It’s also obvious that Britney’s talents spoke to a dormant dream within Lynne because her own mother, Lillian, reminded her that she, too, would sing and dance as a girl. ‘It must be in Britney’s genes,’ said the grandma, ‘music runs in our blood.’
Britney joined the cast at the end of August 1992 and rehearsed her lines like a pro. She was at rehearsals from two o’clock and remained, in costume, backstage each night until the end of every performance just in case the lead fell sick. But Laura Bell Bundy hardly missed a show. Broadway veteran Donna English, who played the role of the fame-hungry mother, rehearsed with Britney on a few occasions but the only thing that sticks in her memory, according to a broadway.com Q&A, ‘…was that she had a big voice.’
Donna doesn’t remember Britney ever taking the stage but in actual fact, she stepped in when Laura Bell Bundy took a brief sojourn to film a small part in the movie, The Adventures of Huck Finn. Consequently, the role of Tina Denmark fell to Britney, appearing like a version of Annie in a pink polka-dot dress with lace hem and collar, and a giant bow in her hair. There were no critiques of her performance but agent Nancy said she was ‘a natural’. But Laura Bell Bundy returned, and Britney fell back into the shadows.
Success, let alone stardom, must have felt light years away for both Britney and Lynne during those long days and nights, confined backstage in a quaint theatre and then cooped up in a tiny apartment, which they wouldn’t reach until gone midnight most days. Suddenly, the reality—and odds—of ‘making it’ whilst treading the boards didn’t match Britney’s great expectations. As with gymnastics, the fun was being drummed out of the experience by the tedium of routine and the frustration of playing second-fiddle.
As Christmas neared, Britney began to pine for home. She gazed at the spindly miniature tree decorated with sparse tinsel in their apartment and imagined the scent of the large evergreen that Jamie brought home each year; she looked ahead to a bleak Christmas Day morning, and then imagined missing church one more time. And that’s when she turned to Lynne to ask: ‘Mama, can we go home?’
That was all her mother needed to hear. Neither was particularly enjoying the experience anymore, and Lynne’s absence wasn’t helping a deteriorating marriage. Agent Nancy rang the producers and they found a replacement in child actress Natalie Portman, who would grow up to win international acclaim in movies such as Leon, Closer and The Other Boleyn Girl. As Nancy says today: ‘Three little girls—Laura, Britney and Natalie—went on to great things in their own rights so the casting director for Ruthless! clearly had a good eye!’
Britney returned to the bosom of Kentwood, cushioned by Disney casting director Matt Casella’s reassuring message: ‘You’ll be back’. That remained the opportunity she was holding out for. Britney’s faith was pinned to the map at Central Florida.
Everyone was home for the Christmas of 1992, and Lynne returned to become a second-grade teacher at Silver Creek Elementary School. But the New Year would bring exciting beginnings. Disney executives knew Britney would be ready, transformed into a slick and edgier performer because of her New York experience.
Out of 20,000 applicants, she was selected as one of 24 contenders to fight for seven places as a new ‘mouseketeer’ at a three-day audition camp at Disney/MGM studios in Orlando. Inevitably, she shone and her performance earned her a B+ mark with the reported comments: ‘Very good…nice girl! Sign her up.’
She was announced as one of the all-new seven mice to join the established 20 members of The Mickey Mouse Club, aka MMC. This time, Kentwood didn’t just hang out the bunting and bang its drum; it went on a hi-tech spending spree. Local demand soared for cable television installation so that the community could tune into the Disney Channel for its half-hour daily broadcast. Buddy Powell, from the Golden Corral restaurant, said Britney was living proof that anything was possible and described her as a walking inspiration to everyone in Kentwood to follow their dreams.
After all the television coverage and the town mayor’s proclamation of a Britney Spears Day, the family posted a message at the council buildings:
Dear Kentwood,
Britney has many memorable moments to remember in her short, little life. But April 24th 1993 has to be the most sentimental moment yet. It is so exciting to have these wonderful experiences but what makes it so wonderful is to have so many loved ones you can share them with.
Thank you Kentwood for your support and encouragement.
We love you—The Britney Spears Family
If you asked either Britney or Lynne at this time, this was probably as good as it got: handpicked for the televised Mickey Mouse Club.
People have since questioned why Lynne said yes to the opportunity, taking her daughter out of mainstream schooling so she could be thrust into the limelight. Britney would never know a normal junior high education, and it’s not as if Lynne wasn’t warned by Kentwood locals who counselled against such an upheaval. It does seem that what Britney wanted, Britney got. But who could blame Lynne? She was no different to the proud dad who felt his young son could go all the way to Old Trafford, or the parents convinced their classically trained musician child could one day play for the London Philharmonic. Besides, The Mickey Mouse Club would take responsible care of Britney’s educational needs. And when your child is hell-bent on a dream, it is hard for any parent to deny them when opportunity knocks. It is presumably why hundreds of thousands of youngsters line up, with parental consent, to take their chances on American Idol or The X-Factor, never once considering the ramifications of the fame they are chasing.
In Britney’s case, The Mickey Mouse Club seemed a natural opportunity to embrace and she’d no longer need to invent her own make-believe world. She was about to become an integral part of a Disney fantasyland. It was, by any stretch of her furtive imagination, a pinch-me dream come true in its own right.
But it was only the beginning.
‘She always wanted to learn,
always wanted to better herself.’
–Choreographer Myles Thoroughgood on Britney
‘I’ll be honest, I didn’t see instant star quality and I worried about what would become of her. I walked away, thinking, “This business is going to eat her up,’” said Chuck Yerger. He is seated on the patio of his Floridian home, and has just cast his mind back to an initial one-on-one meeting with Britney as she arrived for her first day on the Disney lot, with Lynne pushing a stroller that carried a restless Jamie-Lynn, aged two.
It was in the sunshine state that Britney first basked in the national spotlight as a ‘mousketeer’, dressed in a brown Mickey Mouse jacket with yellow arms. Chuck didn’t pay much attention to this side of the new recruit because his perspective was obtained behind the scenes, with Britney off-duty. He, more than anyone at Disney, was the monitor of Britney’s educational progress as a child, with a vested professional interest in her development as a girl, not a talent.
Chuck was lead tutor and principal at the ‘Mickey Mouse School’, located in a bungalow building near the costume department, a 100ft walk from the sound stage where production was based. It was under his tutelage in ‘bungalow No. 4’ that Britney