Michael D. McClellan sits down with Oscar-winning actor George Chakiris to talk about his legendary role as Bernardo in the 1961’s Academy Award Best Picture-winner, “West Side Story.”
Check it out on the FifteenMinutesWith YouTube Channel!
Interviews from the world of dance!
Written By: Michael D. McClellan |
To underestimate Michael Fairman is to do so at your own risk.
Drop him on a red carpet and he outshines the cabal of nervous journalists fidgeting around him; throw a high-profile tribute package his way and he turns it into high art; give him a show to produce and he gives you an experience worthy of the 16 Daytime Emmy broadcasts that include his fingerprints. Clearly, Michael Fairman has built a standout career on daytime television, his name synonymous with soap operas, his brand the gold standard for celebrity journalism, but it’s the way that he’s gone about his business that sets him apart. The multihyphenate comes at you from all angles – writer, producer, content consultant, content creator, editorial director, and now, singer/songwriter – infusing his work with passion while refusing to wallow in the muck.
“I hope, my reputation is one of the things that sets me apart,” Fairman says from his home in Los Angeles. “I’ve worked hard to earn the trust of the stars that I interview, and they know that I’m going to treat them with respect. At the end of the day, you’ve got to be able to live with yourself. This isn’t about making a quick buck.”
Fairman’s do-it-the-right-way approach has served him well. He’s on a first-name basis with some of the biggest names in daytime television, from Eric Braeden to Dr. Oz, and he’s as equally at home on a soap opera set as he is in his own living room.
“At least until COVID happened,” he says with a laugh. “That changed everything.”
The pandemic, which shut down production across daytime programming, also cost Fairman his job as Digital Content Producer for the Days of Our Lives’ groundbreaking DOOL app, a project he helped to bring to life for over four-and-a-half years. The DOOL app provided weekly updated content with the cast, and Fairman had been a driving force behind its success. The news was a gut punch. Knocked down but not knocked out, he regrouped and poured even more of his energy into YouTube Channel, aptly called “The Michael Fairman Channel,” which contains his music videos (original songs and covers), celebrity interviews, a clever new game show (more on that below), red carpet and backstage coverage from award shows and events, and segments that he’s produced for the Daytime Emmys. He’s also continued his long-running entertainment news and celebrity features website, Michael Fairman TV and has been developing a few top-secrets projects. It’s the kind of pivot that speaks to Fairman’s evolutionary mutability – the quicksilver ability to grow and change and live spectacular multiple lives in the public eye – and guarantees that his is a brand that can’t be pigeonholed.
“The pandemic forced content creators to come up with a unique approach to engage their audience,” Fairman says. “It gave me the chance to expand my celebrity interviews and give fans even more video content in exciting, fun, and interactive ways.”
Fairman has done that and more with his new game show, Soap Opera Know-it-All. Online and interactive, Soap Opera Know-it-All is the first-ever virtual game show for diehard soap fans, pitting contestants from all over the country in a battle over the soaps and the trivia they love. This latest addition to the Michael Fairman digital universe is already a huge hit with fans.
“I’ve received so many submissions from people wanting to be on the show,” he says of the eight-episode series. “The graphics are cool, as we riff on Jeopardy! We’ve got buzzers and music and everything else you’d want in a game show. Stars from The Young & the Restless and The Bold and the Beautiful even appeared on the second episode, and the stars of Days of Our Lives are appearing in the third, asking questions about their characters and their shows. If you’re a diehard soap fan, what more could you ask?”
Available on the Michael Fairman YouTube Channel, Soap Opera Know-it-All has already generated considerable buzz.
“It’s so funny, I had an epiphany to put this show out, and everybody – the soap community, the pundits, the journalists – seemed to embrace it. More than one person has wondered why this hasn’t been done before. It was truly an untapped experience.”
Adding to the intrigue, contestants compete for the ultimate prize: A virtual meeting with their favorite soap star.
“The winner will get to have a Zoom or Facetime conversation with the star of their choice,” Fairman says. “If the star isn’t available for some reason, then we’ll go with choice number two. Along the way, the contestants are winning swag bags and other fun things from different shows. Soap Opera Know-it-All is another fresh way to connect with fans. You have to stay relevant and ever-changing, given the digital climate that content creators live in today.”
Reinvention comes naturally for Michael Fairman. He’s the ultimate showbiz chameleon, a celeb-connected force-of-nature who, as a child, worshipped his favorite characters and devoured their storylines, an itch that’s never let up. It’s unsurprising then that soaps turned into a career, even though he didn’t set out to make it so. His love of music has reemerged, surprising many; Fairman, at an age when most others are winding down, has launched a music career with a string of infectious singles. Up next: Better Late Than Never, a follow-up to his deeply personal – and insanely danceable – Other Side.
“Putting together Better Late Than Never was an interesting experience, because the pandemic made it impossible to record in the studio. Everybody recorded from home. I used an SM7B mic, which is the kind that Michael Jackson used to record Thriller. We had to do everything virtually with my engineer, to track all the vocals and all of that, but you can’t tell if it was produced in a studio or not. The quality is that good. It really speaks to the technology available today, and the creative ways to get product out during a pandemic. I was in awe of so many top artists and unknown acts, who dropped new albums and singles during the past year when touring and playing live was impossible to do.”
Better Late Than Never stays true to Fairman’s roots, a pop-and-R&B-infused track that’s at once Spotify-fresh and decidedly old school, in that infectious, groove sort-of-way.
“It’s Tinashe meets Stevie Wonder meets, perhaps, Nick Jonas,” Fairman says. “I wanted a really cool vibe that was both current and throwback at the same time. I’m really excited for this song to drop.” Look for Michael’s new single to debut just in time for summer.
Fairman’s honeyed voice on Better Late Than Never proves that he’s more than a soap wunderkind. There’s a playful seriousness to his music; he’s not Katy Perry, who made an art of excess – maximalist pop, bras squirting whipped cream, carnivalesque live shows – but his songs compel you to have fun, even if the lyrics are rooted in adversity.
“Everyone goes through dark times in their lives,” Fairman says. “For me, it’s about overcoming them. You can either give up or fight back. My music is about hope.”
While Michael Fairman’s music career is better late than never, it underscores the success he’s had doing everything else with his career; producing the Agnes Nixon and General Hospital 55th Anniversary tributes, creating SoapCity for Sony, hosting and co-producing the Inside Salem: Days of our Lives Podcast launching Michael Fairman TV, and so much more. Most of us realize, as we age, that we can’t make the puzzle pieces of our lives fit and we make peace with that. Michael Fairman keeps reaching into his past to discover more and more about himself. The experiences act as rocket fuel for his art, with moments big and small serving as inspiration for the next chapter in an already amazing career. The world may have changed, but Michael Fairman is going to keep doing his thing, with no regret for yesterday and no fear of tomorrow.
Read the entire Q&A with Michael Fairman, below:
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You grew up in the Midwest. Please tell me a little about your childhood.
I am from Milwaukee, Wisconsin. When I was growing up, I felt unsafe to go to school. I was bullied by the other kids. So, I took solace with my mom at home, and there was a period of time where I wouldn’t go to school at all. So, I would watch soap operas with her. I would watch One Life to Live, which was my favorite show, but I’d also watch All My Children, General Hospital, and The Young and the Restless to name a few. I became a sponge; I soaked up every character, every important date, and every storyline. When it came to soaps, I knew it all. I loved the genre because I felt like these people were my family. These were the friends I didn’t have at school. So, the bullying that I experienced as a kid proved to be invaluable to me later in my life and career. That’s really how it all started. Nowadays, when I hear and read about young people who have been on the receiving end of cyber-bulling or attacks for just being there authentic selves and who they are, or whatever makes them different than the “norm”, it always strikes a chord in me. We all have to do better, and pay attention, to what we say and how we say it, as it can leave a lasting impression on a young person’s life.
You originally had dreams of being a singer.
As a very young kid, I knew that I wanted to do music. I wanted to sing, I wanted to have an album out, I wanted to do pop, soul, and R&B. I had no interest in Broadway. My dream was to be on top of the music charts. There just wasn’t much opportunity to do that in Milwaukee. There was Chicago, which was geographically close, but it wasn’t Los Angeles or New York. So, I left Milwaukee at age 17, moved to L.A. I struggled to connect with the L.A. music scene at that time. I thought, “I don’t know if I’m in the right place for the kind of music I want to do.” Back then, in the early ‘80s, New York was amazing. You had Studio 54 and all of that. I was like, “You know what? I think I’m gonna go to New York.” I moved cross-country and played a lot of nightclubs in Manhattan, like Sweetwater’s, which was primarily an R&B club. That’s the kind of music that I gravitated towards.
Y&R‘s Sharon Case, Mark Grossman and Jordi Vilasuso
How did you end up getting into the world of soaps?
As a young kid, I loved producing things. I loved the aspect of taking all these different elements and putting them together into something entertaining. I would make my mother and my sister sit through my little shows, but I never thought, “This will be a career.” Fast forward. I’d moved to New York, and there was a popular nightclub called Tatou. The Daytime Emmy Awards were held in New York City at the time, and I started doing a benefit called ‘Night of the Daytime Stars’ the evening before the actual Emmy ceremonies, which featured the casts, nominees, and presenters from daytime television. We did it to raise money for AIDS research, and it became a staple event. That’s how I got into the soap opera world, professionally.
When did you put your singing career on hold?
I had reached a point in New York where the grind of doing the showcases became too much. Back then, there was no Digital Age like we have now. You had to play live, and if the A&R rep from the record label didn’t come down to that venue, you were screwed. Let’s say you hired a band, you did all the promotion, and you put out the leaflets or whatever you did to promote it…and then nobody on the A&R side shows up. It had nothing to do with how good you were. You’d fronted this money, had done all of this work, and gotten your hopes up that you might get signed to a deal. They RSVP, and then the A&R rep doesn’t make it because he had another commitment that suddenly came up. It was an emotional rollercoaster, and I got burned out.
At one point, you started splitting your time between L.A. and New York. How come?
