LYNNFIELD — Paige McNamara, a Lynnfield native, took her talents to the big stage when she recently joined the national tour of “Les Misérables.”
She said she joined Cameron Mackintosh’s production of “Les Misérables” a month ago and rehearsed for two weeks while the company was performing in Canada.
She opened with the show as a factory girl on Aug. 13 at the Citizens Bank Opera House, also known as the Boston Opera House, she said.
“Honestly, the fates aligned,” McNamara said. “This was just the most surreal, magical moment of my life. I have been waiting my entire life to perform at the Boston Opera House.”
McNamara grew up in Lynnfield, attending Summer Street School, Lynnfield Middle School, and Lynnfield High School, which she graduated from in 2011.
But in another sense, she grew up on the theatrical stages throughout the North Shore.
“I cannot emphasize enough how lucky I am to have grown up in Lynnfield, where there really was a big emphasis on the arts, on theater and music. The music departments… were really cared for, and we were taken really seriously,” McNamara said.
She credits much of her success to local voice coach Noel Smith of Noel Smith Voice Studio, which is based in Lynnfield and has expanded to New York City.
She said her first performance was as a munchkin in Lynnfield Community Schools’ performance of “The Wizard of Oz” when she was in third grade.
“The way my mom tells the story is I was too nervous to audition for the show when I was in second grade, which is ironic,” McNamara said. “Looking back, I’m so happy I was in ‘The Wizard of Oz.’”
McNamara is just one of many successful graduates of Lynnfield High who have made careers in theater.
She performed alongside Christine Dwyer, another Lynnfield native who most notably played Elphaba in “Wicked” on Broadway.
“The Lynnfield girls are holding it down,” McNamara said. “It’s so funny that we both were on that stage, and now she’s off doing the most amazing things and I’m lucky enough to be here. It’s a testament to the education we were able to get in Lynnfield, and the education we were able to get, and still are getting, from Noel Smith. It’s just really — it’s powerful.”
After her performance as a munchkin in “The Wizard of Oz,” she went on to perform in plays and musicals at the middle and high schools.
Her favorite memory was when the high school performed “Grease,” for which she played Betty Rizzo, the leader of the Pink Ladies, she said.
“For whatever reason, it was a blockbuster hit. You had never seen (the) Lynnfield High auditorium sold out in that way,” McNamara said. “It was special because I remember the 10 or so of us who were playing the Pink Ladies and T-Birds all became really tight friends… We all got really tight and we all just had so much fun doing that show.”
After graduating from Lynnfield High, McNamara attended Wagner College in Staten Island in New York City and studied musical theater.
“I started working in musical theater pretty immediately, right after college,” she said. “It’s kind of just been my main focus my whole life and what I put all my time and energy into.”
After graduating from Wagner in 2015, McNamara toured with “Mamma Mia!” “Sister Act,” and “A Night With Janis Joplin,” for which she played Joplin.
McNamara said all aspiring actors and actresses should “practice, practice, practice, practice, and be nice.”
When teaching young performers, she said she tells them to “work hard and be nice” — a saying that has led her to success.
“We’re humans first. We’re not musical-theater robots,” McNamara said. “We are people coming together to make some art… It’s art, so work hard and be nice.”
