Sanjaya Malakar on his off-Broadway debut
EW.com talks to Sanjaya Malakar about his off-Broadway debut, a full-length album and the new Idol judges.
Anyone want to watch Freckleface Strawberry with me? Sanjaya starts on Feb. 23.
From EW.com:
It’s been four years since Sanjaya Malakar was on American Idol, but he’s back in the headlines this week. He’s set to make his New York stage debut in the off-Broadway hit family musical Freckleface Strawberry, the adaptation of the children’s book penned by actress Julianne Moore, on Feb. 23. Producers reached out to Malakar to join the show, which is about accepting others for who they are and feeling comfortable in your own skin (even if you have freckles and red hair). “It’s a kids’ book, but the story pertains to everyone. It’s about people with insecurities, and everyone at some point has some kind of insecurity,” Malakar told EW this afternoon before heading to his first rehearsal. (He arrived in New York yesterday.) He’ll take on the role of Danny through May 28. “He’s the jock in school. He’s cool. Everyone thinks he’s awesome. He’s good at all the sports and gets all the girls. But really, he’s just like everyone else. He wants to be smarter. Everyone wants to be a little different than what they are. But in the end, you realize that you’re perfect just the way that you were made,” he says. Danny excels at basketball, and, fortunately, it’s the one sport Malakar played. “I played basketball a little bit, but I was never really amazing,” he clarifies. “It’s definitely some work getting the choreography down, but I enjoy a challenge like that. We’re dribbling to the beat. I have dribbled a basketball in my day, so it makes it a little easier.” If Danny is “cool,” does that mean we could see a return of the infamous pony hawk? Malakar has yet to discuss Danny’s hairstyle with producers. “I would assume that it would be a little more mild because the show is about a group of 7-year-olds in school,” he says, laughing. “I assume it would be however 7-year-olds wear their hair.”
Continued in EW.com