I flew out to L.A. in 1991 and worked for Dick Clark Productions on the Daytime Emmys. They needed somebody who knew the soaps, so I was brought in to help the head writer craft the script for the Daytime Emmy Awards Show. I was living in L.A. and doing TV production half of the time; I was living in New York and working in the music business the other half. Ultimately, I decided to move back to L.A. permanently, and started getting a lot of production gigs for television. It was a fun time. I did the Soap Opera Digest Awards, the Daytime Emmy Awards, and the American Music Awards. Then, I got a job at E! working as a writer/producer for a talk show called Pure Soap. So, that’s kind of how my involvement in TV production evolved.
You worked for E! from 1994-97.
E! was very different back then. I was a writer/producer working on several shows, including one called Celebrity Close-Up. I might get a Nicole Kidman assignment, so I would have to put together footage of Nicole Kidman and then write the story around that. You don’t actually have Nicole Kidman there. You’re just writing around the footage. It was a great boot camp, a great place for learning. And then, with Pure Soap, we were the first talk show in soap operas. It was great, because I would do all the segment packages, interview most of the people, and then put it all together. E! was a great place to learn things that would help me later on in my career.
In 1997, you left E! and moved over to Sony, where you executive-produced the soap opera website, SoapCity.
Sony had Wheel of Fortune and Jeopardy in an interactive gaming environment on the Internet. They wanted to do something with The Young and the Restless and Days of Our Lives, because they owned these properties. Since I had all of the expertise and knowledge when it came to these shows, I was made the executive producer of SoapCity.
There was nothing like this at the time on the web. Soaps were still a big deal – there were 13 or 14 shows at that time – so we literally created the individual show sites for Y&R and Days, and also created the brand SoapCity to market them. Our content included news and exclusive interviews. We then built show sites for The Guiding Light and As the World Turns, and expanded our coverage to include ABC’s shows, even though we didn’t have their official sites. I had a four-year contract and a team of 10 people, and am so proud of how much content we produced within that time.
SoapCity ended up going defunct. What happened?
The business executives wanted to monetize it, which I get, but this was the early 2000’s timeframe and they were so far ahead of the game in terms of trying to make money on downloads. That was the beginning of the end for SoapCity. Up until that point, it was this amazing platform that soap fans could just enjoy and eat up. Still, I look back on it as an amazing experience. We were pioneers in the respect that it was something that hadn’t been done before, and I’m very proud of what we created.
Is it true that you produced a special for Prince?
I worked for ABC in Concert when I lived in New York, and one of our specials was The Ryde Dyvine by Prince. We flew to Paisley Park to shoot it during the dead of winter in Minneapolis, there was snow all around, and it was freezing cold. At one point, I’m standing there as a producer, still in disbelief that I’m at Paisley Park. Prince was, and is, a huge idol of mine. I remember turning around at one point, and Prince was right there in front of me! He smiled at me and said, “Hi, friend,” and that was it [laughs]. He just stood there, not talking, because Prince didn’t talk much at that time to anyone! It was a bit of an awkward moment, but in the most beautiful way possible. It was Prince for God sakes!
As a producer of the Daytime Emmy Awards, what are some of your favorite moments?
I have been fortunate that on several of the years I have been involved in the production that some major soap opera milestones happened, and some, of course, have remained my favorites. I produced the General Hospital 55th Anniversary Tribute, the Guiding Light tribute when it took its final bow, and Days of Our Lives’ Bill and Susan Seaforth Hayes Lifetime Achievement Award package. I’m very thankful that so many of these have landed in my lap. Over the years, depending on the structure of the production, I’ve also created many nominee packages, where I’ve had to pick that one moment to showcase that nominee in their category. I’ve also been a frequent advisor to the executive producers, providing them insight on what happened during the year in soaps or daytime television as a whole.
However, the one segment I’m most proud of is the Agnes Nixon tribute. Unfortunately, when you’re doing an award show on a network or cable channel, all you have is two, maybe two-and-a-half minutes to tell the story. So, you have to make cuts. It’s very difficult to do, because the powers-that-be often force your hand and you have to cut people out. On my “Michael Fairman Channel,” I extended the Agnes Nixon tribute to a 20-minute version. I feel it’s such a great piece, because I was able to interview former One Life to Live and All My Children stars for it, including: Cameron Mathison, Erika Slezak, Kim Delaney, Robert S. Woods, Peter Bergman, Michael E. Knight, Thorsten Kaye, Andrea Evans, and so many more, and all of these people gave it its full life and impact, and showed the power of Agnes’ storytelling, and the legacy she has left behind.
Tribute packages are highly visible. There must be a tremendous amount of pressure to get them done on time, and to get them right.
That’s where the producing skills come in. I really do like the challenge of putting it all together. What’s the look and feel going to be? What are the clips going to be? Who needs to be represented? How do we tell this story? How do we do it in an effective way that’s done in a short amount of time? So, that’s basically what I’ve done on most of the shows.
I’m sure that this type of work challenges both sides of your brain.
I think one of the things I’ve had to learn about producing, is that you need both the left and the right side of your brain to succeed. Your product comes from the creative side, and but then you have to be able to organize it. A lot of time is spent putting the pieces together. It’s not necessarily the most fun, but the key is being able to put it all together from a practical standpoint and also still be creative with it.
Being independent as my own brand and not aligned with a known media entity has been a double-edged sword, because a lot of the time I’m a lone wolf. I’m one of only a few reporters that has their own website, Michael Fairman TV, while most soap opera sites are ran by the networks or media companies and conglomerates. It was a conscious decision to go that route. I do my own thing because I felt I had to make my own space. It gave me much more freedom to create what I feel is relevant and important. The downside is that we’re in a difficult economy. I don’t have a marketing team behind me like a Soap Opera Digest may have. So, it’s always been this yin-yang for me. There are always questions running around in the back of my mind: Can I keep doing this independently? Does it make sense being my own guy? Should I do something else as part of a bigger organization? I wrestle with that constantly.
What ranks as your biggest soap moment?
My all-time favorite performance ever was Judith Light as Karen Wolek in One Live to Live, when Karen takes the stand and admits that she’s a prostitute. It was the most amazing performance I’ve ever seen, and to this day it holds up well. It was such a transcendent, captivating moment. In terms of pure talent, I think Judith is one of the greatest actresses ever. Period. She’s amazing.
Coincidental story; I was an extra on a film when I was an actor in L.A., and she was dating Robert Desiderio at the time, who eventually became her husband. She was on the set that day, and I was like, “Oh, my God, Judith Light is here! I’ve got to meet Judith!” So, I get my chance to introduce myself, and I explained that I was torn between living in New York and living in L.A. At the time, she herself was living in New York doing One Life to Live. I nervously asked her what she thought, and what she would suggest…should I go to New York? Should I stay in L.A.? All the while, she’s looking at me like I’m probably certifiably insane [laughs]. But I made a friend that day, and when I came to New York, Judith got me a part as an under-five on One Life to Live. I am very fortunate, because Judith has been in my life in some way for many years.
Biggest soap thrill?
Fast forward. Outfest is an LGBTQ film festival here in Los Angeles, and I got hired to produce a 25-year retrospective of HIV/AIDS in film and television. We’re talking Philadelphia, Angels in America, the whole gamut, and I had to put together this nine-minute tribute for the event. Then they told me that the presenter of my retrospective was going to be Judith Light. My mouth dropped! That was a thrill of a lifetime!
What is the greatest misperception when it comes to daytime TV?
There is something to be said about daytime television. These are some of the hardest working people in the industry. They always figure out a way to get their scenes and episodes done with no time to spare. I never like it when they get a bad rap. I don’t think people understand how hard it is to do these shows. I’ve seen it firsthand. I know how hard it is to do eight shows a week. It’s a grind. The actors are doing an obscene number of pages of a script on a daily basis. It’s not like it used to be in the ‘70s, ‘80s, or even the 1990s, when the actors had time to rehearse. The day was blocked and structured so much differently back then. Now, they hardly have any time to rehearse. Think about it; they get all of this dialogue thrown at them, they barely have time to look at it, and then they go do it with only one take. That’s what goes on.
You make interviews look easy. Are you naturally introverted or extroverted?
That’s a great question. In my personal life, I think I’m more of an introvert, but when the camera is on and it’s time to go, then I’m able to turn it on and become an extrovert. When I was doing my Soap Nation Live! podcast, or when I hosted the NBC Days of Our Lives podcast, I knew that I had to be on my game when we went live. The same is true today; whenever I do a show or conduct an interview, something in me clicks. Interestingly, many of the actors that I interview are the same way. They aren’t showy and flashy in real life as fans might expect. They’re not out there trying to be the life of the party. But they can turn it on for an interview or a PR event.
What’s your secret to a great interview?
The number one rule is that you’ve got to make the subject feel comfortable. Whether you’re a journalist, a reporter, or a host, it is absolutely critical that you earn the trust of the subject. They have to feel comfortable with you, otherwise you’re not going to produce a great interview. It’s not always easy, but you have to win them over so they feel at ease. I have been very fortunate, because the people that I’ve built relationships with know that I’m not going to do anything to them that is going to harm them. I’m not going for the jugular. My reputation makes it easier for me to earn the trust of someone new, but I still have to back it up when we start talking.
The second rule is to be authentic. I don’t know how to be anything other than my authentic self. I’m probably the worst person to have on your poker team because you see everything in my face [laughs]. The only way that I can live with myself and get through each day is to be me. I don’t know how to do it any other way.
Lastly, I think you also have to have fun with people. Nobody wants to go into an interview feeling like, “Am I going to hate this?” You want them to want to talk to you, and not feel like it’s drudgery. Imagine being an actor, and you’ve just done 20 interviews, and then Michael Fairman comes in for the final interview of the day. You’re exhausted, but you’ve still got to do this interview. Well, I think it helps if Michael Fairman is on point, keeps it light, injects a little humor, and helps make the experience as painless as possible…and, maybe even a little fun.
What are some of your biggest interview pet peeves?
As someone who’s interviewed people for many years, you know when you’re in the hands of a good interviewer. There’s nothing that I hate more than watching somebody interview someone, and they’re not listening to what the other person is saying. The subject has just said something meaningful, and the interviewer isn’t responding to it in real time. A lot of interviewers are so focused on running through their list of questions that they won’t deviate from the script. I’m like, “Get off the paper, know who you’re talking to, and act like a human being. Have a real conversation.” I guarantee you, the piece that you’re doing is going to be great if you choose to have a real conversation with your subject.
