Rozi’s Journey to Jane Banks
Rozi outside the Mary Poppins stage door
David Gabriel Lerner, Laura Michelle Kelly, and Rozi Baker
Rozi with Catherine
Wonderful Child Wrangler, Christina, with Rozi and Rachel
Rozi’s family knew she was talented early on. In fact, she was singing before she could speak! But although she had the opportunity, she didn’t want to study singing, acting or dancing, and she DIDN’T want to perform in front of anyone! That was fine with her parents, and they didn’t push.
Everything changed in January of 2008. THAT was when Rozi first saw MARY POPPINS on Broadway. She was enchanted by the entire production! She came out afterward and said, “That’s it! I want to be on Broadway!”
That was the moment she set, for herself, the goal of playing Jane Banks in the Broadway production of MARY POPPINS. She started singing, dancing and acting lessons immediately. About 6 months later, she started going to professional auditions. Her first Broadway call back came in the autumn of 2008, and it was for MARY POPPINS!
She didn’t get cast that time, but she kept training and was soon cast as Young Fiona in SHREK, THE MUSICAL on Broadway! Meanwhile, her best friend was cast as Jane in the North American National tour of MARY POPPINS! It was hard not to be jealous, but Rozi was really proud of and happy for her bff. It helped to be having a great experience with SHREK at that time. That closed in January of 2010. She had a little bit of a break, during which time she squeezed in a couple of wonderful readings of DANI GIRL, at the Cherry Lane Theatre, and then came the MARY POPPINS audition again. This time, she tried not to get too excited, when she got the final call back, but couldn’t help herself. A few days later, she came home from school, and her mom asked her to look at the change that had been made to her website. She sat down and looked at home page. It said “Rozi just cast as Jane Banks in Mary Poppins on Broadway!”
She was so excited, she almost threw her mom’s laptop on the floor!
So dreams really do come true, and setting and working toward a goal really helps!
BTW: Rozi loved the show so much that she saw it 8 times between January 2008 and
February of 2010, and 2 of those times were in Los Angeles, when she visited her bff, Bailey, on the tour! Bailey was wonderful!