THE BRONX — Janelle McDermoth grew up in The Bronx and now she's singing about the borough on Broadway.
The 24-year-old actress recently made her Broadway debut in "A Bronx Tale," a musical version of the 1993 Robert De Niro and Chazz Palminteri movie about an Italian-American boy named Calogero torn between the lives of his father, a local bus driver, and Sonny, a local mobster, in The Bronx during the 1960s.
McDermoth plays Frieda in the film, a friend of Calogero's love interest, Jane, who cautions her about the dangers of interracial dating in their neighborhood at the time.
"Frieda as a character is interesting to me because she is not reasonable, but definitely reminds Jane what time period she's in — you know, lets her know it's 1968," McDermoth said. "These things that you’re trying to do, run around with this boy, is not safe."
(DNAinfo/Eddie Small)
McDermoth now lives in Washington Heights, but was raised on Cruger Avenue and gained some of her first experiences with theater attending Bronx Bethany Church of the Nazarene.
Simply growing up in The Bronx helped pique her interest in the arts as well, given the defining role that music has played in the history of the borough.
"We grew up listening to a lot of gospel music and a lot of reggae gospel music," she said, "but you can't deny the hip-hop culture that The Bronx has, so church in particular was this site where all those things were intersecting for me."
However, she did not decide she wanted to pursue acting as a career right away, saying she first expected having to settle for a "sexy marketing job" while at college before getting cast in a traveling production of "Hair" during what would have been her junior year.
"I had a wonderful experience. I was the youngest person on the whole tour," she said.
"There was this moment of being a kid from The Bronx in New York and waking up in Japan and going 'Oh, this is my life now,'" she continued. "It's pretty cool."
(Janelle McDermoth)
She began playing the role of Frieda in "A Bronx Tale" on Feb. 7, and although the musical does not focus on the Allerton neighborhood where she grew up, she said she still relates to some of its themes, namely how broad the definition of family can be in the borough.
"My upbringing in The Bronx was about family and extended family. I lived with my parents and my siblings, but down the street were my cousins, and playing outside was just as important," she said. "At the top of Act Two, the Webster Avenue kids are sitting on the stoop and hanging out with their friends, and that's just a very real way that my cousins and I would operate."
She is happy that her Broadway debut is giving her a chance to represent her home borough and said she would like the show to help lead to a greater amount of spaces in the borough dedicated to the arts.
"I love The Bronx, and I will always love The Bronx," she said. "It’s where I’m from, and it's just tied to the joy of childhood."