The other thing that drives me nuts is when someone doesn’t do their homework. I might be standing on my spot on the red carpet at the Daytime Emmy Awards, and there might be someone from a fashion magazine standing next to me. They might know fashion, but they don’t have a clue who many of the soap stars are, and they’re asking me to give them the details. I’ve got a job to do, too. So, do some preliminary research before you show up.
Journalism is not for the faint of heart.
I’m sure we all have those moments of like, “Am I a glutton for punishment?” And you wonder if you’re making a difference. There are times when I don’t know. I could write a story, and I’m convinced that it’s going to get so much traction, and that people are going to love it…and then nobody reads it. And then I’ll write something that I think isn’t going to command attention, and then I get this incredible feedback. It makes you wonder if you’re barometer is off [laughs]. Journalism can be a thankless job. It’s very hard, and I don’t think people even understand the amount of work it takes. At the end of the day, you want people to read or see your work. That’s why you do it in the first place.
It’s same thing with my music. As I’ve said, a big reason for getting back into music is because I don’t want to regret anything. Making music is fulfilling, but I still want people to hear it. I would love to get one of my songs on any of the pop, R&B, A/C or dance charts. People say it’ll never happen, but that’s something that I aspire to. You have to keep challenging yourself. I keep challenging myself to write another catchy song from my heart and my experiences, and to make sure when my voice comes on listeners streaming platforms (and hopefully one day the radio), that they know its identifiably me with my own distinct vocals and sound. At the end of the day, you don’t want to look back at your life and have regrets.
COVID impacted every corner of our economy, including Hollywood.
There was so much at stake, as I’m sure is the case in every industry, so there was a lot of pressure to figure out ways to get back to work while staying safe. A lot of money has been put into these productions just for the safety protocols that didn’t exist pre-COVID. They’re getting tested at all times of the day, there’s Plexiglas put in between the stations, and they’re shooting a whole different way. Each show’s doing it a little bit differently, but that’s just what they’ve had to do. And congratulations to them for getting up and running. And I want to say that daytime did it first. The Bold and the Beautiful was the very first American network show back in production, not just the first soap opera. The other shows were quick to follow their lead. Because of COVID, I still can’t go to the set and interview the stars, but I can bring the stars to the fans by doing Zoom interviews virtually.
COVID also changed the way actors connect with their fans.
When I first started in the digital space, there were only a few outlets out there. With social media, anything is possible. COVID helped change the landscape as well; actors are interviewing other actors. They’ve launched their own shows on YouTube. They’ve launched their own podcasts. The space also has become more saturated and it forces you to up your game. I don’t want to be the eighth person to interview someone – by then everyone is already sick of seeing and hearing the same thing [laughs].
Please tell me about the Michael Fairman YouTube channel.
I really want my Michael Fairman YouTube channel to be all things, Michael Fairman. I want it to be the place to go when you want those in-depth celebrity interviews. The content runs the gamut from short clips to longer interviews that range from 30-to-60 minutes. The short clips are from interviews that I’ve done on the red carpet at award shows. I hope that the channel connects with those avid fans out there; I try to maintain a balance of being the voice of the fan, being a subject matter expert, and helping promote shows. There are other people out there that are much snarkier in their stance and brand, but that’s not the way I’ve chosen to go. Not saying I’m right, either. They have been extremely successful.
You started out pursuing music before moving into TV production. Now, you’ve coming full circle.
The really hard part is that I buried the singing to focus on TV production, and I didn’t let anybody know about my secret passion until a few years ago. Getting back into singing has been the greatest. Interestingly enough, part of the problem is that people see celebrities – or anyone with an audience, for that matter – as single-faceted. They associate them with one thing. Fans associate me with soap operas, so they want to know if Genie Francis is going to be on General Hospital. It’s been a little difficult with that audience to say, “I’m singing, download my single, check out my music video.” Some people in the soap universe have been supportive, but others just don’t want any part of it. That’s why I’m trying to develop a separate audience for my music career.
Were people surprised when you started making music again?
Most people in that world were shocked. We live in an interesting time – there was a day when motion picture actors were only in motion pictures. They weren’t on TV. We’re not in that time anymore. It’s liberating. I like seeing the actors that I love on daytime television doing something else. The soap fans support over the years to my work in that field does not go unnoticed by me. They have been amazing, So, I hope they will come around, and welcome the fact that I’m also doing other things now.
Other Side is a fantastic song. How did it come to be?
Interestingly, the song was very easy for me to write. That isn’t always the case, but this one was different because a couple of things happened in my life. First, my mother had passed away of Alzheimer’s, which was devastating. There’s something to be said about a mother and son bond. She was the one in the family that loved the soaps, and she was a very big champion of my music. Then, I was at a Christmas party when I learned that George Michael had passed. He was my absolute favorite singer-songwriter. He had those amazing, beautiful, soulful lyrics, and he was a master at the delivery of those songs. When I heard the news, I was so upset that I couldn’t breathe. To this day, I am not sure I have fully recovered from it.
My point being, those losses gave me pause. I thought, “Why am I wasting whatever time I have left? Why am I not writing and singing?” I was blessed with this natural gift to sing, but I had been neglecting it to focus on other things. So, that was the impetus to write Other Side.
What’s the meaning behind Other Side?
The song is really about facing your darkest times. How do you find hope amidst whatever is in front of you? How to you rise above? For me, I had suffered from chronic back pain for many years and I had already been through multiple spinal surgeries. Suddenly, I was facing the prospect of another surgery. At that time, I also didn’t feel like I had the support of people around me. It was cause for reflection; when you step back and look at the big picture, you only have yourself at the end of the day. The message of the song is simple: If you can find one thing to hold onto during the darkest, most horrific times in your life, regardless of how small it may seem to others, it can get you through to the other side.
Please tell me about the video for Other Side.
I released the song on Spotify and Apple Music on March 5, 2020, and then COVID hit and everything shut down. The timing wasn’t good; we were going to shoot the music video in March, but we were suddenly locked down in L.A. and production stopped, so I had to keep rejiggering the concept of the video and how it would go with the song. It was the end of summer before I was able to get a crew together in a place that would let us shoot. The video wasn’t originally going to be shot in a boxing ring, but it was such a perfect analogy of fighting the fight, and of getting back up no matter what life throws in your way.
Then, to have what happened with COVID and racial injustice and everything else that transpired, it made perfect sense to include imagery associated with the pandemic and Black Lives Matter and equality. It also shows some of the struggles that our war veterans go through, as well the struggles of those suffer from domestic violence. The message being, whoever you are, whatever you’re going through, you can persevere and get through to the other side.
Your song, Can’t Let You Go, has a great dance groove.
First of all, I love Dua Lipa, I think she’s amazing artist. I was inspired to write Can’t Let You Go based on what Dua Lipa had been doing before the release of her most recent album, Future Nostalgia. I actually did a cover of Dua Lipa’s song, Electricity, on the Michael Fairman YouTube channel. I wanted to have something that you could dance to, so I wrote Can’t Let You Go with her in mind.
I’ve read where your song, Thing About Me is a response to some Twitter trash-talk.
I remember being in the recording studio and someone said, “What do you want to write about?” And I was like, “You know, I’m really sick of the way people are coming at me on Twitter.” There was just a lot of negative stuff. Fans were convinced that I was favoring one soap star over another, and I was getting trash-talked all over Twitter. There were so many haters. I was like, “Alright, here’s the deal. I’m going to come out with my first single, and you’re going to be surprised that I even sing. You don’t know a thing about me.” It was really a strong stance to come out with; you hate on me, but you don’t know a thing about me. It’s easy to sit behind a keyboard, faceless, and tear somebody down. It’s really an act of cowardice played out on social media.
Can’t Let You Go is another song with a great dance vibe. The lyrics sound deeply personal.
I wanted to write a dance/pop/R&B song. I wanted it to be something really cool. Can’t Let You Go has been used on The Doctors syndicated talk show. As far as the lyrics go, it’s really about what you do when a relationship ends and you’re trying to move on, trying to move yourself forward, but you just can’t let go. You’re stuck. So, this song is about breaking free in order to move forward and love again.
Is ageism a factor in what you do as an artist?
I am so inspired by the young artists of today. There are so many amazing singer-songwriters and pop artists out there. I listen to their stuff all the time, and when I try to converse with people my age, they’re like, “I don’t know who that is.” My point is, age is a number because in your mind, you’ve got to keep up, keep young mentally, and stay involved with what’s going on with pop culture. I want to know what’s going on. I think a curious mind and a desire to be on top of what’s happening keeps you young.
Final Question: If you had one piece of advice for other aspiring journalists, what would that be?
I would say that I think the key to success in this kind of field is to remain relevant and find a topic or niche that perhaps no one is doing or approach it in a new way. We’re at a time where there are so many people pushing into this space. If they’ve got a ring light, a camera, a computer, and a microphone, and they’ve set up shop in their homes, they can create content. So, constantly evolve and hone your craft and find your voice – the thing that makes your work distinctly you is what ultimately will make people take notice whether in print, online, or on video.
Written By: Michael D. McClellan |
Lauren Swickard just saved Christmas.
In a year that has seen Broadway shuttered, Wimbledon cancelled, and the Tokyo Olympics postponed, the last thing any of us needed was a Christmas season without fresh, high-quality, feel-good Christmas content to consume. Swickard, the multihyphenate powerhouse behind A California Christmas, has delivered in a big way, writing, producing, and starring (opposite her husband, General Hospital star Josh Swickard) in a film about a wealthy charmer who poses as a ranch hand to get a hardworking farmer to sell her family’s land before Christmas. The Netflix Original, produced by ESX Entertainment, begins streaming worldwide on December 14.
“Getting this movie made is a dream come true,” Swickard says. “There were so many challenges with COVID-19, but we had a great team. Everyone pulled together, worked hard, and stayed focused in spite of what was going on around us.”
