Actress, Educator Shares 'Five Years' in Parsippany

For the many North Jersey theater fans who have seen her act or heard her sing, the name Lea Antolini may be worth the price of admission by itself.

A full-time instructor at Centenary College in Hackettstown, the professional actress and Sparta resident has limited her stage work mostly to Centenary and the kid-oriented Growing Stage in nearby Netcong.

But this week, she will make her regional debut as a romantic lead in “The Last Five Years,” yet another intimate musical staged by the . Friday and Saturday performances through March 18 are at 8 p.m., with Sunday matinees beginning at 3 p.m.

Since taking residence at the several years ago, this small professional company, traditionally dedicated to showcasing the work of female playwrights, has earned a reputation for staging splendid revivals of smaller musicals.

Jason Robert Brown’s little gem certainly fits the bill. This two-character, one-act affair won a Drama Desk award for its off-Broadway premiere in 2002.

Antolini plays Cathy, a struggling actress who is dramatically involved with Jamie, a rising novelist, played by James Sasser of New York. As always, you get an up-close and personal view of their romance in the company’s cozy, 99-seat Parsippany Playhouse.

The twist that Brown brings to this potential cliché is each character tells the story from his or her own point of view, with Cathy starting at the end, and Jamie from the beginning.

“It’s very challenging and I’m very excited about the challenge,” Antolini said. “It’s going to be a new audience for me and this will be a new piece for a lot of them. I’m excited and curious to see how they respond. It’s a real cult favorite, a piece about young people, but it’s really universal to any age.”

The appeal of the play, and her friendship with director Lauren Mills of Boonton, helped to draw Antolini out of her geographic comfort zone.

“It’s really hard to fit any part into my schedule,” said Antolini, who teaches dance, acting and voice at Centenary College, and also is an education director with the school’s professional Centenary Stage Company.

For several years, she demonstrated her versatile skills in a variety of colorful roles at the Growing Stage. Of late, she performs mainly with the Centenary Stage Company, which expanded its stage program in 2010 following a move to the expansive new David and Carol Lackland Center. Her most recent role was as a spritely Ghost of Christmas Past in Centenary’s massive 2011 production of “A Christmas Carol.”

Her powerful voice, nimble choreography and gifts for physical comedy have earned her a reputation as the kind of performer who can steal a show with a single scene.

She won’t need to do that in Parsippany as she stands alone for much of the evening.

“There’s only one scene where the timelines meet and we’re together,” Antolini noted. “And some of the songs are really long. I’ve had to put a lot of time into this.”

Fortunately, the isolation onstage didn’t carry over to backstage, where she says she’s enjoyed a very warm rapport with her costar, and with Mills and musicians Warren Helms and Tim Metz, the creative team responsible for so many enjoyable WTC musicals in recent years.

“I’ve known Lea for years, and were super-tight when we were teaching together on Saturday mornings at the Growing Stage, maybe 10 years ago,” Mills said. “But it was actually Warren who saw her in a show at Centenary and said, ‘Please come out to audition’ [for "The Last five Years"]. I was thrilled when I heard she would. The producer (company founder and Parsippany resident Barbara Krajkowski) always has the last word, but we were all unanimous that Lea was the best choice to pay Cathy.”

“It’s been very comfortable, especially with Lauren, who I knew from the Growing Stage. I’m a director myself, so it’s sometimes hard to let someone direct me. But Lauren is very comfortable with an open process. And it’s so much easier for an actor when the director is open to your ideas. She’s not trying to make us something we’re not. She’s letting you bring what you’re good at to the surface.”

Sasser also will be making his company debut.

“He’s terrific, too,” Mills said. “And it’s great seeing both of them onstage. They really get lost in the characters.”

Mills added that she expects the audience to also appreciate Brown’s score, which covers a wide variety of styles that Mills says “has a contemporary feel to it, and of course Warren and Tim have a great feel for it. It’s a very, very challenging score. When you listen to the CD, it sounds easy, but it’s not.”

The Women’s Theater Company production of “The Last Five Years” runs March 2-18 at the Parsippany Community Center’s Parsippany Playhouse, 1130 Knoll Road, Parsippany. Tickets $20, $18 seniors. For online ticket purchase or information, visit www.womenstheater.org or call 973-316-3033.