Leslie Noel Hansen, left, leads a rehearsal with members of the Peter Pan Foundation on Sunday, March 3, 2024, in Lafayette, Calif. Hansen founded the nonprofit youth musical theater in 2007. Leslie Noel Hansen was just 25 and flourishing amid the Bay Area’s music scene in 2006, teaching singing lessons, dreaming of Broadway and preparing to head to New York.
At the time, Noel Hansen was set to play Christine in a touring production of Broadway’s “Phantom of the Opera,” after training with Franc D’Ambrosio, who played the Phantom in the Tony award-winning musical for more than six years. Booked to perform at Ryge’s memorial service and open for D’Ambrosio in a concert the same day, the distraught Noel Hansen realized she couldn’t leave this community.
More than two decades later, musical kids of all ages still gather to rehearse, brainstorm and hang out at “The Treehouse,” the nonprofit’s Lafayette home. They give annual benefit performances of “Wish Upon a Star,” volunteer as hospital visitors and performers, sing in monthly open mic cabaret nights and participate in the teen leadership council dubbed the Bay Area Magic Makers.
Leslie Noel Hansen, left, leads a rehearsal with members of the Peter Pan Foundation on Sunday, March 3, 2024, in Lafayette, Calif. Hansen founded the nonprofit youth musical theater in 2007.