Hometown concert reunites friends, brings back memories

Joan Ryan didn’t need a pair of ruby slippers or help from Glinda the Good Witch to remind her there’s no place like home. All it took was a phone call from Jana Barbier, her best friend during their years at Newport Harbor High

School and now the cultural arts coordinator

for the city of Newport Beach.

Ryan’s concert in the park in Corona del Mar on Sunday is a creative and collaborative reunion for the two women, reminiscent of the days they spent together in the theater department at the high school.

“I hope some old friends in the community that might remember us will come to the concert,” Barbier said, adding that for her to be able to bring someone like Ryan “with that kind of talent” into the community is outstanding.

“If I can do this for Newport Beach, I’ve really fulfilled something for myself by having her come back here.”

Bob Wentz headed up the theater department at Newport Harbor High School when Ryan and Barbier were there, and they couldn’t say enough about how much influence he had on both of their lives.

“They write movies about teachers like him,” Ryan said.

Ryan was only 16 and Barbier 17 when they left Newport Beach for Northern California.

Ryan attended the American Conservatory Theater in San Francisco, living on her own in an apartment, and Barbier graduated from UC Santa Cruz.

Neddy Vigman, Ryan’s mom, said her daughter showed natural talent as an actress from the time she was 3, was a “phenomenal mimic,” was always singing, and “laughter surrounded her, because she was just funny.”

Letting their 16 year old pursue her dream and live away from home didn’t concern her parents either.

“I knew she was very well-grounded,” Vigman said, and Ryan admitted if any of her children wanted to do what she did, she would let them.

For her, the most important thing she tries to instill in her three daughters — Madison, 18, Callie, 14, and Kelsey Rose, 9 — is to have something you’re passionate about.

“If they had the passion the way I had the passion, I would do exactly what my parents did. I would say OK, this is your path,” Ryan said.

At the Conservatory, Ryan remembers being surrounded by the most incredible people on stage — actors like Marsha Mason and Peter Donat.

Ryan said she would sit on the edge of the stage and cry, because she couldn’t believe she was lucky enough to be there.

After two years, Ryan moved to Los Angeles, auditioned, acted and sang in plays, traveled around the country and the world, and later appeared on television in the sitcom “Saved by the Bell” and the soap opera “The Young and the Restless.”

Since her CD came out almost four years ago, Ryan has been doing more concert performances, and she can’t wait to appear in her hometown.

“I think I’m more excited about this concert than I’ve been about any concert in the longest time,” she said.

Her favorite music is from Broadway, and while the concert in the park will include songs by composers Rodgers and Hammerstein and Andrew Lloyd Webber, a lot of the music will be new — and personal.

Ryan has tailored the show specifically for Newport Beach and is excited about getting to talk about growing up there.

“I decided when Jana called and I was putting the show together that I was going to make it personal. It’s really sort of how we all started out together and where it ended up, and I’ve done that through music.

A lot of the music is about relationships through song, and there’s a lot of comedy.”

From those days hanging out in Laguna, riding their bikes to the beach and being “totally focused on rehearsing” in the theater department at school, the women agree their friendship has come full circle.

“I feel like the luckiest person in the world,” Ryan said.

“I get to have a family that I love and adore, I come from an amazing family, and I get to do what I love for my job. And then I get to come home and do it.”

“That’s the icing on the cake,” Barbier said.

IF YOU GO:

WHAT: “An Evening with Joan Ryan”

WHEN: 6 p.m. Sunday

WHERE: Grant Howald Park, Marguerite Avenue and Fifth Street, Corona del Mar

COST: Free

INFO: (949) 644-3211