by Zach Raffio. @zachraffio.
SEATTLE - Local actor Dan Westriff expressed his feeling today that he would have been cast in a community theater production of Mamma Mia! if the coronavirus had not come in and thrown a cog into the process, despite the fact that the show happened in 2014, six years before the virus, the distraught man confirmed.
“I was just about to book a huge role as the daughter’s fiancee, but then the virus hit,” says Westriff, even though COVID-19 did not exist during this time period. “They said that my singing was almost inaudible and that my dancing was all knees, which isn’t quite what they were looking for. But still, I’m gonna go ahead and assume that the virus is why it didn’t work out. It’s really messed up the arts as a whole.”
We caught up with the show's director, Shannon Hormith, via Skype for her take on the casting.
“Ugh, that guy’s always blaming some natural occurrence for why he wasn’t cast,” noted Hormith. “Last year, he claimed Brexit was why he wasn’t cast. In 2016 it was a mix of the election and Alan Rickman dying. At a certain point, he’s gonna have to realize his dancing was all knees. Just fully, entirely knees. I mean, it wasn’t unimpressive.”
The Broadway Beat caught up with Matt Lansing, the high school English teacher who did end up being cast as Sky in the production, for his take.
“Yes, the virus has disrupted the arts community across the scale, but this was six years ago. The show still happened,” noted Lansing while remote teaching a class of high school juniors. “If corona were a factor, wouldn’t that stop the entire production? Why would it just affect one supporting character’s casting? This dude’s logic is all off - much like his dancing. Have you ever seen somebody do that with their knees?”
At press time, Westriff was already preparing his excuse for 2021 - claiming that, if he’s lucky, the coronavirus will still be big enough to be his scapegoat. He added that while the virus takes the majority of blame, he is leaving a blank space open for any new catastrophe that takes place next year, and is also willing to blame the 1912 sinking of The Titanic as a "throwback" if necessary.