Latest news with #JeremyJordan
CBS News
28-05-2025
- Entertainment
- CBS News
Lizzy McAlpine on navigating her rising music career and Broadway debut: "It's been such a dream of mine for so long"
Singer-songwriter Lizzy McAlpine has broken through the music industry as a self-made, platinum-selling pop star, but she reveals Broadway was her first love. Now, she has the opportunity to fulfill her lifelong dream. McAlpine is making her Broadway debut in the musical "Floyd Collins," playing the sister to the title character, a cave explorer trapped underground in 1925. "It's just so crazy. It's been such a dream of mine for so long," she said. McAlpine saw her first Broadway show, "Beauty and the Beast," when she was 8 years old. "My grandma would take me and my sibling to see a Broadway show every year and every time I would see something, I would just be like, 'I wanna be a part of that, like I wanna be up there.' … It's just a special art form," she said. Fulfilling her Broadway dream Now 25 years old, McAlpine last did theater in high school, but trusted her instincts for this role. "I didn't want to overthink it because I feel like the character is so open and childlike," she said. McAlpine auditioned for "Floyd Collins" last fall. Online she confessed her anxieties and shared her journey about achieving her goal. "I don't wanna just do things that will make me more famous because I don't care about that at all," McAlpine said. "I really only care about making art that resonates with people and doing cool things and this is a very cool thing, this show." She's working alongside Jeremy Jordan, who plays the lead in "Floyd Collins." Back in 2021, McAlpine tweeted, "in case u guys were wondering my goal in life is to sing with @jeremymjordan." On their first day of rehearsal, McAlpine was prepared to show Jordan the post to see if he remembered, until he asked her first. "He was like, 'wait, I have to show you something' and he pulled up the tweet and he was like, 'do you remember doing this?' … And then he read it out loud to everyone in the room and … it was sweet." Music career takes off Prior to her Broadway debut, McAlpine went to Boston's prestigious Berklee College of Music. She was 20 years old and working on her first album when her father, Mark McAlpine, died. "It was kind of crazy. It was March 13th of 2020, which is like … the day that Berklee shut down school, because of COVID." McAlpine stayed with her aunt in New Hampshire. It's then when she started posting covers of songs on Instagram and TikTok. "That's when my career kind of started to bloom and it was a crazy time because the juxtaposition of like seeing this thing that I've always wanted come to fruition and then also like dealing with the death of my father, was so crazy," she said. On each of McAlpine's three albums, the 13th track is a song about her father. McAlpine said the grief and healing from losing him prove she can get through anything. "It kind of showed me who I am," she said. While McAlpine's music first found an audience on YouTube, her career really took off when "Ceilings," a song from her second album, went viral on TikTok. "Everything was like, kind of in a whirlwind." As for the future, she's keeping all options open, but admitted she feels at home on Broadway. "This came into my life at the most perfect time it ever could have."
New York Times
23-04-2025
- Entertainment
- New York Times
Jeremy Jordan, Searching for Challenges Onstage
When Jeremy Jordan played a young, naïve cop in the Broadway show 'American Son' alongside Kerry Washington, in 2018, he was fresh off several seasons on the 'Supergirl' series. And so he tried to apply some of the techniques that worked for him on TV to a taut drama about police violence. 'I had been making it work for so long, trying to mine gold from every moment, and I think that had stuck with me,' Jordan said. The director Kenny Leon intervened, with advice that Jordan still carries with him. Literally. 'He gave me this note on some old piece of script,' Jordan said, fishing a tiny scrap of paper from his wallet and carefully unfolding it. 'It says 'you are good enough to just say these words.'' Leon's counsel may be evergreen, but it particularly resonates with Jordan's new project, where he is often unable to use many physical acting techniques. In 'Floyd Collins,' which is at the Vivian Beaumont Theater, Jordan portrays the title character of Adam Guettel and Tina Landau's musical, a hardscrabble Kentuckian who becomes trapped while exploring a cave in 1925. As a media circus forms on the surface, Floyd withers away underground, stuck between rocks. (The musical is based on a true story, which also inspired the Billy Wilder film 'Ace in the Hole,' from 1951.) In Landau's new staging (she also directed the Off Broadway version in 1996), Jordan spends large chunks of his stage time laying down, almost immobile, on what looks like the most uncomfortable therapist's chaise longue ever created. It's a rendering of the character's claustrophobic predicament that's abstract rather than naturalistic, and had a direct impact on Jordan's performance. It is flat on his back on that contraption that Jordan sings two of the show's most wrenching numbers, 'And She'd Have Blue Eyes' and 'How Glory Goes.' No pacing the stage, gesturing with his hands for emphasis — he cannot use his body to help communicate feeling or meaning. And Jordan was spurred by the restrictions. 'It's so freeing not being able to move,' he said in his dressing room at the Beaumont at Lincoln Center. 