A California Christmas
That A California Christmas even made it this far qualifies as a Christmas miracle. In March, when the coronavirus pandemic stopped Hollywood in its tracks, not many in the industry were optimistic that holiday films like A California Christmas would see the light of day. In Swickard’s case, everything broke perfectly: Quarantined, she wrote the script in three weeks, bouncing plot points and dialog off of Josh, who was home during the four-month shutdown at General Hospital. She then pitched the script to Ali Afshar, the head of ESX Entertainment, who was so impressed that the deal was done on the spot. The decision to cast Lauren and Josh as the leads not only guarantied onscreen chemistry (the two had met during the filming of Roped, and were married not long after), it also came with the built-in advantage of the leads having been quarantined together. Finally, Afshar offered up his Petaluma ranch as the film’s primary location; by shooting A California Christmas in an NBA-like “bubble” environment, and with testing and protocols followed to a tee, Netflix was convinced that the project could be completed in time for the holiday season. And just like that, Swickard was able to see her dream come true.
“We had a lot of things go right every step of the way,” Swickard says. “It was a combination of hard work and good luck.”
That Lauren Swickard is the driving force behind A California Christmas comes as no surprise to her inner-circle. Swickard may look the part of a Hollywood starlet, but the disarmingly beautiful actor is a blood-and-guts warrior when it comes to her passion: Writing.
“It’s something I do every day,” Swickard says without missing a beat. “I’ve always wanted to be a writer, and I’m thankful the persistence has paid off. It’s surreal to see a writing credit next to A California Christmas.”
Swickard has written several screenplays, including A California Christmas, and is currently hard at work on writing Casa Grande, a five-episode political drama series picked up by Warner Bros. That award-winning Argentine director Gabriela Tagliavini (How to Break Up With Your Douchebag) has been tapped to direct the series speaks volumes to Swickard’s writing.
“Casa Grande is on the fast track,” she says. “The series follows several families in the farmland of Northern California as it navigates universal themes of class, immigration, culture and family. We have a team working very hard ensure that the subject matter is authentic. I’m very excited about how it’s coming together and can’t wait to see it come out.”
Born in Cincinnati, Swickard started out in dance, excelling in ballet to the point that she later enrolled in New York City’s prestigious School of American Ballet. Founded by George Balanchine and the single greatest cultivator of aspiring American ballet dancers, SAB remains close to Swickard’s heart.
Photo Courtesy Lauren Swickard
“So many great dancers have passed through the school’s studios,” says Swickard. “Allegra Kent, Darci Kristler, the list goes on and on. I loved my time there.”
An injury changed the trajectory of Swickard’s dance career. After a brief stop at Ohio University (to study journalism, no less), she made the leap into acting. Since then she’s steadily built an impressive acting resume, including roles in Dear White People and Roped. She’s also pulled double-duty, starring in two roles for the Lifetime movie Twisted Twin.
“My most challenging project yet,” she says, smiling. She pauses. “Until A California Christmas. Writing, producing, and acting in it was very rewarding, and I’m very thankful. But wearing so many different hats was also exhausting at times.”
That Swickard dreamed big and worked hard is good news for the rest of us. A California Christmas streams at a time when the world badly needs a healthy dose of holiday cheer.
“It’s been a difficult year,” Swickard says. “Hopefully this movie will help people forget about the pandemic for a couple of hours. Hopefully it will keep them smiling for a long while after that.”
Let’s talk about your latest project, A California Christmas. Without spoiling anything, what can you tell me about the movie?
I like to say that A California Christmas is the classic save-the-ranch story. It’s about a girl, her mom, and her younger sister. I play Callie Burnay, a girl who has a lot on her plate. She’s dealing with a mother who is battling lung cancer, and she also has a little sister that she has to help raise, so she’s basically taking care of her family while keeping up an entire ranch by herself. When it becomes too much, her mom suggests that she hire a ranch hand – which she grudgingly ends up doing. Then we learn about a San Francisco-based shipping company called Van Aston Enterprises, and how it wants to buy a big plot of land to put in a new shipping facility. Because the Burnay Ranch is going under, and is just inches away from foreclosure every month, the company thinks it’s found the perfect target. That’s when they decide to go in and offer the family money to buy the ranch. So, Joseph Van Aston, who is played by my real-life husband, gets sent to Petaluma, California, to convince the owners of the Burnay Ranch to sell their land. He doesn’t know Callie Burnay, and he doesn’t realize how strongly she is against selling – although he will soon find out.
Are conditions ripe for romance?
Very much so! When Joseph Van Aston arrives at the ranch, he spills coffee all over himself and has to change clothes. Callie actually mistakes him for a ranch hand. Joseph, seeing it as a perfect opportunity, decides to play the part so that he can get to know Callie a little bit and see what makes her tick. He doesn’t expect to fall in love. So it’s a false identity, romantic comedy Christmas movie. It’s coming out as a Netflix Original on December 14. We couldn’t have asked for a better home for the film.
Photo Courtesy Lauren Swickard
A California Christmas was made during a global pandemic.
We were fortunate to be one of the first productions up and running. We knew that the rest of Hollywood was watching us to see how it went, but everyone on set was careful to follow all the protocol to the best of our ability. We lost two hours each day due to our precautionary guidelines, and yet we still made our days without missing a beat. It wasn’t surprising, because our team was full of some of the hardest workers I’ve ever met.
What kinds of adjustments did you have to make?
We were something of a guinea pig for Hollywood. We were initially doing the blood tests, the kind where you could prick your finger and get the results back in eight minutes. That meant we could test on the same day that we were to go to the set. Then they came around and said that those tests weren’t valid anymore, so we had to delay production by a week while we worked out a deal with another lab, and arranged for nurses to come on set with the nasal swabs. The cast and crew was on hold at a hotel where we filmed in Sonoma Valley. It was beautiful, but we were also in Petaluma, which is in the middle of nowhere. We were supposed to be there for 2 ½ weeks, but we ended up being there for 34 days.
This may be the new normal in Hollywood for the foreseeable future.
The world has certainly changed. Before the pandemic, I think I took things like in-person meetings and interactions for granted. I was in an acting class that I loved. I was driving from Studio City to Santa Monica to Century City, so I was all over Los Angeles auditioning and meeting with people all the time. In fact, at the time I felt a bit overwhelmed. I was like, “I’ve already driven to two offices today, why can’t I just send a tape to the casting offices instead?” Then once the pandemic hit, everything stopped. Acting classes, auditions, productions…everything was canceled. My husband is on a soap opera, General Hospital, and his show completely shut down. It was pretty scary, because the only way our industry works is by being in close contact with other people. There can be anywhere from 60-to-80 people on set when actors are doing a scene. That’s how many people it takes to make everything work. It was all very hard at first, and very surreal. I’ll never forget, Josh and I love watching American Idol, and then American Idol shut down. The next thing you know, the contestants had to sing from home. The new normal is going to take some getting used to [laughs].
Photo Courtesy Lauren Swickard
The preview for A California Christmas looks great! Where did the idea for the movie come from?
When the quarantine first happened, there were a lot of friends on social media who were being productive. They were diving into various health-based activities, and coming up with all kinds of creative, stay-at-home things to stay busy. Because I love to write, I thought, “Oh, I’m going to do a script,” and I started imagining what people would want to watch once the quarantine was over. I thought that the pandemic would surely be over by the holidays, and that a holiday movie would be the perfect way to entertain people. I was wrong about the pandemic, but I still feel that people are ready for a movie like A California Christmas.
This project came together quickly.
I wrote the script in three weeks. It was quite fun, because Josh was home with me while I was writing. It was the first time that I had written a script where I had my husband here to be my guinea pig. We would act out scenes while I was writing, so it was a very different process for me. It was so much fun. As I was creating the characters, my intention was not to perform as an actress in the movie. I only wanted to produce and write. But, as we kept working together, I started getting this idea that maybe I should pitch more than the script and the story. Maybe I should also pitch that Josh and I would be acting together in it as a married couple.
Two-part question: What were some of the challenges that you encountered making this film? And, what did you find the most enjoyable?
The biggest challenge was that we had to deal with the pandemic. That meant that there were a lot of things we had to take into consideration. For example, as a writer I had to write a lot of exterior scenes relative to the number of interior scenes. That’s because it’s not quite safe when there are so many crew members confined to a small space. The union also provided guidelines, so we had to make sure that we followed those as well. When we were location scouting, we had to ensure that interior scenes had two separate entrances, one for the actors and the other for the crew members. Those were just some of the challenges that we had to work around.
I think my most enjoyable and favorite part about making A California Christmas was working with my husband. It was so fun to really be able to play off of each other and use our natural chemistry. We had this great banter, where we would do a scene and I would look at him like, “We’ve got to do something else.” And he did the same thing to me. He’d go, “Oh no, babe. No, no, no,” and I’d be like, “You’re right. Let’s do it again.” It was really special, and something that I had never experienced with another actor before.
Photo Courtesy Lauren Swickard
A California Christmas was produced by ESX Entertainment.
ESX Entertainment is run by Ali Afshar, and this company is such a well-oiled machine. They’ve done something like 17 movies over the past three years, many of them in and around Petaluma. Ali is accustomed to working on tight schedules, challenging budgets, and things like that, but I’m sure he’s never made a movie under conditions quite like this. Still, he was determined to make this movie despite the coronavirus restrictions. It was such a great experience. The crew was so kind, and everyone was such a family. There were really no issues on the whole preproduction side. The same with the production side, except for the inconveniences caused by COVID. It ended up working out fantastically well.
You met your husband, actor Josh Swickard, on the set of Roped. Tell me about that.
We auditioned independently and were both offered the film. I was offered the role of Tracy Peterson first, but I was actually filming something else in Atlanta and couldn’t come back to Warner Bros. to do the chemistry read. Chemistry reads are common in movies, and are done with different pairings so that the director can get a feel for chemistry between the leads. In this case it didn’t happen, and Josh was cast as Colton Burtenshaw while I was in Atlanta. So, I didn’t meet Josh until two days before we were supposed to be in Petaluma.
I’m going to guess that the chemistry between the two of you was pretty darned good.
Yes, it was very good! We were on the Warner Bros. lot, where we were having rehearsal with the director. Josh had just returned from the movie ranch – he had to learn how to rope a calf for his role, so he had been training all day, but I didn’t know this. I show up to the lot, and Josh is dirty from head to toe – dirty cowboy boots, dirty jeans, dirty shirt. I immediately started making fun of him because I thought he was coming in character for the directors meeting. I thought, “Wow, you’re really going for this role!” So, that was our first interaction. Things went so well that he got my number underneath the iconic water tower on the Warner Bros. lot. We drive by that water tower all of the time. That was our special little meeting place.
