Chance at Mousedom Draws 600

The kid was killer cute.

Wearing a baseball uniform, the red-headed boy walked into Saturday’s audition panting a bit and carrying a portable stereo that seemed as big as he was. It made a handy bench for the casting call’s long wait.

“Wing Bush!” the casting director finally called, and it was the boy’s turn. That’s his stage name; his real name is Nathan Wingbush. He had forgotten his tap shoes, but after fetching them from his mother, the 10-year-old San Diegan was ready to go.

And did he ever go, all four feet and two inches of him, dancing his baseball cap off and singing, “When you need reliance, don’t call the Reds or Giants, just depend on little me.” Wingbush was one of about 600 children who auditioned Saturday at the Disney Studios in Burbank for one of nine roles in an upcoming cable television movie about the making of the 1950s “Mickey Mouse Club” show.

5,000 Contestants

Wingbush made the last cut Saturday, although the 27 finalists for the parts won’t be announced until May. The number of kids trying for a chance at Mouseketeerdom totaled about 5,000 nationwide, including those from open auditions in Dallas, Chicago and New York, and from other auditions arranged by talent agents. The children ranged in age from nine to 14 years.

With that many children and so few parts, Disney’s national talent search might sound like a lot of heartbreak. But the studio parking lot where the candidates waited was filled not with crying, but with the sound of taps playfully practicing on the asphalt.

The children came from as near as Burbank and as far as Florida, Massachusetts and Salt Lake City.

Word of Mouth

Monica Wood and Katrin Santore, both 10, of Burbank, heard about the audition by word of mouth and decided to give it a shot. They struck out but still thought that, for a moment at least, they were part of something big.

“I always wanted to be in the Mickey Mouse Club,” Wood said.

Many of the children said they had been through all this before.

“It’s just a numbers game,” Carolyn Croft, 12, said in a matter-of-fact tone. Her parents drove her and brother, Kevin, 10, from Salt Lake City for the audition. “You go to 20 and maybe you get one.” Both children said they have appeared in television commercials, and Carolyn said she even had a bit part in a recent made-for-television movie.

Both were sent home on Saturday.

But not without an effort. Kevin’s routine was an a capella rendition of the original “Mickey Mouse Club” song, although his version’s melody and rhythm seemed a little unusual.

After he finished, casting director Matt Casella said, “Good! I heard Bobby say that was the disco version.”

Bobby Burgess and Sharon Baird are two original Mouseketeers who advised Casella during the audition. The original show premiered in 1955 and ran until 1959. After being in syndication from 1962 to 1965 and from 1975 to 1976, the show has been aired by the Disney Channel on cable television since 1983.

The auditions were publicized on the channel, which will also carry the movie, “Why? . . . Because We Like You,” sometime this fall, said Tom Epstein, a spokesman for the channel. Producers plan to make the movie this summer when the children are out of school, unless the strike by the Writers Guild of America is unresolved by then, he said.

On Saturday, Casella, Burgess and Baird were looking for children who resemble the original Mouseketeers. But talented child actors and actresses who don’t look like Annette or Cubby may be considered for a new “Mickey Mouse Club” series that Disney plans fall.

“The most important thing right now is personality,” said Casella, who dismissed many children after a short conversation. “You can see it,” he said of the others. “The sparkle in their eye.”

Burgess added, “I know how important it is to little kids to give them a smile and a little applause, because there’s a lot of rejection in this business.”