When 10-year-old Layla Cummings took part in a mock audition with renowned Broadway casting director Merri Sugarman at our Impact Musical Theater Camp in July, the last thing she expected was to be asked to try out in New York. But Merri was so impressed that she invited Layla to audition for the upcoming national tour of Les Misérables. Within days the young performer found herself singing Castle on a Cloud at Pearl Studios in Manhattan.
“The audition was really fast but so exciting, hustling and bustling just like New York,” said Layla, the youngest student at our first camp. “I was so excited because I knew I had done well before with Merri. The camp really made me feel prepared.”
Layla said she was speechless when she heard she’d been called in.
“It’s always been my dream to go to New York,” she said.
Her mom Laura said they had just two days to prepare. As well as booking flights and a hotel, Layla had to take an emergency lesson from her voice coach as she didn’t know young Cosette’s famous song.
“We had to drop everything, book a hotel and get out there,” she said. “It was nice. Layla had never been before. I had promised I would take her, so this was a great excuse.”
Layla and her mom waited anxiously in the packed studio before it was her turn.
“There were lots of shows auditioning at the same time,” said Laura. “There was a lot of very nervous energy from people warming up.”
Although Layla didn’t get the part, her mom made sure it was just a small part of a fabulous trip.
“I was pretty devastated, but mom said it would have been hard to do a tour as I’d have missed fifth grade,” she said.
On the bright side, they caught The Music Man and Wicked on Broadway and cheered themselves up with frozen hot chocolates at Serendipity.
Said Laura: “It’s all good. Since we came back, we’ve been getting a lot of interest from talent agencies so I think Layla will have an agent soon. We anxiously await the Academy’s fall schedule. It’s so next level. I had been looking at similar programs in New York so was blown away when they brought all this talent to Chicago. It was such an amazing experience. We are definitely missing something like this around here; for theater kids looking for that next level. They’ve given us lots of advice.”