Did you start dating during the filming of Roped?
There was definite chemistry between us, but we decided that we weren’t going to act on that chemistry, we were going to have it be movie magic instead. It worked out great because we were so close during filming that we became friends first. I told him that maybe he could take me out on a date after filming had wrapped up. He did, and it was love at first date.
You starred in a lifetime movie called Twisted Twin. What was that like?
That has to be my most satisfying role thus far in my career as an actress – or, I should say, roles! One twin was as sweet as could be, as sweet as honey, and the other one was just crazy evil. I actually loved playing the evil twin the most [laughs].
You’re outstanding in both roles.
Thank you! The director’s name is Jeff Hare. He was really great to work with, because he went out of his way to make me feel like it was my movie. I had so much creative control, which I didn’t expect but truly appreciated. Jeff was the best. It was also awesome to collaborate with my body double, who had the same measurements as me, and who had my same hair. You really can’t tell who is who from the back. It was very surreal!
You acted with Jennifer Taylor in that movie. What did you learn from such an accomplished actor as Jennifer?
Oh my gosh, she is such a pro. It’s really cool to see someone like Jennifer work in such a way where there is no aura of ego around her. She was one of the crew – she learned everybody’s names, from the PAs to the sound guys to everyone in between. She didn’t come across as the star that she is, she just wanted to be a part something special. The way she fit in gave it a family feel. It really is rare to meet someone of her stature that behaves like that on a set. I learned from her just how to be. I just want to Jennifer Taylor. She is just amazing.
Photo Courtesy Lauren Swickard
At one point you were going to be a ballerina.
Growing up in Cincinnati, my life was focused on one thing: Ballet, ballet, ballet. I was training with Russian coaches, coaches that were flying in from Europe, all of those sorts of things. I was definitely on track to become a professional ballerina, so I moved to New York City to dance with the School of American Ballet.
What changed your career trajectory?
I got injured while I was there and had to fill my days with other things, so I started taking an acting class. I was 14 at the time. I immediately fell in love with acting, and couldn’t imagine myself doing anything else. As if I needed any more convincing, my acting teacher said, “Ballerinas end their careers around the age of 35, but actors can act their whole lives.”
The more I got into acting, the more I learned that acting is a lot like ballet, but with words. It’s about emoting with every part of yourself, just like ballet. I really think that’s why it came so naturally to me. Ballet also played another important part in my acting career: If I hadn’t gone to New York for ballet, then I never would have been exposed to acting in the first place.
You wrote the script for A California Christmas. Please tell me about your passion for writing.
Oh my gosh, I wanted to be a writer long before I wanted to become an actress. I was writing my own novels from the time I was in middle school. I studied journalism at the Scripps School of Journalism at Ohio University. The plan was to complete my degree, but I ended up booking a pilot for CBS my first year of college, so I left college to do the pilot. Little did I know that pilots don’t always get picked up [laughs]. I was 18 years old, and I didn’t know how the acting world worked. I just took a leap of faith and plunged into the Hollywood pool headfirst. The screenwriting came later. Once I decided to start writing screenplays I said, “This is my second career. I’m going to work on it every day.” Every day, even if I’m just writing a scene or two, screenwriting is a part of my morning ritual. It’s such a muscle that you have to work on. So I write every day, and I love it.
You wore multiple hats on A California Christmas. Any desire to focus purely on acting in a future project?
Even though I loved to being a producer, writer, and actress on this project, it was a lot of work. I was acting in one of the lead roles, but I was also a producer, which meant I was constantly going over the scenes with the director. It was an endless stream of “I don’t think this works. Do you think this approach works better instead? Should we change the way we handle that?” All while having to think about my character and the performance that I was trying to bring to the screen. Then, the scenes would change, and as a writer I would need to shift gears on the spot and say, “Hey guys, I think we’re going to change it to this, this and this instead of this.” I loved it, but it was definitely a lot on one plate.
So, to answer your question, I’m very excited to go into a project where I’m just the actress. I think it will feel great to count on the writer, director, and producer to do the things they need to do, while I get to focus on being an actress. Or, if it turns out another way, where I’m just the writer.
Let’s talk about your next project, Casa Grande
Casa Grande is a five-episode series that I created, and it is in production right now. The series follows several families in the farmland of Northern California as it navigates themes of class, immigration, culture and family. I think it’s my best work. I do have a team of writers, because this it is a series, so we are working together in a traditional writers room. Their names are Alex Ranarivelo and Michael Cruz, and they are amazing. The expertise that my team brings to this subject is so important, because of who I am and how I grew up. I knew that I needed to have a team around me that is an expert in this culture.
Photo Courtesy Lauren Swickard
Where did the idea for Casa Grande come from?
I was actually inspired while we were filming A California Christmas. We were filming on a big dairy farm that actually sources its cheeses to Chipotle, a place where they have hundreds and hundreds of cows, milking machines, and large fields. We would go on the set every day, and I couldn’t help but notice all of the Hispanic workers who actually lived on the property. They would be awake and working long before we got there, and they would be working after we would leave at the end of the day. What I noticed about them was just the foundation of joy that they had – the way they talked and interacted with each other, and the way their kids ran around playing. Being from Cincinnati, I had never seen that culture up close. It piqued my curiosity. I started researching and interviewing these people to learn more about them, and that’s when the idea for Casa Grande hit. I gathered a team around me that could help put story and voices to these faces, and together we came up with the pilot. I pitched the pilot, and ESX Productions jumped on it.
Given the world we live in today, Casa Grande deals with some very timely issues.
The grand theme of this series is pulling back the curtain on how the machine works. The machine being the world that we all live in. I’m just so thankful for this team of people that I have around me, because without them we wouldn’t have been able to give this series correct voices. They are experts in the community, and we had people from the community on the project, so it’s true to what’s happening right now in the world. It’s so important for people to see it.
How does Lauren Swickard stay busy when there are lulls in her schedule?
If I encounter a lull in auditions or a lull in work, I always dive into an acting class. There are so many cool acting classes in town, and that’s the place where you can challenge yourself and practice your craft. If I’m not auditioning or acting, then a class offers an outlet that I have control over. When it comes to writing, I make time every day to get my ideas out there.
Photo Courtesy Lauren Swickard
Final Question. If you had one piece of advice for other aspiring creatives, what would that be?
Whatever it is, just start doing it. Start producing your own projects, you’ll learn what to do along the way. It doesn’t matter what the finished product looks like, you just need the experience. The next thing you produce will be better because of what you’ve learned. If you aspire to write, just start writing. If your dream is to be an actor, jump in. Get involved with the local theatre. Take acting classes. Acting classes are great for so many reasons, including the ability to network with others with the same interests. There are colleges that have film schools, and there are students working on thesis projects who need actors. And don’t forget social media, YouTube, all of those sorts of things. You can do so much today that wasn’t available just a short time ago. Follow your passion and just start doing it.
Written By: Michael D. McClellan |
John Riddle has always dreamed big. Blessed with an active imagination and an equally insatiable curiosity, Riddle, who currently plays Raoul in the Broadway production of Phantom of the Opera, is living out his childhood dream by starring in his favorite play on theatre’s grandest stage. You don’t get there without talent, and Riddle was born to act. There’s also his tireless work ethic and natural charisma, both critical in the hypercompetitive world of Broadway theatre: In New York, handsome actors are a dime a dozen, and audition rooms are filled with John Riddles – easy on the eyes, one virtually indistinguishable from another, an assembly line of gifted performers all vying for the same role. Casting directors are numb to the sight. Their antennae is tuned elsewhere, filtering out the room’s beautiful, unyielding sameness in search of the talent that not only comes prepared, but delights in ways both authentic and unexpected. Riddle checks those boxes. That he makes it look so easy is part of his genius. His life has been a series of doors opening at just the right moment, of opportunities presenting themselves as if dropped in his lap by some unseen spirit. Better yet, he has been ready every step of the way.
Born in Vermilion, Ohio, Riddle likely caught the acting bug thanks to VHS copies of The Wizard of Oz and Mary Poppins. Obsessed, he sat in front of the TV and watched those movies countless times, but it only took a single viewing of each to unlock the passion bound up in his DNA. Riddle absorbed the performances like a sponge – Dick Van Dyke’s chimney-sweeper Bert opposite Julie Andrews’ Mary Poppins, and Judy Garland’s iconic Dorothy – transfixed by the expressions and mannerisms that conveyed so much emotion. How could you say so much without saying anything at all? Even if he didn’t know it then, John Riddle was destined for the stage.
Photo Courtesy Deen van Meer
“I loved everything about those films,” Riddle says. “I remember soaking in every detail, and singing along to all of the songs. I think I gravitated naturally to those musicals because they were so much fun. The fact that a story could be told through singing really triggered my imagination.”
Riddle took piano lessons as a child – ironically, he credits his piano teacher with instilling the discipline that’s helped make him so successful on Broadway – and later sang with the Oberlin (OH) Choristers, laying the foundation for what was to come next. While he often dreamed of singing in a big-time musical, seeing The Phantom of the Opera really lit the fuse. He walked out of that Toronto theatre transformed.
“Phantom was all I thought about for a long time after that,” he says. “We had the CD, and I’d make my parents play it every time we got in the car to go somewhere. I knew every song by heart.”
Little did he know then that he would one day take the Majestic Theatre stage, portraying Raoul in Andrew Lloyd Webber’s masterpiece. He was just a kid living in a small town 35 miles to the west of Cleveland. Sure, he allowed himself to dream. That’s what kids do. And then his voice changed and his interests veered off in other directions, namely soccer and basketball. Broadway? Pure fantasy. By high school he was on a more sensible path, looking ahead and planning to become an architect.
Photo Courtesy Matt Polk
The course correction came when he learned about a production of Beauty and the Beast, which was being held at the Beck Center in Cleveland. Riddle auditioned, got a part, and was hooked all over again. He put the whole architecture thing on hold, if just for a beat, long enough to apply to a handful of music theatre schools. The prestigious Conservatory of Music at the University of Cincinnati was tops on the list. He auditioned, and was accepted into the program. A career laboring over blueprints and researching building codes receded into the background.
“The Conservatory of Music is very selective,” Riddle says, “so getting in was a pretty big deal. CCM didn’t guarantee that I’d eventually work on Broadway, but it was too big an opportunity to pass up.”