'When you take that option off the table, you're left with just the words and the emotion, just the song and the character and the music.' This may sound ironic for an actor whose breakthrough came in the famously kinetic Broadway production of 'Newsies the Musical' in 2012, where his performance earned Jordan a Tony Award nomination. But it was his polished, impassioned tenor and old-school charisma that won over audiences and critics — The New York Times' Ben Brantley called him 'a natural star who has no trouble holding the stage, even without pirouettes.' Communicating purely through his voice is how Jordan, 40, became interested in performing to begin with. Growing up a shy child in Corpus Christi, Texas, he was always singing, so his mother put him in choir, which he attended in middle and high school. So it was a bit of a shock when he was cast as the Mute in a local production of 'The Fantasticks.' Jordan was frustrated but with nothing better to do the summer before senior year, he signed on anyway, and ended up discovering the full scope of musical theater. 'I don't think I had ever really listened onstage before,' he said. 'I was in my head, singing the songs, listening for the pitches, that sort of thing. It wasn't until I was forced to stop talking that I was like, 'Oh, there are other worlds I can actually enter.' That was when the bug bit me.' After studying musical theater at Ithaca College, in Ithaca, N.Y., he moved to New York City. In a recent phone interview, the director Jeff Calhoun recalled that Jordan made him think of 'a singing James Dean or a singing Marlon Brando' when he first saw him. 'He has an edge both on and offstage, and I mean that in a positive way,' Calhoun added. 'He's the opposite of bland and milquetoast.' They ended up working together on 'Newsies' and 'Bonnie & Clyde' at pretty much the same time in the fall of 2011. At one point, the actor was rehearsing 'Bonnie & Clyde' in midtown Manhattan by day and performing in 'Newsies' at the Paper Mill Playhouse by night. When Frank Wildhorn's notorious outlaws made an early exit after just 69 performances, the Disney newsboys were ready to move to Broadway, and Jordan jumped back in. He has not stopped working since, both onscreen (the film version of 'The Last Five Years,' the TV series 'Smash,' the Neil Bogart biopic 'Spinning Gold') and onstage (with credits including the popular revival of 'Little Shop of Horrors' and, most recently, 'The Great Gatsby' on Broadway). Like most actors, Jordan has had his share of failures, near-misses and, well, derisive snickers. He was still basking in the 'Newsies' glow, for example, when Season 2 of 'Smash,' in which he played the troubled songwriter Jimmy Collins, aired. It was a turbulent landing for a show whose debut season is associated with peak 'hate-watching' in 2012. 'It was my first series regular role, and I hadn't yet learned to not look at stuff online,' Jordan said. 'It was not fun to be a part of. People think of the theater community as a family, so supportive, and it couldn't have been more not that,' he added. 'In fact, people were leaning into the vitriol and the daggers of it all. It was strange.' At least Jordan got some good numbers out of it. In a phone interview, Joshua Safran, the Season 2 showrunner, said, 'You had to hear Jeremy sing. We would just make sure he had a song in each episode.' One of them, 'Broadway, Here I Come!,' has joined 'Santa Fe' from 'Newsies' as a favorite at Jordan's concerts. Also disheartening was the outcome of his involvement in the development process for the movie 'The Greatest Showman,' which Jordan has milked for comic effect in his live show — he had been eyeing a part that ended up going to Zac Efron. Another plum role that got away was Fiyero in the 'Wicked' movie. 'I didn't show up with what they wanted so I had to try to make last-minute adjustments and it was clearly not going well,' he said of the audition. 'They were like, 'Well, you sound great. Goodbye.'' By contrast, his 'Floyd Collins' audition was such a good experience that afterward he called his wife in tears of relief and joy. Landau saw in Jordan qualities that she thought would be perfect for the character. 'There was something about the combination of his kind of dark, brooding nature and sensibility with the twinkle in the eye and the mischief and the zest for life that to me felt like the Floyd cocktail,' she said. The two bonded over their exacting process. 'I give a ton of notes as a director,' Landau said. 'Jeremy not only takes them, but I get full, detailed emails from him in response. I've never had an actor do that, not fighting me but being in dialogue. 'Well, when I did that, what I was thinking was that, and the reason that happened is this, so if you really think that…'' 'I don't know when he writes these things,' Landau continued, laughing. Perhaps it's the weight of Leon's note in his pocket, but Jordan understands that the point of preparation is to not calcify into shtick, or even visible effort. 'He does the work beforehand so he's free to be instinctual in the moment,' Calhoun said. This is evident in another 'Floyd Collins' challenge that is very different from the scenes Jordan delivers without moving: He must sing 'The Call' while scrambling up and down mobile set elements, and stealthily hooking and unhooking a safety harness — a veritable obstacle course that represents Floyd's exploration of the fateful cave. So Jordan spent hours figuring out the logistics with the creative and safety teams. 'It became like a fun little problem-solving adventure, which I love,' he said. 'I'm a big puzzler person, I love an escape room.' He also had to build up his upper-body strength, pointing out that his right forearm had become 'stronger than it's ever been.' Yet the audience's attention is directed less toward the athleticism than to his voice. One of Jordan's assets as a singer is his ability to express emotion in a way that can feel deceptively conversational because he has unerring control over a tune's peaks and valleys. 'For Her,' from 'The Great Gatsby,' is a good illustration of his approach. In that sense, 'Floyd Collins' is a perfect match for Jordan, who yearns for artistic demands like the ones in Guettel's score and Landau's staging. 'I left 'Gatsby' early to do this,' Jordan said. 'I left a much better paycheck to do this. But sometimes, when something like this comes calling, you just have to listen.'
