The 5th Avenue Theatre in
Seattle is the pinnacle of success for South Sound musical theater performers,
and local favorite Matthew Posner is quickly climbing the ladder of success at
the 5th Ave—with a song in his heart and a boatload of acting skill.
For Posner performing at the 5th Ave was a dream even before he
moved to Western Washington from the East Coast. His parents, who moved out
here shortly after Matt graduated high school, were season ticket holders, and
from them he knew it was the place he wanted to perform above all others.
Soon after moving here he auditioned for
Stephen Sondheim’s hit musical Into the
Woods and got a callback but didn’t get cast. He auditioned at the 5th
Ave 10 more times before finally being cast as Smokey in Damn Yankees in 2012.
Between that first audition for Into the Woods and finally being cast in Damn Yankees he rocked and rolled and
crooned audiences in Tacoma and Olympia that were overwhelmed by his talent
and, more importantly, by how thoroughly he threw himself into every role he
played in such shows as:
- · Joseph and the Amazing Technicolor Dreamcoat (in the lead role as Joseph), as Mark in Rent and Cornelius in Hello Dolly at Tacoma Musical Playhouse
- · And in various roles in Stardust Christmas Carol, The Final Stardust and Sixties Kicks at Harlequin Productions in Olympia
Posner was born in Indiana, the youngest of three
boys. He says they moved around a lot but lived in New Hampshire for 21 years.
As a child he taught himself to imitate the voices
of cartoon characters. That led to a school production of The Wizard of Oz
when he was in the sixth grade. When asked to sing for an audition, the only
song he could think of was “Happy Birthday.” That didn’t get him a part, but
the director later saw him playing around with cartoon voices and put him in
the show.
After he finished school his parents moved to
Washington, but he stayed on the East Coast where he studied at Plymouth State
University and NYU’s Tisch School of the Arts. He was in the national tour of Camelot
playing Lancelot and contracted with a theater in Tennessee, but that didn’t
work out and he relocated to the Seattle area and started rebuilding his
musical theater career starting with work in community theaters in Tacoma and
Olympia.
In 2008 I chose him as Best Actor
in a Musical for my “Critic’s Choice” column in The News tribune, commending
him for outstanding performances in three separate roles: Joe Hardy in Damn Yankees, Danny in Grease at Tacoma Musical Playhouse and
Buddy Foster in Side Show at Capital
Playhouse.
Since moving to Seattle and getting
a part in Damn Yankees he has
performed in A Christmas Story, Oliver,
Second Hand Lions, and Pirates of
Penzance at the 5th Ave and will be in their latest production,
Rogers and Hammerstein’s Carousel, playing Feb. 5
to March 1. Carousel is being presented in collaboration with Spectrum Dance
Theater. This will be the theater’s fourth major collaboration with Spectrum.
Carousel is a personal favorite
for Richard Rodgers. It’s
the story of carousel barker Billy Bigelow and his romance with millworker
Julie Jordan. Many all-time favorite songs are featured, such as “You’ll Never
Walk Alone,” “If I Loved You” and “June is Busting Out All Over.”
Billy is played by
Brandon O’Neill, who has just returned to Seattle after a year on Broadway in
Disney’s Alladin. Julie is played by Laura Griffith, a veteran of
several Broadway shows and national tours.
She was recently seen as the Lady of the Lake in the 5th Ave’s
Monty Python’s Spamalot. Billie Wildrick, Laura Griffith, and Anne Allgood
also star.
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