Whitney Players Deliver A Delicious Opening Night

Kami Parisella Photos.

Kat Araújo is the smart kid. She always gets the grades, but is never allowed to look up from her books. Daisy Araujo is the daring one—bold, beautiful, and confident, but never taken seriously like her sister. Jojo Barboza is their childhood friend and pizza shop coworker, madly in love with her fiancé Bill, but not sure if she is  ready for marriage.

Wednesday evening, the Whitney Players Theater Company brought these characters to life on the Hamden High School Stage for opening night of Mystic Pizza, a lively and delicious musical that follows three protagonists and a hefty ensemble through life, love, and struggle in their little Connecticut town. Performances run through August 9 at Hamden High; tickets and more information are available here. 

The Whitney Players is a Hamden based community theater nonprofit that invites both professional actors and nearby youth, creating affordable and entertaining art for the community. Each year, members form a full-scale musical while simultaneously teaching youth valuable lessons about dance, drama, and music. This production, for instance, is double cast, meaning that each lead actor has a double that they switch roles with every other night.

In that sense, the musical fits the company like a glove. Mystic Pizza is a 1988 movie turned jukebox musical set in Mystic, Conn. Like the stage adaptation, the film follows sisters Kat (Amelia Kingsley and Michaela Salzo) and Daisy Araújo (Ava Loughlin and Rebecca Tobin) and their friend Jojo (Megan Harkins and Charlotte Stover) as they work at a pizza joint where the discussion is as hot as the slices they serve up.

True to its setting, the show features many hits from the 1980s, from The Bangles' “Manic Monday” to Cyndi Lauper's “Girls Just Wanna Have Fun." The musical—and the company—fit the existing lyrics into the context of the show with finesse and cheek.

With its bent toward storytelling and double cast, this Hamden-based Mystic Pizza has offered a new experience for many actors.

“I’ve never really gotten to play a sister,” said Tobin, who plays the “Cast B” Daisy. Tobin is a 21-year-old student at Emerson College, where she studies musical theater, and has been with the Whitney Players for roughly eight years. “Being this female trio is really really awesome, it's a lot of support and female empowerment, and I’ve never really gotten a chance to do that kind of thing before.”

In this show, each lead character also has an understudy, resulting in three actors for each lead role (see a full cast list here). This culminates in three very different and unique portrayals of the same character within one cast.

Kami Parisella Photos.

“We always say, they don't compete with each other, and they're not trying to imitate each other, they’re trying to create.” said director Cindy Simell-Devoe, giving a sense of the kind of community that exists behind those curtains. “Youre playing the role the way you are playing the role, you're not trying to copy your cast members, you're creating, not imitating.”

And create they did. From the moment the curtain went up Wednesday, the audience was bedazzled by the sheer energy and enthusiasm that the cast portrayed. Opening night was “Cast A,” and Ava Loughlin shone as Daisy. Her rich, passionate vocals complemented Kat’s (Amelia Kingsley/Michaela Salzo) bright voice as Jojo (Megan Harkins/Charlotte Stover) tied them all together in a musical bouquet.

The girls and their boss, Leona Silvia (Kristina Waldron), each went through their own struggles over the course of the show, helping one another along the way. Kat looked up from her books in time to fall in love with architect Tim Travers (Josh Brooks/PJ August), who was a married man staying in a house for which Kat was the realtor (one of her many jobs, as “college isn’t gonna pay for itself!” she said).

Jojo and Bill (Daniel Sai Velez/Dylan Valles) struggled with their feelings for each other and were forced to come to terms with the fact that they wanted different things, but didn't know how to exist without each other. Leona was faced with the task of selling Mystic Pizza, and saying goodbye to her beloved restaurant.

“There’s not a family in town who hasn’t celebrated a birthday here,” said Silvia, reminiscing while clinging to hope that she might be able to keep the restaurant after all.

Meanwhile, Daisy met Charlie Windsor (Micheal Russo/Brady Parisella), a boy from a rich family who, much like Daisy, is more than he seems. The two saw each other in ways that nobody else did, but grappled with the task of making their relationship work when they come from such different backgrounds.

“Money can’t buy happiness,” Parisella said when asked what his character has taught him. Parisella is a 22-year-old Boston University grad student and Charlie Windsor’s actor in Cast B. “I come from a very different background than my character does. I play a rich cocky student my own age, but it’s just so different from the way I was brought up, that it really has just given me that perspective.”

Daisy and Charlie taught each other new things about themselves and each other throughout the show, too. Charlie learned that he didn't have to be ashamed of his artistic talents, and Daisy learned that she could be more than just “the hot sister,” resulting in her expressing interest in going to law school.

The way they interacted onstage was fascinating. They both came on strong initially, thinking this was going to be a casual fling. But every time their gaze lasted a second too long, or his hand grazed hers, it became more and more clear that they liked each other more than they thought.

“Daisy and I are very different, and I’ve learned a lot of lessons in confidence from her, especially watching Julia Roberts,” said Tobin, referencing the actress who played her role in the original film. “I mean, this woman is tall, gorgeous, confident, and trying to play that personality was different.”

The products of challenges and new experiences were abundant this opening night, and the Whitney Players brought New Haven into their world with charm and expertise. Each ensemble member walked on stage with purpose, and the stage seemed rich with backstories, making the audience wonder what “Manic Monday” meant for the bartender, the waiter, or even for Tim’s wife, Nikki. It was—and is— this depth and complexity that makes the show so intriguing, and leaves the audience wanting more.

As the Whitney Players continue their run through Saturday, both casts will be alternating in their performances, showing the world their many versions of Mystic Pizza. The cast has expressed the immense gratitude that they feel towards this program, a familial bond of sorts that will stay with them through all of their journeys, theatrical or otherwise.

“Being able to come back here every summer always felt like a breath.” said Tobin. “There’s incredible people, you still learn so much, and it was more of a home than a business, and it still puts on a fantastic show. And before I came back here I was like ‘You know what? I can have at least one more summer of just loving theater, because I'll be here.’”

This article comes from the 2025 cohort of the Youth Arts Journalism Initiative (YAJI). YAJI is a program in which New Haven, Hamden and West Haven Public Schools high school students pitch, write, edit and publish articles through the Arts Paper. This year, YAJI advisors include Arts Paper Editor Lucy Gellman and reporter and YAJI alum Abiba Biao. Olivia Tapia Ko is a rising sophomore at New Haven Academy.