Drew Sarich

Drew Sarich (b. August 24, 1975) is a stage actor and singer from St. Louis, Missouri. Sarich began singing at age 13, inspired by the performance his parents took him to see of Andrew Lloyd Webber's Jesus Christ Superstar. At 14 he played the part of Ron in a small production of Hair. At 16, he turned paid performer at Six Flags Over Mid-America in St. Louis. Drew began studying at Boston Conservatory in 1993, receiving a BFA in Musical Theatre with a concentration in Directing. After graduation n 1997, Drew moved to New York. There he appeared Off-Broadway in "Tony n' Tina's Wedding", and toured as a backup singer for Liza Minelli with the Cortes Alexander Trio. In 1999, after many workshop opportunities, including one for Hunchback of Notre Dame and Joan of Arc Drew moved to Berlin to star as Quasimodo in Disney's Hunchback of Notre Dame (In German "Der Glöckner von Notre Dame"). The production as well as his performance opened to widespread critical and public acclaim, and Drew received a portrait from the Broadway legend Al Hirschfeld. After more than 580 performances, Drew moved to Vienna. In 2000, he released his first album "Say It" with his self-titled "Drew Sarich Band." Drew has since played Berger in the Vienna revival of Hair, Cousin Kevin in The Who's Tommy (2002, Amstetten, Austria), Hedwig in Hedwig and the Angry Inch (Berlin), as well as appearing in "Lapdog and Wildcat" (2003) which he co-wrote with his wife, Ann Mandrella (whom Drew met in Europe). After this, Drew appeared as the main role in Jekyll and Hyde (Cologne, Germany), Sun/Master of the Keys in Barbarella (opened: 11th March 2004), Jesus in Jesus Christ Superstar (Passau, Germany and Vienna), another Superstar tour as Judas (Amstetten) and Dracula in Dracula (St Gallen), sharing the role with Thomas Borchert. Drew's Broadway debut was in Spring 2006, when he took on the role of Armand in the musical Lestat. He had previously covered the roles of Armand and Lestat in the show's run in San Francisco prior to taking over the role of Armand with the departure of Jack Noseworthy. Sarich took over the title role for several performances when Hugh Panaro was out sick late in the production's run in New York. In Summer 2006, Drew took over for Rodney Hicks in the Off-Broadway hit "Jacques Brel is Alive and Well and Living in Paris", starring alongside Robert Cuccioli, Natascia Diaz and Gay Marshall. Later in his run, Drew's wife Ann Mandrella joined him in the production, covering Gay Marshall's role during her vacation period. Jim Stanek, one of Drew's co-stars from Lestat, took on his role after Drew left Jacques Brel for "Les Miserables" in which he'd already been cast earlier in the year. Drew played the role of "Grantaire" in the Broadway revival of "Les Miserables" from October 2006 through the beginning of July 2007, also covering the roles of "Enjolras" and "Javert". Later in July he took over the production's lead role of "Jean Valjean" and is currently scheduled in this role through October 2007. In October 2007, Saricht raded locales with West End veteran John Owen-Jones. Sarich began as the West End Valjean on October 22 and Jones had his Broadway premiere as Valjean on October 23, 2007. He also the lead singer in his own punk/rock band "International Victim." Their debut CD is available from Sould Made, Colony Music and Amazon (Germany), Read more on Last.fm. User-contributed text is available under the Creative Commons By-SA License; additional terms may apply.