WHAT: "Brand New Kid."
WHEN: 2 p.m. Saturday.
WHERE: Victoria Theater, New Jersey Performing Arts Center, 1 Center St., Newark; 888-466-5722 or njpac.org.
HOW MUCH: $20, $22.
What? You didn't know that news anchor Katie Couric wrote a children's book? A book that's been turned into a piece of musical theater for kids?
Don't worry -- you're not alone. Actor Zach Colonna, who plays the lead character in that musical, didn't know about Couric's authorial turn either. At least, not before he got the part of Lazlo Gasky in "Brand New Kid," which comes to the New Jersey Performing Arts Center Saturday.
"Most people were kind of surprised and kind of intrigued" to find out about the show, said Colonna -- including himself.
But Couric's topic is something that everyone can relate to. Lazlo is the new kid in town, and in the musical he tries to fit in despite being different from the other children. Colonna knows what that's like.
"My dad got transferred around a lot," he explained. "I went to five or six different schools as a kid. Even if you don't have an accent, or have different-colored hair, it's hard as a kid."
Unfortunately, Lazlo does have those things against him: He has a Hungarian accent and bleached white hair. Colonna worked with a speech coach to achieve the accent and had his hair dyed to fit the part.
He also went back in time 16 years. The 23-year-old actor had to revert to a second-grade behavior and thinking pattern to play Lazlo.
"You have to make sure you're not overanalyzing as an adult," he said. "You have to feel everything directly."
If you fail onstage as a children's theater actor, he added, you will have no problem feeling everything: "The kids are really responsive, and they'll let you know if they don't like it."
They also show when they approve. In a dodge ball scene during "Brand New Kid," the school bully falls down trying to get the ball and is ridiculed by the other children. "The kids just scream and yell, they get up on their seat to see what he looks like on the ground," said Colonna.
But Colonna's personal favorite is the cafeteria scene -- the cafeteria being "the scariest place of all" for a new student. Lazlo enters, not sure where he will be allowed to sit, and joins the lunch line. There, a jaded lunch lady serves some rather ungrateful children.
"The kids all come in and talk the same way to her," said Colonna. "They all want their food now, and they all want their french fries. And she tries to fight back a little bit, to make them eat healthier food."
Lazlo is the first child to ask for vegetables, which pleasantly surprises the lunch lady, so much so that she gives him the fries. "It's Lazlo's first conquest," said Colonna with glee. "He's the only one who actually gets the fries."
There are some advantages to being new.
E-mail: shih@northjersey.com
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