Riddle immersed himself in this new world teeming with creatives. He ricocheted across the spectrum of CCM’s multidisciplinary artistic environment, taking classes in Dance, Musical Theatre, and Acting, the workload hardly feeling like work at all. Then summer rolled around and Riddle was able to land a coveted job at The Muny in St. Louis as part of its ensemble, something he would do again and again during his college career at CCM. Rubbing shoulders with some of Broadway’s brightest stars, he rehearsed and performed at the dizzying, breakneck pace that is the hallmark of The Muny’s summer program. In between, he used the downtime to network.
Photo Courtesy Joan Marcus
“The Muny brings in lots of Broadway talent, so I was surrounded by big-name artists,” Riddle says, “and then there were all of the directors and choreographers. It was the perfect opportunity to make a friend, develop a relationship, and learn about Broadway from the people who actually work there.”
Riddle graduated from CCM in 2012 with a boatload of contacts and one destination in mind. Everything had come so easily to this point. Why should the next step be any different? He would land in New York, audition the next day, and voila!, fulfill the dream: His name on the marquee, his family and friends in the audience, the glowing reviews announcing him as Broadway’s next hot star.
~ ~ ~
The best thing to ever happen to John Riddle is that it didn’t go down that way.
It rarely does.
Actors struggle to book gigs in the Big Apple.
Former Kinky Boots star and Emmy-winner Wayne Brady used to dress up as characters and perform at kids’ parties, occasionally being booed by his prepubescent audience; stage and screen star Sam Rockwell worked as a burrito delivery man, a busboy, and a barback; Hamilton creator and star Lin-Manuel Miranda was a substitute teacher while he worked on his creative projects. Young and overconfident, Riddle arrived in New York hellbent on barging his way to the front of the line, bypassing the grind that all actors endure. His life had been charmed to this point, so why would this be any different? He’d already landed an agent at CCM’s New York showcase, and, ironically, auditioned for the role of Raoul that first week in the city. He was disappointed that he didn’t get the part, but he still had his golden ticket, his Disney FastPass, his Austin Powers mojo. He was going to be a star.
And then, nothing.
One week became two. Soon a month passed. He worked as a sailing instructor at the Manhattan Yacht Club during the summer months, auditioning steadily but never landing a role, each rejection chipping away at the hubris he’d brought with him to the Big Apple.
“Broadway has a way of humbling you, no matter who you are,” Riddle says. “As hard as it was for me to see at the time, I really needed to struggle. It was good for me.”
Sailing season ended, and Riddle took a job as a waiter/caterer. The months – and the rejections – continued to pile up. And then, when all seemed lost, Riddle received a call from his agent. He’d been selected for a part in the seven-month national tour of Evita.
“That changed everything. After 10 months looking for work, I was just so thankful to be chosen. I was determined to make the most of it.”
Has he ever.
Riddle has worked steadily ever since, first in Evita and then performing in the Kennedy Center’s production of Little Dancer out of Washington, D.C. And then in 2015, Riddle landed his first Broadway show, The Visit, playing the role of Young Anton. The Visit proved to be rocket fuel, boosting his Broadway career at just the right time: Disney, looking to capitalize on its Frozen phenomenon, was holding auditions for its upcoming New York stage show. Riddle auditioned, and got the part of Hans. That he could make it his own made it even better.
“Since Frozen was a new show, my role was as the original character,” he says. “I didn’t have anyone to live up to, so I had the freedom to put my own creative spin on Hans. It was a pinch-me moment for sure. Taking the stage on opening night is something I’ll never forget.”
The biggest thrill of all came a year later, in 2019, when Riddle again auditioned for the role of Raoul. Seven years of grinding had given him a fresh perspective, as well as a newfound appreciation for what it means to be a Broadway actor. This time, he was ready. The little kid from Vermillion, who’d fallen in love with The Phantom of the Opera all those years ago, had been cast in the longest running show in Broadway history.
“I think that I rehearsed for two weeks, and I felt really prepared,” Riddle recalls. “Opening night for me was so surreal. I couldn’t help but think, ‘Wow, I’m singing this epic music, and I’m on the stage of the Majestic.’ I’d fantasized about that moment for most of my life, and it was finally happening. It was a really great night. I had a boatload of friends in the audience. It was a very fun night for me.”
~ ~ ~
The coronavirus pandemic has changed everything. Broadway went dark in March, more than 200,000 Americans have died from COVID-19, and masks and social distancing have become the norm. Who knows when things will get back to normal – or if the world we knew when the Times Square Ball dropped will ever return. One thing is certain: If and when live audiences are allowed back in those Broadway theatres, John Riddle will be right there, ready to entertain, ready to resume the thing he loves most.
“I miss it,” he says. “It’s helped me keep things in perspective, and to truly appreciate what a privilege it is to take the stage and perform. One of these days we’ll get back to doing that. For me, it can’t happen soon enough.”
The coronavirus pandemic hit New York especially hard. Take me back to the Broadway shutdown.
In the days leading up to March 13, which was when Governor [Andrew] Cuomo’s mass gathering restrictions took effect and the Broadway shutdown happened, we were hearing the rumblings about this virus that was going around. It was very surreal. They brought us together the Sunday before everything shut down and told us about the virus and all of the precautions that they were taking, such as cleaning the theatre. They also talked about a new way to try to contain the virus, which ended up being quarantine. Anyone traveling across the country couldn’t come back to work for a few weeks. There were a lot of questions – everyone wanted to know how real the threat was, and how seriously we needed to take it. It was like something you might see in a movie.
The old theatre adage, “The show must go on,” suddenly didn’t apply.
I am in the current cast of The Phantom of the Opera on Broadway right now, and we have what you would consider a straight schedule with a Thursday matinee. We did a show that day and, about halfway through the first act, Governor Cuomo announced that he was shutting down everything as a 5 o’clock that night. The news circulated quickly that this was going to be our last show for at least a month. It was a strange and surreal moment. The girl who was playing Christine, for example, was playing that role for the last time. In the middle of the show, she suddenly finds out this this was going to be her final performance. So there was a really weird feeling because, for her and a few other cast members, it was the end of a chapter. For the rest of us, we really weren’t sure what the future was going to hold. Ironically, it turned out to be one of those great theatre moments, because everything became very alive and present. We strive for that every time we are on stage, but something magical happened that day. All of sudden, there was this immediacy and urgency to what we were doing. It was a beautiful performance. Then we gathered on stage after the show and they said, “We don’t really know what this coronavirus is, but we will see you in a month.” And that was it. We took a few things out of our dressing rooms and went home.
And then New York City became a ghost town.
New York is the busiest city on earth, and the streets were deserted. It was very surreal. We were shut in our tiny apartment in New York City, and the days turned into weeks. The original plan was to be back at work on April 12, but that date kept getting pushed back, and then Broadway Week announced that we wouldn’t be opening until September 5. The realization that I wouldn’t be going back to work for months – and that I’d have the entire summer off – was a hard thing to wrap my brain around. It was an interesting dichotomy. As actors we deal with uncertainty all of the time. A show ends, your contract is up, you’re let go from a show, or they replace you, so we are used to unemployment. In fact, as Broadway actors, we spend most of our time unemployed. So not working isn’t a new sensation for me. The difference, for all of us in the acting community, was that we couldn’t go out and look for work. That was really hard to wrap your head around.
Photo courtesy of Matthew Murphy / Provided by The Publicity Office with permission.
Coronavirus has caused a tsunami of unemployment not seen since the Great Depression. How has it effected theatre?
Unemployment isn’t an easy time, but when you are unemployed you’re moving on to the next thing. You are auditioning and working on getting to the next step. COVID-19 made that nearly impossible. There were a lot of Zoom concerts, as well as online readings and performances, and for a while it looked like those were really the only outlets to make theatre. For me, that didn’t seem like a viable option. I did a few takes online, but you just can’t replace live theatre. It’s a completely different medium when you try to do live theatre behind the camera.
How has your perspective changed in the months since the shutdown?
This pandemic has been so devastating to the thousands of families who have lost loved ones, and it is heartbreaking to think of those who have succumbed to this virus without a family member by their side. It can be very hard to find any sort of silver lining. With that said, my hope is that we’re reminded to appreciate what we do have, and that we don’t take any moment for granted. That perspective can easily get lost in New York, because we live a life that is very fast-paced. If you can’t keep up then you get left behind. It’s taxing and it’s thrilling, but we often lose sight of our purpose on this planet. I think the downtime created by the pandemic has been a wonderful reset in that regard. It has taken some of that pressure off, and we’ve been able to jump off of that wheel that we are all running on and get back to basics. I’ve starting practicing the piano again, which is something that I haven’t done in a very long time.
Photo courtesy of Matthew Murphy / Provided by The Publicity Office with permission.
The pandemic isn’t the only thing that has changed the world. The death of George Floyd has focused the world on racial equality and social justice in ways that we’ve never seen before.
Our whole country is reexamining what racism is in this country. I thank God that voices are being heard, because it is so past due. There is a movement happening on Broadway and the industry as a whole is starting to investigate itself, which I don’t think we could’ve done that without this bigger movement. Broadway being completely shut down has given us the time, energy, and resources to make theatre inclusive of everybody. We should’ve done this a long time ago. It’s sort of a perfect storm in that regard. My hope is that theatre is a catalyst to help effect real change when it comes to race, inequality, and social justice in this country.
You grew up in Vermilion, Ohio. Were you in love with theatre from the jump?
My parents are not theatre people, so I didn’t know what theatre was as a kid. I was obsessed with The Wizard of Oz and Mary Poppins, so my poor parents had to watch those movies hundreds of times – I wanted to be Dick Van Dyke, and probably Julie Andrews [laughs].
When did the acting bug bite?
My dad was a woodworker, and I remember being in his shop one day as it was nearing Christmastime. He had a radio, and every day a commercial would play for a musical coming to Toronto, something called The Phantom of the Opera. For Christmas that year he said, “I don’t know what this musical is, but it sounds like something we have to go see.” So he bought us tickets and we took a trip up to Toronto to see The Phantom of the Opera. I was only four years old, but I sat there for the entire two-and-a-half hours of the show, on the edge of my seat, and didn’t say a word. And after the show the curtain call happened, and I turned my dad and told him that I wanted to be an actor when I grow up. I can remember riding home in the car afterwards and rattling off all of the details about the show – things that I had seen that my dad didn’t even notice. I still have a vivid memory of that experience, and being mesmerized in that moment. I had never seen anything like that. That is where probably I caught the acting bug.
