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Former American Idol contestant Sanjaya Malakar will make his stage debut in New York on February 23.
The 22-year-old performer will sing and dance in Freckleface Strawberry, the New York hit show with a few life lessons, based on a children's book by the Oscar-nominated actress Julianne Moore, seen recently in the hit low budget film, The Kids Are Alright.
The well-reviewed show has been performing in an off-Broadway theatre with 360 seats for over four months (theatres with over 500 seats are classified as Broadway).
"Being on American Idol has given me a lot of courage. I am able to perform before thousands of live audiences and am prepared to act before a small but demanding audience," Sanjaya had said in an earlier interview.
The play is about seven-year-old Strawberry, who loves to ride her bike and has lots of friends but is deeply unhappy over her freckles. Her classmates tease her all the time, and Strawberry looks for ways to cover those dreaded spots. In one situation, she covers her head with an itchy ski mask at school.
Her mother tries to tell her that she is perfect in her own way but initially to no avail.
Sanjaya has wrestled with identity issue all his young life and might find the musical expressing his own feelings. It celebrates the importance of tolerance and the need to accept people for who and what they are.
The production notes add: 'With the help of her loveable schoolmates including an amazingly talented ballerina, a cutie jock, a charming ditz, and a totally kooky teacher, Freckleface learns that everyone is different and that's what makes everyone special.'
One of the best reviewed shows in last 12 months, Freckleface is a delight for children and adults.
'What most distinguishes the show, however, is its refusal to ignore the unfunny aspects of Strawberry's situation. She won't accept adults' soothing bromides -- "I don't want to be special," she snaps -- and she's not above taunting others herself,' mused The New York Times.
'Strawberry finally wonders what's worse: having no friends or having lots of friends who tease you...We know the answer to that. Directed by Buddy Crutchfield and choreographed by Gail Pennington Crutchfield (a married team), Freckleface Strawberry will remind many grown-ups of being awkward, unathletic, bad at math, fill in the blank,' the review continued.
With Sanjaya's continuing popularity with teenagers, the show may see an uptick in ticket sales.
Sanjaya, whose hairstyles during the American Idol competition not only brought him a raft of admirers but also certain amount of derision, could also think of his own unconventional youth. His recent pictures show him with shorter hair.
'He is making his stage debut this month -- but, no, it won't be in Hair,' wrote a journalist in The Huffington Post referring to a trend-setting musical, which was revived recently on Broadway.
Malakar was last seen on television as a contestant on I'm a Celebrity Get Me Out of Here! in 2009. He also wrote a book Dancing to the Music in My Head, appeared in commercials aimed at Indian Americans and is writing and recording his own original music for a full length album Life-Love-Music.
In between his TV appearances following his American Idol stint, he worked for a pizza restaurant in Seattle, where he was raised.