Alexandra Silber is happy to be home.
The star of Reprise Theatre’s new and currently running production of Rodgers and Hammerstein’s classic musical Carousel is making her American debut in the city of her birth.
“It’s gobsmaking,” says Silber. Just the response you’d expect from a a young actress educated in Scotland and already with an impressive resume including leading roles in three London West End musicals.
One person especially excited to see Silber on stage is Jean Nelson her second grade (now third grade) teacher at El Rodeo. Silber attended from 1989-93.
“She was in a wonderful class,” said Nelson, that also included Adam Scher, James Banks, Tina Grdan, Noah Schecter, Grace Linn and Erika Raney.
Nelson still has the “Friend-ship Wreath,”—with different colored ribbons representing personal characteristics or people—Silber and her mother created as a holiday class project. “She was always very artistic,” Nelson said.
“She was close friends with Tina, Erika and Grace,” Nelson recalls. “They were the sweetest girls ever,” Nelson remembers. “Tina had just come to the United States from Croatia and didn’t speak English. Within months the girls got her right up to speed. They were the best EL program imaginable.”
Silber attended the Interlochen Arts Academy High School in Michigan, but admits that Nelson may have sparked her musical passion. She remembers an open house where the class, dressed in red, white and blue, marched around the room singing You’re A Grand Old Flag. “It just came out of me—like an instinct. I think that may have been the beginning of me thinking, ‘this is something I could do.’”
Silber made the unusual choice to attend the Royal Scottish Academy of Music and Drama in Glasgow. “I decided to cast my nets farther afield,” she said. Her father died when she was 18. “That was a reminder there is no time to waste,” Silber said. “I decided not to shirk away, but choose life adventures.”
And they came. She graduated from college on July 5 and opened in the West End production of Andrew Lloyd Webber’s Lady In White as Laura Fairlie on July 11. “I was so fortunate.”
That production brought her to the attention of director Lindsay Posner who cast her as Hodel in his production of Fiddler On The Roof.
The show gave her the chance to meet two of her musical theater heroes—the composer and lyrist of the show, Jerry Bock and Sheldon Harnick. “The first time I met them, I couldn’t explain how profoundly they’ve orchestrated my life.”
A fan of their jewel of a musical She Loves Me, Silber hopes to one day play its romantic letter-writing lead Amalia Balash. The show’s Will He Like Me is her go to audition song. “That character is me,” Silber says.
When Posner and his same Fiddler creative team mounted their 2008 revival of Carousel—at the same Savoy Theater—they tapped Silber for the female lead of Julie Jordan, the good girl who follows her heart, even if to a “bad boy.”
The role won Silber the Theater Managers Award for best performance in a musical. Since the award is not divided into male and female categories, Silber was nominated against two men. “Our production was beautiful and deserved more recognition than it got. I was honored to be singled out.”
When the run ended after 11 months, Silber went to New York to pursue her career as a theater actress. A friend from Interlochen, who was featured in the Reprise production of Pippin, heard the company was mounting a production of Carousel, and recommended Silber.
“The Reprise people called the Rodgers and Hammerstein estate and asked about me,” Silber says. “They said, ‘absolutely, hire her.’”
Silber was happy to revisit the role of Julie. “I admire her principles about love,” Silber says. “She has specific ideas and is uncompromising in those ideas. She’d rather be alone than with the wrong person; and she’s content with that knowledge. And yet when and if she meets the right person, she’d endure anything for the purity of her love.”
While If I Loved You and You’ll Never Walk Alone are the score’s standards, Silber is drawn to What’s The Use Of Wonderin’, about Julie’s unconditional love.
“It has a haunting melody and I’m deeply connected to it,” says Silber. “It’s the unsung hero of Carousel. It gets inside you.”
Her homecoming is particularly poignant for Silber. “I’ve always considered this my place of origin. I’m proud to be from this part of the world.”
For Nelson, who took plenty of tissues to opening night—along with one of Silber’s second grade classmates she hadn’t seen in 20 years—there’s a “circle of life” aspect to the production. Isaiah Berke, one of her current third graders is also in the cast. “I showed him photos of Alexandra in the same classroom he’s in now and he was thrilled,” Nelson said
After Sunday’s final performance, Silber enjoys a three-week hiatus before flying to Washington, D.C. to take part in a celebration of the work of playwright Terrence McNally.
She’ll play Sophie to Tyne Daly’s Maria Callas in Master Class. “I get to sing a little opera and it’s my first stab at comic relief. Which is a nice break after Julie,” Silber says.
At 26, Silber is seeking still more creative outlets. She’s working on a novel and maintains a blog, alexandrasilber.blog spot.com.
Remaining performances of Carousel are tonight at 8 p.m., Saturday at 2 and 8 p.m. and Sunday at 2 and 7 p.m. Tickets are $75. For more information, call 310-825-2101 or visit www.reprise.org.
—Steve Simmons
