From Off-Broadway to Sharon: Zombie Prom Comes Full Circle

Aug 19

By Lee Davies

Zombie Prom is the second production of the Sharon Playhouse Launchpad Company; a pre-professional program open exclusively to actors between the ages of 15-20. This exclusive production will play in the Bobbie Olsen Theater, August 21-23, and will be directed by DJ Salisbury, choreographed by Michelle Lemon, and music directed by Eric Thomas Johnson. And coming full circle, our director DJ Salisbury was part of the original Off-Broadway cast of Zombie Prom!

In the vein of parody musicals like Grease and Little Shop of Horrors, Zombie Prom is a 1950s atomic-era musical comedy about students at Enrico Fermi High School, located near a very unstable nuclear power plant, and a good girl named Toffee who falls for the school bad boy, Jonny. When parental pressure forces Toffee to break up with him, Jonny leaps into a nuclear waste dump, returns as a green nuclear zombie, and tries to take her to the prom despite the tyrannical principal’s resistance.

Zombie Prom originated as an Off-Broadway musical with music by Dana P. Rowe and a book and lyrics by John Dempsey. It was first produced at the Red Barn Theatre in Key West, Florida, and opened Off-Broadway at the Variety Arts Theatre in 1996.

The Sharon Playhouse is thrilled to welcome DJ Salisbury, an award-winning Director-Choreographer who has spent decades doing exactly what he was put on this planet to do — making theater. His work has graced stages from coast to coast, including Paper Mill Playhouse, Ogunquit Playhouse, Kansas City Starlight, Dallas Summer Musicals, Maine State Music Theatre, Orlando Shakespeare Theatre, Riverside Theatre, and Pioneer Theatre Company, among many others. His journey to the director’s chair included a formative stint assisting Tommy Tune and Jeff Calhoun on the Broadway production of The Will Rogers Follies. His work has earned recognition including the Stage Scene LA “Scenie Award” for Best Director. DJ’s approach is rooted in a simple but powerful conviction: great theater serves the story first. Whether helming an intimate drama or a full-throttle musical spectacular, he brings inventive staging, organic choreography, and a contagious passion to every project — while cultivating the kind of collaborative room where every voice matters and the best idea always wins. Renowned colleagues and Artistic Directors alike have called him a “positive force of nature” with a gift for making everyone around him feel like a valued contributor.

The talented Zombie Prom cast features Callie Audia (Dover Plains, NY) as Miss Delilah Strict, Alex Wilbur (Lakeville, CT) as Eddie Flagrante, Carlo Desy (Fairfield, CT) as Jonny, Abby Callaway (Woodbury, CT) as Toffee, Charlotte Wise (New Milford, CT) as Candy, Brianna Vivace (Poughkeepsie, NY) as Coco, Ellis Bell (New Milford, CT) as Ginger, Caitlyn Kops (Scarsdale, NY) as Ramona Merengue, Liam Murphy (Falls Village, CT) as Josh, Jakob Kerr-Lucero (Dover Plains, NY) as Jake, Richie Crane (Canaan, CT) as Joey, Callan Scott (Sharon, CT) as the Announcer, Annika Gustafson (Kent, CT) as Secretary, Emily R. Burg (Hopewell Junction, NY) as Toffee’s Mother/Dance Captain, Aubrey Grimes (Windsor, CT) as Make-Up Lady, Vivian Burnham (Washington, CT) as Stage Manager, and Charlie Bocompani Sherman, CT), Phoebe Amankwah (Avon, CT), and Kennadi Mitchell (Lakeville, CT) round out the Ensemble. This production is Produced by Stephanie & BJ Colaric and Amy Danis & Mark Johannes, with The White Hart in Salisbury, CT as Associate Producer.

Zombie Prom will be performed in the Bobbie Olsen Theater at the Sharon Playhouse on Friday, August 21 at 7PM, with additional performances on Saturday, August 22 at 7PM, and a final matinee on Sunday, August 23 at 3PM.

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