performing arts
Back on
Broadway
Collin Kelly-Sordelet returns in the sensational play The Ferryman
WRITTEN BY CINDY SCHWEICH HANDLER
32
MAY 2019 MONTCLAIR MAGAZINE
S
ome stage actors like to
stretch or do vocal warm-
ups before they step in
front of the curtain. When
Collin Kelly-Sordelet
prepares to appear in
the Broadway production of The
Ferryman, now at the Bernard B.
Jacobs Theatre, he likes to play with
babies.
Not just any babies, but the ones
who’ve been cast as youngest sibling
Bobby in the sprawling Carney clan
(two must be present in the theater at
show time). Kelly-Sordelet, 24, plays
eldest child James Joseph (JJ).
“It’s a nice pre-show tradition,”
he says. “There’s little Sean, Raffie,
Ryder and Annie. Playing with the
babies makes me feel like the big
brother in the show. It’s such a joy,
and puts me in the best mood.”
The statement typifies Kelly-
Sordelet’s winsome, genuine char-
acter, which his boosters say comes
through in many of the young actor’s
performances. Supporters include
Patrick Parker, the longtime associ-
ate artistic director at Paper Mill
Playhouse in Millburn, who taught
the teenage Kelly-Sordelet in Paper
Mill’s audition-only Summer Musical
Theater Conservatory.
“Collin had an amazingly mature
and instinctual approach to his work
that was extremely rare at this age,”
he says. “He was a great student, and
a great person on stage and off... His
family’s influence was on display.”