New York Post
22-04-2025
- Entertainment
- New York Post
‘Floyd Collins' review: Jeremy Jordan stars in a Broadway musical about a forgotten American tragedy
Theater review FLOYD COLLINS Two hours and 35 minutes, with one intermission. At the Vivian Beaumont Theater, 150 West 65th Street. 'Floyd Collins' is a story split in two. There's the claustrophobic and cold Kentucky cave where the title spelunker, played by a golden-voiced Jeremy Jordan, becomes trapped after the rocks around him collapse. Advertisement Then, above that subterranean prison is his sunlit town, which, as Floyd's harrowing 1925 true story turns into a frenzy of front-page news, plays host to a carnival of opportunistic human leeches. That poor Floyd, like many a forward-thinking American explorer, got stuck 'finding his fortune under the ground' while the predatory folks upstairs profited off the man's suffering. It makes for a robust juxtaposition, and an always relevant one. Yet 'Floyd Collins,' receiving an ear-pleasing revival at Lincoln Center's Vivian Beaumont Theatre, is also a musical split in two — and not for the better. Advertisement Adam Guettel's soaring 1996 score does to a dank, bat-dropping-filled cavern what composer Ennio Morricone did to 1960s frontier in films like 'Once Upon a Time in the West' — packs it with unexpected romance and spellbinding allure. As 37-year-old Floyd's situation goes from 'the stones are alive with the sound of music!' to dire and dark, his songs transition, too. Euphoric yodeling gives way to sanguine distractions and escapist fantasies. His prognosis is bleak, but Floyd knows he was doing what he loves most — caving. 4 Jeremy Jordan stars as the title role in 'Floyd Collins' on Broadway. Joan Marcus Guettel's sumptuous early work, although lyrically too 'there's gold in them, thar hills,' is enough of a reason to see the rarely performed show. Advertisement Harder for the audience to love is the other, rockier half: Writer-director Tina Landau's hokey book that, like many history-based musicals of the 1990s — 'Parade' and 'Ragtime,' among them — flatly treats characters not as textured and relatable persons, but as mechanical stand-ins for weighty ideas. That's why 'Floyd Collins,' audibly lush and visually beautiful, is never truly moving. We're swept up by the music, and then given the brush by the script. The slack-jawed 1920s Kentuckians and rude city intruders are so boiled down to their basic descriptions that the pot on the stove begins to smoke. 4 Marc Kudisch and Jessica Molaskey play two of the lesser-drawn characters in the musical. Joan Marcus Advertisement Nellie Collins (Lizzy McAlpine), just out of an asylum, desperately wants her brother to be free, and dad Lee (Marc Kudisch) is both traumatized and full of parental regret. They don't get much airtime to express themselves. And their big numbers, 'Through the Mountain' and 'Heart and Hand,' respectively, are both lacking in dramatic power. In the case of Kudisch's bench duet with Jessica Molaskey's Miss Jane, that's because putting on 'Floyd Collins' at the Beaumont is not unlike reviving 'Doubt' at Citi Field. Louder, Cherry! But McAlpine, making her Broadway debut with a pleasant Sara Bareilles-like folk voice, is not quite up to the demands of this part yet. The most engaging characters, puppy-dog Homer Collins (Jason Gotay) and scrappy reporter Skeets Miller (Taylor Trensch), exist in both worlds, squeezing through tight Sand Cave passages to visit Floyd while also witnessing the circus on the surface. 4 Taylor Trensch is emotionally vulnerable as reporter Skeets Miller. Joan Marcus Trensch, who made an excellent Evan Hansen several years back, accesses his emotions with such honesty as morally confused Skeets wrestles with his exploding career and his personal duty to an imperiled new friend. A reliably intriguing actor, he forms a palpable bond with Jordan's Floyd, who at first enjoys learning of his newfound fame and then craves the company. Advertisement Jordan rebounds nicely after last season's theme-park 'The Great Gatsby.' Here, the tenor is actually great, excavating layers of a man we're not told much about. (Who are we told much about?) In the best sense, this was the first time I've felt that he hung up his 'Newsies' cap for good. Jordan, now more mature, could make a swell Billy Bigelow down the line. 4 Tina Landau's direction is chockablock with striking images. Joan Marcus Not all of Landau's efforts deserve a finger-wagging. Save that for 'Redwood.' Her direction, especially considering the challenges of a largely bare and mammoth stage, is chockablock with striking images. Yes, it's a drag that Jordan is glued to a chair on the far right for the bulk of the show. But individuals pinned down by heavy objects tend not to cross left, much as we'd like them to. Advertisement I only wish she had overhauled the dialogue, since Guettel's music deserves better than guileless small-town caricatures. And maybe one day it will be. I'm not as positive a thinker as Floyd is, though, and if this is where the musical is at 29 years after its off-Broadway premiere, I imagine that, much like doomed Floyd, it ain't budging.
