Annaleigh Swanson would be the understudy to Glinda in the Broadway production of “Wicked” today if big-shot director Joe Mantello didn’t have last-second second thoughts about the 20-year-old Wheat Ridge High School graduate.
“I got right down to the very end, and he said, ‘But she really hasn’t done anything,”‘ said Swanson. Oh yeah? Obviously no one sent Mantello her many playbills from nearly every theater in Denver.
“I know, right?” Swanson said with a laugh. “The hydraulic stage at the Country Dinner Playhouse has it all over the levitator in ‘Wicked.’ Hello!”
Swanson was thrilled for her consolation prize: understudy to Kendra Kassebaum on the national touring production now visiting Tampa, Fla. Swanson has graduated from Marymount Manhattan College, starred in the New York Musical Theatre Festival production of “Feeling Electric” with Anthony Rapp (“Rent”) and been cast in “Wicked” – and she doesn’t turn 21 until June 20.
“I’ve been lucky,” she said. But it hasn’t been easy. She was working at Bloomingdale’s when she was hired for “Wicked,” and “I couldn’t buy my own lunch for the first few days, I was so poor,” she said.
If you look for Swanson’s name on the tour roster, you won’t find it. She’s been Annaleigh Swanson to Denver audiences since her debut at age 10 in Theater Group’s “Ruthless” in 1995. That’s a name she chose in “love and respect for my stepdad,” she said. But her legal name is Annaleigh Swanson Ashford, and she recently changed her stage moniker to Annaleigh Ashford, her mom’s maiden name. It was on the advice of Rupert Holmes, author of “The Mystery of Edwin Drood.” He visited Marymount and the two became pals. “Rupert said, ‘Why aren’t you just Annaleigh Ashford? That is such a gem of a name,”‘ said Swanson (the name-dropper!).
She is under contract through May, with a goal to join the “Wicked” Broadway cast. Swanson would consider other opportunities if they hasten her return to New York.
“This has just been the best first (big-time) job I could have asked for,” she said.
“Mamma Mia” dates
With 18 offerings between now and June, the Denver Center for the Performing Arts has never been busier. With a dearth of new national touring productions, its Denver Center Attractions wing is bringing back popular titles in waves.
Dates have been announced for the returns of “Mamma Mia” (March 14-26), “Riverdance” (April 11-16), “Les Miserables” (May 3-7) and “Movin’ Out” (June 13-18). Previously announced were “Joseph and the Amazing Technicolor Dreamcoat” (May 23-June 4) and “The Lion King” (Sept. 28-Oct. 22).
DCA’s strategy is clearly to give the people what they want, or at least what they have wanted in the past. “The Lion King,” “Mamma Mia” and “Movin’ Out drew a combined 400,000 attendees in their initial runs. Add in three prior “Riverdance” stops, two by “Joseph” and seven by the granddaddy, “Les Miserables,” and these shows have sold more than a million tickets.
Briefly …
The Avenue, which was slated to open its original current-events parody “Anonymous Sources” this Friday, has postponed. “We need to rethink the format and much of the material,” said producer Robert Wells. “The show does not have a sharp enough bite, and some sketches and songs have already become yesterday’s news.” Meantime, “The Smell of the Kill” will open as scheduled Feb. 14 with Emily Paton Davies, Laura Norman and Megan Van DeHay (303-321-5925) …
Country Dinner Playhouse musical director Wendell L. Vaughn is leaving for Las Vegas in April, as reported here last week, but he’ll be playing in the Denver production of “Mamma Mia,” not the Vegas one, before leaving. He hopes for a later opening in a Vegas musical but nothing is settled …
Dan Lauria (“The Wonder Years”) and Wendy Malick (“Just Shoot Me”) are in town this weekend conducting camera and career workshops for 28 aspiring actors at Castle Rock’s Rohrering Success, Inc. ….
Fort Collins’ Carousel Dinner Theatre will keep “I Love You, You’re Perfect, Now Change” running indefinitely on Sunday evenings only, even as “Fiddler on the Roof” opens this Friday. Boulder’s Dinner Theatre has adopted a similar strategy, with “The King & I” continuing through March 26, but with “Forever Plaid” playing Mondays only beginning Jan. 30 …
The city’s new Mayor’s Task Force on Creative Spaces launches Tuesday with a 4-6 p.m. meeting at 3002 Walnut St. It is hoped that the mayor’s office soon will make vacant spaces available to arts groups …
Jane Page, who directed the Arvada Center’s hit drama “Intimate Apparel” last year, has opened another staging of the play at the Virginia Stage Company in Norfolk, Va. It’s a new cast, except for Kennedy Pugh.
Theater critic John Moore can be reached at 303-820-1056 or jmoore@denverpost.com.
