Wounded Warrior Project. In honor of their first performance on Veterans Day, "Choices: A Rock Opera" will donate a portion of ticket sales to directly support Wounded Warrior Project programs and services, including access to mental and physical health care, employment assistance and education services.

"With six new songs and an enhanced storyline, we are excited to continue to explore the characters and music in this new full production," Krupa said of the project's evolution. "Our talented cast of Broadway, off-Broadway and regional theater performers continue to bring this important story to life."

Two of those talented performers are already stars in town, and maybe, just maybe, like the hero of the show, they will soon find themselves on the cusp of their big break. And we can all say we saw them perform way back when, long before "Choices: a Rock Opera" was a household name.

Tickets are $40, plus a $2.50 service fee. For tickets and additional information, visit the show's website.

This article was updated to correct and clarify biographical information about Elana Cantor and Katie Weinstein.