Phantom has been a part of your world for a long time.
We would listen to the CD of The Phantom of the Opera anytime we got into the car after seeing that show, and if it was a long trip we would listen to it from start to finish. It sort of became like a family obsession…actually, it may have been a personal obsession that I imposed on my family [laughs]. I think they also liked it, too.
Growing up, you played the piano.
Vermillion is about 20 minutes from Oberlin, Ohio, which is where the Oberlin Conservatory is located. I had this incredible piano teacher there, her name is Marion Drummond. She was an old school music teacher, and so disciplined – I was scared of her for about seven years during my childhood [laughs]. But, she taught me how to be a musician. She demanded that I practice every single day. If I showed up to my lesson and I hadn’t practiced, then I was in huge trouble. So, from a really early age it was instilled in me that music is a discipline, and that work ethic is extremely important. She stressed that in order to achieve something, you have to work your hardest, regardless of your talent level. She also helped me understand that it’s okay to be mediocre, but you are not going to be great at something unless you practice and work really hard. I really have to thank her for the discipline that I took with me. In this business it really is about discipline. Everyone working on Broadway has talent. While luck also plays a part, the person who works the hardest is probably going to come out on top.
When did you start singing?
It was one of those weird, fate kind-of-things, because we lived close to Oberlin and were over there quite frequently. I joined the Oberlin Choristers, which is a kids choir, and I started singing three times a week.
What memory stands out most from being part of the Oberlin Choristers?
That was where I first learned that I could sing on my own. We were preparing for one of our Christmas concerts, and there was a soprano solo in a song called Dancing Day. Our director, Katherine Plank, was holding auditions for the solo and asked who wanted to try out. All of these girls raised their hands. I listened to them sing, and I felt that I could do that. I was twelve years old and my voice hadn’t changed yet, so I was still a boy soprano. I raised my hand and I sang it, and I ended up getting the solo. It was the first time I realized that I could sing on my own and not just as part of a group. That was sort of the jumping off point for me. From then on I wanted to be a solo singer.
Was performing on Broadway a dream for you back then?
I would listen to Broadway recordings – this was pre-Internet, so I couldn’t watch videos or anything like that – and I became obsessed with the whole idea of what Broadway was all about. I was determined to become an actor. Then, somewhere around middle school, all of my friends were busy playing sports. Puberty set in and my voice started to change, so I put music on the backburner and started playing basketball and soccer. I think a lot of it was the result of peer pressure, because singing wasn’t considered cool and sports were. I was trying to fit in. Looking back, I wish I could have just made it cool [laughs].
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Were your high school years more in tune with your creative side?
I had given up the acting thing and was busy playing soccer. My other passion was architecture, and I was going down this path of wanting to become an architect after graduation. Those were my two areas of focus. Then, one day, my high school music director told me that I could do plays and also be on the soccer team. I auditioned for the fall play, did that, and realized that acting was something that I still wanted to do. Then a friend told me about an upcoming play at the Beck Center in Cleveland. They were holding open auditions for a production of Beauty and the Beast, and I had just gotten my driver’s license, so I thought I’d drive up there and audition. I had nothing to lose. I ended up getting a part – it wasn’t a big part, I think I played the bookseller or something – and I did the show over Christmastime that year. It was such a great experience that I auditioned for the next show that they were doing, and I was chosen for one of the lead roles. It was a big deal because it was a semi-professional theatre company. That’s when the wheels really started to turn.
Did you ever give architecture serious thought?
My two best friends in high school were a year ahead of me. One of them was going to school to be an opera singer, and the other was going to art school. So, I was surrounded by these artist types. We were driving around in the car one day and were talking about what I was going to do the next year. They said, “Why don’t you audition for a musical theatre program and see what happens? If you don’t get in, then go be an architect.”
So my senior year rolled around, and I applied to the six best musical theatre schools. I decided that if I didn’t get in into any of the schools that I was going to go be an architect. My first audition was at the University of Cincinnati – Conservatory of Music. It was top school on my list and the one that I really wanted to go to. I auditioned and received an offer two days later. I decided right then and there that I was going to go to the University of Cincinnati.
Most people don’t realize how prestigious that program is.
It has a great reputation. Back in the 1990s and early 2000s, you could open up any Broadway Playbill and there would be a handful of graduates from CCM. We used to joke and that CCM was the Harvard of musical theatre, that’s how well-respected it is.
What was it like being part of the UC Conservatory of Music?
It was an incredible experience. I didn’t have much formal training prior to that, at least not in terms of proper theatre training. Then I showed up at this conservatory with 16 other classmates, and almost all of them had gone to performing arts schools their entire lives. I was like a sponge from the moment I arrived. It was the most magical time. It was a college environment, but it felt like being at theatre camp.
I’ve read where you worked at St. Louis Municipal Opera Theatre during the summers. The Muny is a big-time opportunity.
Yes, it’s a 12,000 seat outdoor theatre. Everybody from all of the big colleges go to these auditions, so I went and they hired me that first summer after my freshman year. I was cast in three shows that summer. It was an incredible experience. Some like to call The Muny by another nickname, “Broadway Summer Camp,” because they bring in all of these people from New York. The leads of the shows at The Muny are all big Broadway stars, and the directors and the choreographers are renowned people that work in New York. It was like a dream. I was 18 years old, and suddenly I’m working with all of these people that I had listened to on those recordings growing up. It was very surreal and exhilarating, all at the same time.
It must have felt like taking a Master Class in theatre.
It was very fast-paced. You put a show up in seven days and then you perform it, and while you’re performing that show you are rehearsing the next show that you are going to do. It’s like bootcamp in a way, but you are also working with the best of the best in the business, so you’re also learning so much at the same time. You start out in the ensemble, and then you work your way up to little feature roles. It was a wonderful experience, and it really did change my life. I got my Equity card, and I also made a ton of connections there. I was really lucky. I worked there for three summers, so when I graduated college I had an arsenal of contacts in New York that I had already worked with and who knew me. It was one of those wonderful life things where I was in the right place at the right time.
Networking is important in any line of work, but I imagine it is especially so when it comes to Broadway.
I met a number of actors and directors who I developed great working relationships with while at The Muny. Later, when I moved to New York, I would walk into an audition or a rehearsal and run into someone that I knew from my time in St. Louis. It’s a wonderful fraternity in a way. Having that connection takes some of the fear away, because this business can be completely unforgiving and heartbreaking and terrible in a lot of ways. When you walk into the room and you know people, it doesn’t guarantee you the job, but it removes some of that fear and apprehension.
Photo Courtesy Joan Marcus
Is there a favorite moment from The Muny that stands out?
One of my favorite actresses on Broadway is Beth Leavel. She’s a Tony Award-winning actress, and she came to St. Louis and played Miss Hannigan in Annie, which was the first show that I ever did there. Normally, you rehearse a Broadway show for six weeks. At The Muny, you come in and do it in seven. From start to finish you literally put a show up in seven days. You rehearse little bits of scenes, and then you put pieces together, and before you know it you’re onstage performing in front of a live audience.
Well, we’re rehearsing and get to the song that Miss Hannigan sings, a song called Little Girls. It comes time to do Beth’s number, and it’s the first time she’d ever done it, and it’s two days before the show, and yet her performance is completely nuanced. She knows every single word, and she gives a full performance of the song as if she’d be doing it her entire life. In was such a lesson in preparation. I’ll never forget that, because she was so prepared on that day to do that number, which allowed her to be free and just be the character. I think about that all the time when I go into a rehearsal process: Learn your lines before rehearsal even starts, so that you can get over that part of it and actually start breathing life into the character from the very first day. It was such a teaching moment for me. Since then I’ve watched actors come in to rehearse, and when we get to their number in the show they’re still holding their script and trying to figure out the words to the song, while the rest of us sit around and watch them fumble through it. That says something about you, and not in a flattering way. You want to be the best. Beth Leavel came in that day and was so prepared and professional. That sticks with me to this day.
You graduate from CCM, and immediately head to New York. How confident were you that you’d make it on Broadway?
I was on a good run leading up to going to New York, and that helped with my decision to make the jump. I got into the college that I wanted to go to, and once there I got cast in a lot of good parts in our school shows. Right after my freshman year I got hired at The Muny, and ended up going back and working there the next three years. It gave me a confidence that made it seem possible, that I could do this thing called acting and be successful at it. The next step was going to go to New York and chasing the dream.
Did you have to find an agent?
Most conservatory or college theatre programs do something called a showcase in New York, which is where you put this little show together that literally showcases your talents. A lot of agents and casting directors come to the showcase because it’s like a shopping day for them and they can check out the new talent. I was very lucky. We had our showcase day and I had a great response from my performance. I found an agent, signed with the agency, and got an audition right away – literally the first week that moved to New York. Ironically, I auditioned for the role of Raoul in The Phantom of the Opera. I didn’t get it, but it was still a thrill.
What were those early days in New York like for you?
I moved to New York in April, 2012, found a terrible apartment and started looking for a side job to pay the bills. The way things were going, I didn’t think it would take long to land a part in a play. It turns out that it wasn’t quite that easy.
Most aspiring actors end up waiting tables. You took a job teaching sailing.
I come from a sailing family, and my mom used to do this regatta every year in New York Harbor. It was held at this sailing club downtown in Tribeca. She became good friends with a guy named Michael Fortenbaugh, who founded the Manhattan Yacht Club. They had a sailing school, and since I used to teach sailing when I was in high school, I thought that I could go get a job down there. I called Michael up, and I sat down with him one afternoon and he hired me on the spot. I taught sailing that spring and summer. I would audition during the day and then go teach sailing lessons in the evening.
Did you struggle to find work on Broadway?
It didn’t happen overnight, that’s for sure. I vividly remember walking down the dock to teach a selling lesson one afternoon and getting a call from my agent. I had been auditioning all day, and one of those auditions included the Broadway production of Jersey Boys. I just thought for sure that I was going to get this job. My agent calls me right as a I am about to start this sailing class, and tells me that I didn’t get the role. It was disappointing, and also a cold dose of reality. That soon became the pattern – I was pursuing this thing that I loved, but the months started to pass and I wasn’t getting work. I was auditioning, which was a good thing but I kept getting ‘no’ after ‘no’ after ‘no.’ So after the sailing season ended, I got a job as a caterer/waiter.
