The Penn Stater Magazine

Joyce Hoffman, the alumni coordinator in the College of Arts & Architecture, gave us a heads up a few weeks ago that a pretty recent alumnus of the musical theatre program was about to take over a starring role in West Side Story on Broadway. Matthew Hydzik ’05 had been an understudy to Matt Cavenaugh in the role of Tony (the West Side Story equivalent of Romeo), but Cavenaugh announced plans to leave the show, and starting last night, the role now belongs to Hydzik.

Today’s Pittsburgh Post-Gazette has a profile of Hydzik, who grew up in Sewickley, Pa. He sounds wonderfully unassuming about his newfound fame. I especially love this description of what it’s like to be onstage at a key moment in West Side Story:

Among his favorite moments is just before the first strains of “Maria,” when he can feel the anticipation from the audience.

“It’s the do or die moment. The moment beforehand, they’re doing all this Bernstein music, pounding, fighting, then everything is being pulled away. Onstage, you can hear the ropes to your left, the sound of everything being whisked away, and everything becomes dark. You can take as much time as you want to start. It seems like forever, you can take it in, and then decide, now I’m going to join in.”

The show is at the Palace Theatre in New York.

Tina Hay, editor