Ava Gallo, dressed in a white skirt and a black top, on Tuesday got a kind of Broadway break in the Theater District.
The 18-year-old from Staten Island, who had appeared in her high school production of ‘Mamma Mia,” belted out “Thank you for the Music” at Ellen’s Stardust Diner on Broadway.
She had been named one of five winners or “Junior Stardusters” in the restaurant’s first such competition, performing on Tuesday in front of the restaurant’s audience.
A few hundred diners watched, listened, videoed, applauded, and some even gave her and other performers a standing ovation. They had performed in a well-known venue (with a line outside) in the Theater District, if not precisely on a Broadway stage.
“I think I’ve gotten used to it, but there’s a little butterflies sometimes,” Gallo said of nerves. “It’s a passion.”
Over the years, various performers at Ellen’s Stardust Diner have appeared in Broadway shows. But on Tuesday, five aged eight to 18 who won a contest the diner held sang from the heart, in the heart of Broadway.
Winners were chosen from 300 submissions and 30 auditions by Broadway performers Jessie Hooker-Bailey, Gilbert L. Bailey, Bailey McCall, diner owner Ellen Hart and the diner’s artistic director Scott Barbarino.
Gallo, 18, from Staten Island, sang along with Benjamin Law, 12, from Massapequa; Addison Wynkoop, 14, from Bellefonte, Penn.; Ashley Bowling, 15, from Scotch Plains, N.J., and Clara Bishop, age 8, from Ambler, Penn.
“Each hour is one winner,” said Ellen Hart, the restaurant’s owner, and a 1959 Miss Subways who sang the national anthem at Knicks and Rangers games. “I was always interested in singing. Sometimes I get up here and sing.”
The restaurant opened in 1987as Ellen’s Café, a coffee and bake shop, across from City Hall. They roughly 15 years later rebranded as Ellen’s Stardust Diner, and moved to 1650 Broadway with their signature singing servers.
“I thought it’d be a nice name for a diner,” Hart said of “Stardust,” named for the song with that title.
Nearly 90 singing servers perform here, but Tuesday was the first time that they sang with “Junior Stardusters,” who selected songs designed to show off their skills.
Hart said songs from “Frozen” are very popular as well as from more current shows such as “Mamma Mia.”
Addison Wynkoop, 14, said she had been preparing for a while. “It shows off what my voice can do,” she said of “Gimme! Gimme! Gimme!,” an Abba song she selected.
Her mother, Jackie, and father, Zac, along with the audience, watched her sing and stroll through the diner. “Any time I watch her perform it’s overwhelming,” her father said. “She’s in her element.” Her mother largely agreed. “It was exciting seeing her selected and watching her perform,” she added.
Some audience members, such as Claire Girodat, who traveled from France, stumbled upon the contest winners.
“I heard about the restaurant, not the contest,” Girodat, who also saw Hugh Jackman perform on Broadway, said. “It’s our last day in New York. We wanted to come here. All the voices were amazing.”
Ellen’s singing servers have appeared not only near, but in, big shows. “We’ve had a lot of people who left here to do Broadway shows,” said Scott Barbarino, the diner’s (and probably the only diner employee with this title) artistic director. “They’re always welcome to come back here.”
The diner typically hires a handful of singing servers twice a year following auditions, including one held a month ago.
“If they tell me they have an audition, we give them the time to go to the audition,” Barbarino said of staff. “We work with their schedules.”
Brian Esposito, working at Ellen as a singing server for about 13 years, said staff get to know each other.
“It’s a very close-knit group. We’re very much a family,” Esposito said. “The co-workers make working here special, apart from the singing.”
Gallo said she recently saw “Hamilton” and planned to see “Moulin Rouge” after performing. “We’re very proud of her. I encouraged her to submit a video, which she did,” Ava’s mother, Maria, said. “It’s very exciting for her. She starts college Monday.”
The family was excited about seeing “Moulin Rouge” after the performance at Ellen’s. “She knows the songs,” her mother said.
Addison Wynkoop, meanwhile, was planning on seeing MJ, the Michael Jackson musical. Bailey McCall, a judge appearing in that show, had invited her backstage. While she would be in the audience at that Broadway show, she had taken her own star turn and little bite out of Broadway that day.
“She’s performing on Broadway,” her mother said with a smile. “You can’t say that’s wrong.”
