As his parents tell the story, Anthony Fett was one of those lucky people who know what they want to do with their lives almost from the day they’re born. Jerry Fett, Anthony’s father, says, “From the time he could talk he was ready to sing a show tune.”
Every gathering was an audience, every new home a stage. He sang for family and friends at weddings and birthday parties. “My grandfather on my mother’s side, Thomas Vitale, was a music teacher in the public schools,” says Fett. “He took me to operas. He’d get the senior citizen discount and take me to matinees. When I was six I actually got to be an extra at the Lyric. Somehow I got the job–I really don’t remember how. What I do remember is walking on that stage and being swallowed up by the enormity of it all. It was just this big stage with all these big people and their big voices and the orchestra and the lights. It was huge, it was profound–and I wanted it.”
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At the age of eight, Fett says, he made two life-changing discoveries: “I found an old tape of Jesus Christ Superstar and I just went for it. I wanted to play Jesus. And I discovered Barbra Streisand. I love Barbra Streisand–she’s my absolute favorite. I’ve read her biography–I bought it when I was 12. I have all of her records. I’ve seen her movies. I still remember when I first heard her sing. My dad had a tape of The Broadway Album, and he played Barbra singing ‘Somewhere.’ I remember I was sitting in my dad’s car hearing it really loud, blasting loud. I can’t even explain to you what it was that I loved–it was just the power of her voice. It is–oh, my goodness–it is awe inspiring. I just played it over and over. I never returned that tape to my father’s collection. I still listen to it. That tape exposed me to great Broadway composers–Rodgers and Hammerstein, Stephen Sondheim, George Gershwin. Once I heard it I couldn’t get enough.”
“I remember he walked into the office and burst into a Barbra Streisand song,” says Victoria Bates, Franklin’s assistant principal. “I think it was ‘Don’t Rain on My Parade’ or maybe it was ‘Funny Girl’–eventually I know he sang both. We were amazed. ‘Who’s this kid singing Streisand?’”
Throughout high school his schedule was filled with rehearsals and performances. The children’s choir took him on tours around the country and the world, performing gospel, opera, classical, and pop standards. When the group performed at Carnegie Hall, Fett and his brother Tim were soloists. “That was my proudest moment as a papa–watching Anthony and Tim up there onstage at Carnegie Hall,” says Jerry. “I couldn’t get over that. I thought, ‘What the hell did I do to deserve this? My God, those are my boys up there.’”
The final performance, the following Monday, was a bit anticlimactic for the actors and crew. The audience was sixth, seventh, and eighth graders who’d been bused in from nearby grammar schools. It had snowed the night before, so traffic was slow and the buses were late. The show, scheduled to start at 10 AM, didn’t get going until close to 11.
“This is where I found my voice,” said one boy. “I’d rather be here than anywhere else.”
