Sailor Role Is No Act

"SAM Coleman of Mosman has already found his sea legs to play a sailor in the musical Best of Broadway.

  Coleman is an officer with the Australian Navy and for the show, he will swap his officer's hat for a sailor's cap.

Coleman will join the cast in singing the South Pacific hit Nothing Like a Dame and jokes he'll lend 'a little naval wisdom' to the rest of the sailors on stage.

Coleman will also sing Footloose and Grease Lightning in the show.  It's the first chance Coleman has had to sing in a musical since he starred in a production of West Side Story in 2002.  Since then, he has served on patrol boats in Darwin, a peace-keeping force in the Sudan deployment and also in Afghanistan.  During his Sudan deployment, Coleman met his fiancee American Jaclyn Cruz who worked with an agency dealing with land mines.  Coleman is also doing university studies, so it's surprising he has had time to put his tenor voice into deployment.  "The ship's program has been a bit quieter this year so I've finally had a chance to practice," he said.  And does he sing on board ship?  "No, I'm too busy." 

Coleman is a member of the Chatswood Musical Society and auditioned for Best of Broadway.  Staged this week at the Gillian Performing Arts Centre in Pymble, the show also has a large group of children in the cast, including Sarah Wroth of Cremorne and Neutral Bay youngsters Annika Lellman, Molly O'Sullivan and Anastasia Scoggin-Klemp.  There will be performances tonight, tomorrow and Saturday at 7:30pm plus a matinee at 2pm on Saturday.  Bookings: 1300 66 22 12