Broadway in the Hood returns to Smith Center

You can take Broadway in the Hood out of the 'hood — which is exactly what happens this weekend as the theater troupe launches its 2015-16 season at The Smith Center with "Once on This Island."

The Caribbean-flavored musical fairy tale returns for five performances at the center's Troesh Studio Theater, where it played in March after its debut last December at the West Las Vegas Library Theatre.

Four additional Broadway in the Hood productions will follow "Once on This Island" to The Smith Center this season.

But you can never really take the 'hood out of Broadway in the Hood. That would be taking out the heart of an organization that exists at least as much for its players as its plays.

That seems apparent as founder and artistic director Torrey Russell presides over a recent "Once on This Island" rehearsal at North Las Vegas' First African Methodist Episcopal Church.

Before the music strikes up, Russell has some words of wisdom to share.

"We didn't get where we are because somebody gave it to us," he reminds his cast members. "We stand together."

Kids and adults alike stand by as Russell cues the music for "Once on This Island's" opening number.

Thunder rumbles, launching an onstage storm that prompts the performers to huddle together and share the tale that sets the musical in motion.

"Two different worlds, never meant to meet, but if the gods move our feet, we dance," cast members harmonize on Lynn Ahrens' lyrics, swaying to the infectious beat of Stephen Flaherty's music.

Russell observes the run-through, issuing rapid-fire comments (reminding performers to emote with a simple "Faces!" or encouraging them with "Now you're dancin'!") before standing and clapping his hands to mirror the cast's energetic moves.

But "Mr. Torrey," as Broadway in the Hood members call him, gets involved in more than singing and dancing.

"It's family," says 24-year-old Donte Miller, a three-year Broadway in the Hood member who lives "a spit and a sneeze" from the rehearsal site.

When Miller auditioned for the troupe, he was "a young black boy in a torn community, trying not to become a statistic," he recalls. "Mr. Torrey saw right through" his inexperience, and now he's "getting lead roles, singing, acting."

And while "Mr. Torrey is strict and stern," Miller says, it's "because he expects the best from his kids."

Broadway in the Hood "found" Donna Hill, 24, five years ago when she was living at a homeless shelter.

"Theater? Me?" she remembers her reaction at the time. "They say, 'Sing what you can,' and I belted out a tune. They just accepted me. They never asked me what I went through" to get there.

Whatever Broadway in the Hood members are going through, Miller and Hill note, Russell and his colleagues will help — with rent, a place to stay, whatever it takes. Even if it's just simple encouragement.

"It's really about understanding that we're all growing together," says Russell, who came to Las Vegas (from his native Norfolk, Va.) to direct operations for the touring musicals that played Aladdin's Theatre for the Performing Arts (now part of Planet Hollywood).

When Russell watched the audiences who attended the Aladdin musicals, he thought, " 'Wait a minute — there's a demographic that's not represented."

The same demographic that seemed to be missing from every Broadway show he attended — "Les Miserables," "Cats," "Phantom of the Opera" — until he saw "Once on This Island."

At that fateful performance, "the lights went down, and it was the first time I ever saw black people onstage, singing and dancing," Russell says. "To see myself represented on a Broadway stage inspired me."

That inspiration led him to found Broadway in the Hood, which for the first years of its existence staged its productions at the West Las Vegas Library.

Last year, however, Broadway in the Hood played The Smith Center, participating in the Nevada Sesquicentennial concert and a Golden Rainbow benefit in addition to presenting "Once on This Island."

Following "Island's" successful run at the Troesh, Russell approached officials at The Smith Center ("the mecca," as he calls the center) about expanding the group's presence there.

"We've had a really good experience with Torrey leading up to this," according to Smith Center CEO Myron Martin. "Torrey is very bright and extremely passionate about his work — and it shows."

In addition to drawing new audiences to Broadway in the Hood productions, The Smith Center season may inspire patrons to "start venturing out and going to see local productions around the valley," Martin suggests.

As for Broadway in the Hood members, they're looking forward to performing for new audiences at The Smith Center, says Miller, who used to gaze at the Symphony Park complex from his bus window as it drove past.

"I knew it was a beautiful building, and I thought, 'I want to be a part of it,' " he says. "I know I'm one step closer."

And now that "Once on This Island" is launching Broadway in the Hood's new season, Hill adds, "it's finally time that we shine."

For more stories from Carol Cling go to bestoflasvegas.com. Contact her at ccling@reviewjournal.com and follow @CarolSCling on Twitter.