It's 'Spring'time for local actress
By ANDREW MARTON
STAR-TELEGRAM SENIOR ARTS WRITER
BETH KELLY
Fort Worth native Phoebe Strole, 23
In only two more days, Phoebe Strole's lifelong dream will be realized.
On Sunday, when the Fort Worth-born actress strolls onto the stage of New York's prestigious Eugene O'Neill Theatre in the sexually charged new youth-driven musical Spring Awakening, she can check "make Broadway debut" off her to-do list.
The granddaughter of a Fort Worth performing arts power couple (Granddad was co-founder and first general manager of Casa Manana, Grandma was an accomplished opera singer and actress), Strole, 23, transformed her first role in a high school musical into a fledgling theater career, pursuing an insatiable love for the stage from Casa Manana to obscure summer-stock shows.
It was only a matter of time before the Southwest High School grad dived into the Big Apple's scene, via New York University's rigorous bachelor of fine arts program.
Now Strole is about to strut her stuff and sing her lungs out on Broadway in a new musical.
She took a rare break from the show, which has been in previews since Nov. 16, to talk about her journey from Cowtown to the Great White Way.
Q: Tell us about your first theatrical experiences.
A: I remember my freshman year of high school, joining the drama club with my friends and auditioning for the school musical, Hello, Dolly. Then, as a sophomore, I was Dorothy in our production of The Wizard of Oz. Not long after, when I was 16, I was cast in Bye Bye Birdie at Casa Manana's summer-stock production. I just remember every second of that production as being some of the most fulfilling of my very young life. I could put all my energy into it, without question, and I was never bored. It was then that I realized that I could be happy doing this as a career.
Q: What was your most embarrassing moment in theater?
A: While doing Dorothy in Wizard of Oz, I was coming out of the house with Toto, but my slippers were so slippery that I fell on my back and my skirt just shot right over my head. But I just got up and kept on going.
Q: How do you explain your early love of musicals?
A: One of my oldest musical-theater memories is my parents taking me when I was, like, 6 years old to see Oklahoma! at Casa Manana. My grandparents all grew up with music by Rodgers and Hammerstein and Cole Porter, and though some of it gets made fun of today as being corny, I feel it is so important in the history of our American culture.
Q: How are you coping with the challenge of being young, on your own, and trying to make it in the most competitive theater city anywhere?
A: It is so easy to get lost in this big mix here. And after five years here, I've learned that good ol' Southern charm doesn't always work. But as much as anything, I just remind myself that nobody is really a bad person; nobody is really mean at heart. They're just having a bad day.
Q: Do you miss anything about Texas?
A: Oh, yes. I miss the openness and space of Texas, its sunsets. And I really miss the food. I miss Tex-Mex and I miss barbecue. And I really miss good fried chicken with good white gravy. No one here knows good white gravy.
Q: How did you first get involved with Spring Awakening? And now that you've done it and are going to Broadway, what are your feelings about that?
A: I was auditioning on anything I could, and this was a project that, at first, I really didn't know that much about. But I do love singing pop-rock music, so I went in and did the audition with absolutely no expectations -- I just put everything I had into it. And then when I got it and it was going first to off-Broadway, that was maybe the best thing for me, career-wise, because it was the only thing I ever wanted to do....I'm lucky beyond belief: I have a job in New York as an actor, in a Broadway show.
Andrew Marton, 817-390-7679 amarton@star-telegram.com