'Millie' marks close of Plays-in-the-Park season
Woodbridge native had male lead in play's 10-day run
BY KATHY CHANG Staff Writer

PHOTOS BY SCOTT FRIEDMAN Above: Prior to the curtain opening, the cast huddles together and joins hands for support on Aug. 18 at the production of "Thoroughly Modern Millie," sponsored by the Middlesex County Department of Parks and Recreation during the 45th anniversary season of Plays-in-the-Park at Roosevelt Park, Edison. At right: Woodbridge resident Russell Fischer prepares to portray Jimmy Smith, while Maggie Siegrist, Piscataway, prepares for the role of Ruth.

EDISON - As Middlesex County's Plays-in-the-Park celebrates its 45th anniversary, the cast of "Thoroughly Modern Millie" closed out the park's final outside play of the 2007 season.

The show, which ran in the park Aug. 8- 18, brought crowds of people with their lawn chairs to Roosevelt Park in Edison.

"Thoroughly Modern Millie," directed by David Christopher and choreographed by Michele Mossay-Cuevas, is a high-spirited musical romp set in New York City in 1922. The show included a full score of bright dance numbers filled with frisky flappers, dashing leading men, and a villainous dragon-lady, Ms. Meers, played by Judy Laganga .

Christopher, who has both acted in and directed plays for over 40 years, said there was a challenge to directing this play.

"This was a very stylized piece," he said. "It was different from other shows that I have directed because it is not phony or a farce, it is realistic."

Mossay-Cuevas, the resident choreographer and dance instructor for Paper Mill Playhouse Theatre Conservatory, said the play had a lot of dance numbers to choreograph.

"We needed tap dancers, and the dancers were all wonderful," she said.

Kristen Bussiere, 25, Edison, who played the lead role of Millie Dillmount, said her character is like any other girl who moves to New York City trying to make it in the Big Apple.

"I can even relate to my character because I'm going through the same thing," said Bussiere, who is working toward becoming a musical-theater actress in New York City.

Bussiere graduated from Kean University in Union with a master's degree in speech pathology and minors in theater and psychology.

"Millie is the symbolic American dream, fresh off the bus from Kansas," said Bussiere, who is in her seventh summer at Plays-in-the- Park. "She is fun-loving, hard-working and determined to marry well - basically what every girl pictures."

Bussiere's sister Megan, who is in her fifth summer at the park, played Miss Dorothy Brown and shared the stage with her sister in the song "How the Other Half Lives."

Megan is following in her older sister's footsteps and is a speech pathology major and theater minor at Kean University.

Fischer, who made his debut at Plays-inthe Park this year, said the 25-member cast brought their A-game, which made the show successful.

"Everyone is just so incredible," said Fischer, a senior music theater major at Westminster Choir College in Princeton and a Woodbridge High School graduate. "I am thrilled and excited to make my debut here."

Fischer said his character, Jimmy Smith, is a city slicker who likes to be mischievous.

"But if you look at his core, he is a good person," he said. "He starts falling for one girl [Millie], which is very unusual for him. By the end of Act 1, with the song "What Do I Need With Love?," he battles between his catharsis, but he finally realizes he has it bad for one person."

Fischer said that throughout the show, his character puts Millie through a round of tests as he disguises himself as a man who is living from job to job, but in fact he is an heir to a multimillion-dollar fortune.

The Plays-in-the-Park theater company, which partners with the Middlesex County Board of Chosen Freeholders, has been producing three or four full-scale musicals each summer for 10 performances each, complete with large union orchestras, for 45 years. The lighting, scenery and costume designs of each show are generally based on the Broadway originals or national touring companies.

Gary Cohen has been a producer for Plays-in-the-Park for 17 years and has directed over 50 musicals and plays, designed dozens of sets as well as lighting for eight productions, and produced every show.

The plays at the theater company this summer also included "The Buddy Holly Story," a musical celebration of the legendary singer/songwriter Buddy Holly, who shot to stardom in 1957 only to die in a plane crash two years later alongside 17-year-old Ritchie Valens and J.P. Richardson, aka the "Big Bopper."

The plays also included "Once Upon A Mattress," which was written as an adaptation of the fairy tale "The Princess and the Pea." The annual children's indoor musical theater presentation, which is in its 15th year, will feature "Rapunzel" in October. The company builds a heated and covered extension to their backstage space in the same building where the summer shows are held in Edison.

In December, the theater company will present "Joseph and the Amazing Technicolor Dreamcoat" at the State Theatre in New Brunswick. The production has been a holiday tradition for the past 13 years.

For more information about Plays-in-the- Park visit www.playsinthepark.com or call (732) 548-1484.