South Brunswick Kids Rock Times Square for Disney

For years, South Brunswick's New Jersey Repertory Theatre has offered residents an opportunity to see high quality plays and performances put on by the scores of talented kids in the area. But earlier this month, the child performers of the NJRT got the chance to bring their talents to a much larger stage in Times Square, as part of a promotion to launch the Disney Channel's "Phineas and Ferb" cross-country bus tour.  

"Disney contacted (Crossroads Middle School music teacher) Lisa Lepore after her choir appeared on a Fox TV morning show to promote their show 'Glee' and asked if we could send six kids to be part of the Disney promotion," said NJRT founder Phyllis Kristjanson. "This was after school had ended and it was tough to get all the kids back, so she asked if we wanted to do it, and we said yes, but we have 20 talented kids."

Disney said they'd be open to not only having the 20 NJRT kids perform, but they also got to be the opening act for the unveiling of the "Perry the Platybus" vehicle in Times Square. The bus will cross the country as part of the Disney Channel’s summer of “Phineas and Ferb.”

"At first they were going to combine a bunch of choirs for the opening act, but then they decided to let us be the stars," Kristjanson said.

The tour is planned to celebrate the hit animated series and build excitement for the Disney Channel original movie, “Phineas and Ferb: Across the 2nd Dimension,” which premiers Aug. 5 on the Disney Channel.

"They sent a bus for us and we got to feel like rock stars," Kristjanson said. "The kids got to have their hair and makeup done, the creators and stars signed autographs. It was just a wonderful experience."

The NJRT was sent a song from the movie to learn, and also had to put together choreography for the performance in just four days. But for the kids, the hard work was well worth the payoff.

"It was just amazing, a great experience and an opportunity to have a lot of people see us perform," said Jessica Heyer, 13, an incoming freshman at South Brunswick High School. "This was the biggest thing any of us have ever done."

Other performers said the experience was made even more special by the people they got to share it with.

"It was so much fun to do this with people you know and love to be with," said Nicole Curnan, 9, a student at St. Augustine's of Canterbury School. "They showed our performance on the jumbo screen in Times Square. We couldn't see ourselves because we were performing. But it's on YouTube. Check us out."

Nicole added that the only part of the performance that was truly difficult was waking up at 4 a.m. But all the kids said the sacrifice of waking up early during the summer was worth it.

"They did our hair and makeup just like professionals, so this was just a once in a lifetime experience," said Kaitlyn Rone, 13, a student at Crossroads South. "Once it was over, it was like this feeling of 'wow I just did that.' It was also pretty cool to be the first people to see their big bus."

Jill Grzelak, 12, a student at Crossroads, said the chance to meet some of the characters from the show was also a worthy trade-off for their hard work.

"It was a huge opportunity so we practiced a lot, but we got to meet the characters, get their autographs and go on this huge bus with video games and karaoke," Jill said. "Once we were done practicing, we all just wanted to start the performance now. We felt like superstars. We were all so proud of ourselves."

For 13-year-old Crossroads South student Austin Calvano, getting hair and makeup done was a bit of an adjustment, as he said he didn't think a boy would need the touch-up. But all nerves subsided and were replaced by exhilaration once the performance began.

"I don't think we ever considered that Times Square is as big as it is because of all the people there," Austin said. "But we were more excited about performing than we were nervous, and once we got done we wanted to do it again."

The kids all said the chance to show off what they can do on such a large stage is something they will always carry with them.

"I'll always just think of how lucky we all are," Jill said. "Out of all the kids in the world, the 20 of us got to do this out of everyone."

Others said they hope the performance was a springboard for even bigger things to come for the NJRT kids.

"When I look back on this, it was a great opportunity to be seen by people really high up in the industry," Jessica said. "I hope they notice that the NJRT has talent and they can use that talent."