Broadway is competitive.
Extremely. I continued to audition, but I was still getting one rejection after another. In fact, I didn’t get my first job until eleven months after I moved to New York City. Looking back, it was actually the best thing that ever happened to me. I think that if I had gotten a big show or had gotten a big job right out of college, I wouldn’t have had that time to struggle and really fight for it. Maybe I wouldn’t have learned what it meant to really put in the work. I’d also watched a lot of people graduate from college and go right into a Broadway show. A lot of those people either burned out or became arrogant and conceited, and I didn’t want either of those things.
Hip-hop artist Kendrick Lamar raps that there is beauty in the struggle.
I thought it was terrible when I was going through it at the time, but looking back I can see this wonderful, classic New York struggle of wanting to become an actor. I needed that. I think I had started to rest on my laurels to some degree, because I did have some success when I was in college, and because everything up until my move to New York had come so easily. Overcoming rejection gave me the armor that I needed when the doubt crept in. It propelled me forward and became a source of strength, and the motivation that I needed to actually fight for it. Then, after eleven months of struggle, I got hired in the national tour of Evita. It was this unbelievably exciting moment, followed by the thrill of going on tour for seven months. That was my first big professional job in New York. Those eleven months of struggle helped me to appreciate that first job even more.
In 2015 you landed a role in The Visit, which was your first Broadway play.
I came back from the Evita tour and then quickly got a role in the premier of a new show that was being held at the Kennedy Center in Washington, DC. The music director was a guy named David Loud, and I developed a good working relationship with him during that show. When it ended and I got back to New York, my agent called me to audition for a show call The Visit, starring Chita Rivera and Roger Rees. As it turned out, David Loud was directing this show, and he was the one who brought me in to audition for it. I’ll never forget it: I auditioned on Valentine’s Day, 2015, and I went in the next day for my call back, and later that night I had found out that I had gotten the job. The next week I started rehearsing for my very first Broadway show.
What was it like being a part of The Visit?
The Visit was an incredible experience. John Kander and Fred Ebb are titans of music theatre, and they were the ones who did the music and lyrics. I was up on the stage singing with Chita Rivera and Roger Rees, which was such a thrill. To this day I would say it was the most magical time of my life. There are a lot of people who dream up stuff about what they want in their life, but for whatever reason it doesn’t work out. It’s very rare when it goes according to plan. LeBron James dreamed of being an NBA star, and he fulfilled that dream, but for every LeBron there are thousands of others who never make it. It sort of felt like that during that show, because I had dreamt of this my whole life. Suddenly, I was actually doing it. In that moment I was very aware of how magical this was, and what being on that stage meant to me. The fact that it was my first Broadway show made it even more magical. I think I’ll spend the rest of my career trying to match that experience, or at least having something that comes close.
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Frozen is one of the most-successful Disney films of all-time, and the play is equally popular. How did you land the role of the Prince Hans?
It was about a year-and-a-half later, and my agent called me and asked if I would go audition for the ensemble in Frozen. She explained that they wanted me to audition for the role of King Agnarr, who was the ruler of Arendelle and who had fathered two daughters, Elsa and Anna. It hadn’t seen the movie yet, so I asked if there was a prince. She said that there was, but that they wouldn’t see me for that. They wanted to see me for the king. This was a minor role, which I really didn’t want at that point in my career, but, after thinking it over, I decided to go to the audition anyway. Then a funny thing happened. They called me back afterwards and I ended up in front of the director, who asked me if I would audition for the prince! I wanted to say that the prince was the role I had asked about in the first place, but I thought better of it and kept that to myself [laughs]. Instead, I went home that night and feverishly watched the movie Frozen just to learn what the show was even about.
When did you go back to read for the role of Hans?
The next day. I was in front of the entire Disney theatrical group, including Bobby and Kristen Anderson-Lopez, who wrote the music for Frozen, and the director, Michael Grandage. I gave a very mediocre audition, probably as good as you can expect to do in a night of learning the material. They saw something they liked, because I ended up getting the job. They next thing you know I’m in the workshop of the show.
Workshop?
A workshop production is staged much more modestly than the full production, and they are usually put together for a couple of reasons: To provide a preview of the full production, and to also gauge audience and critical reaction. Afterwards there might be decisions made to adjust or rewrite some parts of the work before the official premiere. We had two subsequent workshops after that, as well as our out-of-town tryouts, and then we finally started rehearsing on Broadway. That was January 2018, so it was a very long road to opening night.
The Visit was special because it was your first Broadway play. What made Frozen special for you?
It was magical in a very different way. Frozen was this global phenomenon and a mega-part of the cultural zeitgeist, so we were very aware of its potential to be big. To be a part of that, and be able to originate that…to be able to originate a part in a musical is the goal of any actor on Broadway. Frozen was my second Broadway play, so I was like, “How lucky can you get?”
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Frozen was nominated for three Tony Awards. How does it feel to be a part of that?
It was so cool to build something from the ground up. I learned so much about show business, and about myself and about how to create a character. And then there’s all of the wonderful things that come with that, which are Broadway openings, press stuff, the buzz…and there’s really nothing better than being a part of a new production. It creates this incredible buzz in New York, so it was a very exciting time. I also had such a wonderful group of people to work with. I made some of my best friends working on that show. I worked on that show for about two-and-a-half years, so it was a big chunk of my life.
As if it couldn’t get any better, you landed the role of a lifetime in The Phantom of the Opera.
I’d auditioned for Phantom about ten times over the years and never got the job. My agent called me after this particular audition and said that it wasn’t going to go my way this time, either. I took the news in stride. A full month later my agent called me back and said, “Okay, there’s been a little twist. They actually do want you to come and do it.” There was no question in my mind. I couldn’t say ‘yes’ fast enough. Phantom had been a dream of mine my entire life. I couldn’t believe that it was actually happening. It was a wonderful, nostalgic moment.
How was Phantom different than anything else you’d done up to that point?
When you are replacing someone in a show, as was the case in Phantom, you rehearse for two weeks and then you open the following week. That was a very different experience from the first two Broadway shows that I did, when I had the luxury of rehearsing for a longer period of time. You are the guy in something new. You are creating the character, and there aren’t any expectations because no one has seen the show before. With Phantom, I was coming in to replace one of my buddies, Jay Johnson, who was playing the part before me. It’s sort of like, “Tag, you’re out,” and you take over where he left off. There’s no pomp and circumstance.
How much rehearsal time to you get when you join a show in progress?
It was an interesting experience. When you are replacing someone, you don’t rehearse with the cast until the night you do it. I rehearsed with the dance captain and a stage manager for two weeks, and then I had one little rehearsal with everybody. My first show was on a Monday night, and I sang one song with the orchestra a half hour before the show. I’d never done the show with any lighting, and I had worn the costumes only once. So, there was this sort of this wild moment like, “Wow, I’ve never really done this before, but I’m doing it tonight, on Broadway, in front of 1,700 people.”
Did you feel like you were prepared for Phantom?
There was a moment of doubt, but that was fleeting because I knew Phantom inside and out. I knew every word, and I had rehearsed on my own to fill out character, so I was fully prepared. It was a thrilling experience.
What was opening night like for you?
Before I went on that night, somebody reminded me to have a moment for myself, where I could just breathe and take in the fact that I’m going to act on Broadway. In the second act, there is a moment where Raul climbs this ladder and he’s about to jump off of the bridge. As I was climbing up that ladder I said to myself, “You’re in The Phantom of the Opera on Broadway.” It was an incredibly wonderful, magical moment…and then I went on the bridge and did the rest of the show. It was then that I truly realized I’d come full circle.
It’s not every day that your wildest dreams are realized.
I remember as a kid, my mom used to go to exercise class at a YMCA. She would bring me with her, and it was in some school where the auditorium and gymnasium were combined. The class would take place down on the gym floor and, for whatever reason, they would let me play on the stage. I would be back there by myself, opening up the curtains and playing with the lights while the exercise class was going on. I still can’t believe they let me do that, because I was so young [laughs]. I would stand on the stage and pretend that I was performing on a Broadway stage. That night at Phantom, I felt like that little kid again. It’s not lost on me how fortunate I have been. It’s a combination of a bit of hard work and determination, and getting over the heartbreaks of a unforgiving business. When you have those moments, that’s what makes it all worth it.
What’s your favorite thing to do when you arrive at the theatre before a show?
My favorite thing to do is going out and sitting in the empty house, or just standing on the stage and looking out before anybody is there. It feels like you have this power, knowing that you’re about to walk out on that stage as a different person, and all of these people are going to sit in the dark and listen to you and what you have to say. It feels a bit divine, and also like a bit of magic.
What’s it like to look out at the audience?
You can’t really see much when the lights come on – you can only see the first two or three rows – but it’s this wonderful thing of knowing that there are all of these people out there having an experience with you. Every single day is different, and that’s the thing that I love the most about theatre. Sometimes you will have these incredible audiences that are so in the moment with you, and sometimes you’ll have an audience where you wonder if they even want to be there. The curtain call is wonderful, because you can actually see some of their faces.
What’s the most interesting aspect of being a Broadway actor?
My friend used to describe what a strange feeling it is to be a Broadway actor, and I experience it almost every night when I go home. The show ends, and all of these strangers stand up and start clapping for you. Then you take your little bow and you walk off stage, and you go home and sit in your apartment all by yourself. It’s very pedestrian. It’s sort of a weird way to live your life, but I don’t think I could do anything else.
Final Question: If you could offer one piece of advice to other aspiring actors, what would that be?
Be true to yourself. There are so many people who want to act on Broadway. When I walk into an audition room, there are twelve other guys sitting in a row, all of them waiting to go into the audition. They are six-foot-two like me, they have brown hair like me, they sing like me, and they are great actors. When a director has twelve options that look the same, what is the one thing is going to make you stand out from everybody else? That can only come from within, from your soul and your being. The life that you live away from the theatre breathes life into who you are onstage. It’s those life experiences that attracts an audience to want to sit in the dark for two-and-a-half hours and hear what you have to say.