The Neon Lights are Bright
Former member of the Singing Hoosiers is a smash on Broadway
This article originally appeared in the March/April 2007 issue of the Indiana University Alumni Association Magazine. Read more about IU in the current issue of the magazine found here: http://alumni.indiana.edu/magazine/.
By Nicole Brooks
Photo by: Paul Kolnik
Alumna Elizabeth Stanley (left) plays the part of April in the Broadway production of "Company."
In an apartment in Queens, just around the corner from fellow IU graduates, a young woman starts her day with decaffeinated tea. It's good for the throat, she says. In her line of work, keeping one's voice in top shape is crucial.
Also important is keeping the body fit. This singer's morning may include a yoga class. She might go to an acting class, or perhaps practice one of the (at least) four instruments she plays.
The daytime schedule includes running errands, making calls. Pretty standard stuff, she says.
But at 6:30 p.m., she heads to Broadway. The Great White Way.
It's an hour and a half before curtain, and this performer wants to warm up.
Elizabeth Stanley, BS'01, is performing in the historic Ethel Barrymore Theatre in Company, Stephen Sondheim's 1970 musical about New York City, bachelorhood, and commitment.
It is Stanley's first appearance on Broadway. She is one of a select group of 14. The cast gathers to warm up 45 minutes before curtain, for one show a day, six days a week — plus matinees on Wednesdays and Saturdays.
It's an open-ended run, meaning the show could close in two weeks or two years, or more. But the show betrays no signs of stopping. The press is thrilled with it, and particularly thrilled with Stanley, who plays the character April.
The New York Times called her "absolutely delicious." Clive Barnes wrote in the New York Post that he "particularly loved" the saxophone trio, which includes Stanley. April is the "sweet little stewardess who needs to get to Barcelona," and the one character Barnes can feel sympathy for.
Newsday wrote, "Elizabeth Stanley has squeaky-dry comic timing in 'Barcelona,' arguably the world's most brutally honest morning-after song."
Not that Stanley has read much of this. She's decided to adopt a fellow actor's mantra about press reviews: "Either gives you pain or makes you vain," she says. "But I have heard that they're positive."
Very wise words from a woman spending 20 hours a week as the ditzy April.
"Traditionally she was the typical dumb blonde. In our version, she's not quite so stereotypical," Stanley says of her flight attendant.
"She's still not the brightest bulb."
For Stanley it was a long road to a part in Company. The audition process took nearly a month, Stanley says. In an unusual twist, the actors are also the musical accompaniment in Company.
Stanley was told to prepare a song from the show on whatever instrument she preferred. She plays the piano, oboe, saxophone, and tuba, but it had been a while since she'd practiced the latter.
She auditioned at least four times, for different groups of people, before landing the part. Stanley didn't know at that point that she was auditioning for a Broadway play. The plan was to perform in Cincinnati for three months.
The show was a hit. Even The New York Times sent a reviewer to the Queen City.
"We knew before we left Cincinnati that it was coming to Broadway," Stanley says. However, she says, the whole cast was wondering if movie stars might replace them, as often happens.
"Not that we didn't have any reason not to trust [the producers], but we were all waiting for the call that said they actually wanted us," she says.
All 14 cast members got that call. Company opened on Broadway on Nov. 29.
Thanks to her experience at IU, Stanley says, the rigors of working as a professional performer are eased a bit.
IU didn't have a musical theatre department when she enrolled in the fall of 1997, so Stanley split her energy between the music and theatre schools.
"I actually wouldn't change it if I had to do it over. It is important to be strong in both those categories," she says. "I'm really grateful for all that music theory and emphasis on technique."
This education has given her a leg up when it comes to auditioning for parts. Some performers can't read music, she says, and have a difficult time picking up material quickly. Others spend a lot of money on coaches when preparing for an audition.
"I'm really glad I can pick melodies on the piano."
The future is uncertain for a singer and actor. She hopes Company will lead to more work. "It's not a ladder," Stanley says. "You don't climb it. It's just kind of a wave you ride."
