29°
For 16-year-old Echo Picone, of Warren County, it was just another night on stage.
The teen recently performed at 54 Below, as part of their "54 Sings Olivia Rodrigo" night.
Echo, a die-hard Livvy, sang "Favorite Crime," as part of a musical revue with well known Broadway performers and actors. The Warren Hills High School junior had to miss soundcheck for a very good reason — she was at school.
"I was super excited," Echo, who lives in Washington and has been performing since she was five, said. "I'm not much of a nervous performer, whatever happens on stage, happens."
A fan of Rodrigo's before "Drivers License," Echo said she started following the actress/singer when she starred in "An American Girl" movie in 2015.
"I know all of her songs," Echo said. "I love them all. She's such a genius, she really captures my life situation as a teenage girl."
When she's not performing on stage, Echo uploads videos to her TikTok account which is where the producers of the Rodrigo show found her. Her cover of "Helpless" from Hamilton has over 1 million views.
"That was absolutely crazy," Echo said. "I violently sobbed on my bed. That has always been a goal and I never thought I would reach it. It was extraordinary and insane."
On TikTok, Echo regularly sings songs by Rodrigo and Taylor Swift, another favorite. She admitted her voice was raspy because she had recently seen "Taylor Swift: The Eras Tour" and spent the almost three-hour runtime singing her heart out.
"It was incredible," Echo, who saw Swift perform at MetLife Stadium in May. "Absolutely incredible."
Echo's initial big break came when she was cast in "Trevor: The Musical," which ran Off-Broadway in 2021. A filmed version aired on Disney+ in 2022. The musical is about a boy who is bullied after he develops on a crush on a male classmate. Echo played Mary, one of the mean girls who bullies Trevor, which leads him to attempt suicide.
"It's a story about finding yourself and accepting yourself," Echo said. "It's kind of a dark story, but it's a very important story. I am eternally grateful to be in a show that had such an important message."
The cast and crew worked overtime to make sure everyone understood that everyone was just playing a character.
"There were tears that were shed, but we were all a family," Echo said. "We knew we would never say anything like that in real life."
Balancing Off-Broadway and schoolwork can be a challenge for Echo who makes sure she gets her homework done on bus rides and car rides to the city and takes advantages of study halls. Aside from chorus (obviously), she said her favorite subject in school is AP Physics.
"I'm surprisingly good at it as much it terrifies me," Echo said. "It definitely makes my brain work."
And as for her name, which seems almost too perfect for a theatrical actress? Echo's dad works in the guitar industry and was creating guitar sounds, trying to think of a name for the guitar. He came up with "Echo Deva," and her mom, who was pregnant at the time, decided it was a good name for a guitar but an even better name for their child.
Echo said she hopes to attend Pace University or Princeton University, both schools with renowned theatre programs. She also said she is considering law school She said her teachers are understanding of her dual life and that at school, she's just Echo.
"When I'm not in the city performing, I live pretty much a normal teenage girl life," Echo said.
Click here to follow Daily Voice Teaneck and receive free news updates.
