Star to sparkle at Nobles

Noble and Greenough School senior Andrea Ross has had a fairly incredible career at age 18. She's already starred in the national tour of an Andrew Lloyd Webber musical, recorded her own CD and won a prestigious Boston theater award.

But only now will Ross debut on her own high school stage, as the lead in "Thoroughly Modern Millie," opening next Tuesday.

Ross says she initially planned on doing lots of shows at Nobles, but "this is the first year that I've been here for the full year. And I finally have a spring free, so I'm finally doing the musical."

Her turn in the school's Vinik Theatre comes just in time, as Ross graduates May 28.

The "high-spirited musical romp" tells the story of Millie Dillmount, a young woman from Kansas who heads to Manhattan to make a new life for herself. As Ross explains it, "She's basically looking to just marry into a wealthy family, or have the life that everyone dreams of, but not really have to work for it."

While "Millie" is set in 1922, the musical premiered in 2002 and is based on a movie from the 1960s.

"It's very much a modern look back and send-up of the '20s," says director Dan Halperin, who is the head of performing arts at Nobles.

The show runs from May 12-16. For tickets and more info, see www.nobles.edu.

Halperin, assistant director Jessica Anderson-Nelson, 17, and Ross gathered at noon yesterday for an interview - nine-and-a-half hours after Ross returned to her Franklin home from New York, where she had just had her final callback for a Broadway revival of "Bye Bye Birdie."

Despite her star status, Ross emphasizes that the Nobles production is a big collaboration.

"Obviously Millie's a huge role, but there are so many other roles that are vital to this show. And there are 42 members in the cast, but there are so many crew members that go to school here, so it's a really big effort that everyone's putting in," she says.

At first, she thought that maybe those students with smaller roles wouldn't be into it, and the leads would have to bring up the ensemble.

"But it's sometimes vice versa, where the ensemble's just so energetic and so happy to be there, which is not always the case with professional theater, to be honest," she said.

Ross began acting at 8, and started doing shows in Boston at the Wheelock Family Theatre at 10. At 13 she met Lloyd Webber. The legendary British musical theater composer and producer has since championed her work.

"I had just been doing Boston things, and then randomly sent a tape of me singing to his offices and he ended up hearing it," Ross says. "It was very random, and really, really lucky."

During her freshman year at Nobles, Ross recorded an album, "Moon River," that Lloyd Webber produced in the United Kingdom. Her sophomore year, she toured Britain to promote the album.

Ross took off the fall semester of her junior year to star in the national U.S. tour of the Lloyd Webber musical "Whistle Down the Wind."

Ross is also featured in two tracks - singing selections from "Whistle Down the Wind" and "The Phantom of the Opera" - in "60," a three-CD compilation of Lloyd Webber hits released last year.

Ross, whose favorite school subjects are English and the sciences, says she plans to pursue acting roles for the next year before enrolling in the theater program at Syracuse University in 2010. But first, her Nobles acting debut awaits.

Says Halperin, "We're fortunate to have a lot of people who want to be involved, and when you add someone of Andrea's caliber to that mix, that's just raising everybody and everything up. It's been really fun."

Daily News staff writer Edward B. Colby can be reached at 781-433-8336 or ecolby@cnc.com.