Interview: Nicholas Rodriguez Discusses His New Album THE FIRST TIME, Performing at Birdland and Much More
By: Nora Dominick Jun. 24, 2015
Stage and TV veteran Nicholas Rodriguez sat down with BroadwayWorld this week to chat about his debut album THE FIRST TIME, his upcoming solo-cabaret debut at BIRDLAND and his work with the BROADWAY DREAMS FOUNDATION.
Check out the interview with Nicholas Rodriguez below!
Can you talk a little bit about your upcoming album, THE FIRST TIME, and how that came about?
Well, it came about around a year ago. I got asked to do the Orlando Cabaret Festival and I had never done a solo show before. I think I had always been intimidated by it and I have done 54 Below and now Birdland and all of these other place. I realized that all the songs I was drawn to while I was singing these shows were songs that related to a first time in my life. You know, a first kiss, my first heartbreak and coincidentally it was my first show.
So, it was kind of just a natural born thing. And then it was great and I got to do it a bunch of other places and I've always wanted to do it in New York. As we were developing the show we thought that it would be fun to record it. So, we reached out to PS Classics, Tommy Krasker, and we just hit it off and he said, 'Let's do it!' So, they signed me to the label and we started working on the album, oh gosh, probably in the beginning of the year. We just started picking tunes and working on arrangements. So, now it has kind of come full circle for me. The show is my first time doing a show in NYC, which has kind of always been the goal and now we are celebrating this awesome, awesome release. This is my first album so, I'm really excited.
How did you choose the songs that would be featured on the album?
So there are all kinds of stories behind them. There's the obvious first of I'm singing a song from TARZAN and that was my first Broadway show and then the first show I actually saw in NYC was ALMOST HEAVEN and I'm singing a song from that, even though it's not a song I sang while I was in the show. Then other firsts that I touch upon like my first time to L.A, I tell a story about that. I tell a story about the first time I fell in love, the first time I had my heart broken and then of course the first time everyone always wants to talk about. Interestingly enough, when I was doing the album everybody said, 'Well don't you want to have an original song on there?' So, I pushed myself so it's my first time actually writing a song. So, my first single is on there and we will be doing it at the show at Birdland so, it will be my first time doing it with the band.
What can fans expect from your concert at Birdland? And how has it been preparing for your debut at Birdland?
It has been awesome. Jim Caruso has been a friend for years and I've always loved going to Birdland. I mean, it's the home of jazz. I've never considered myself a jazz artist but I love it and I am surrounded by a killer jazz band. They are incredible. So, we are taking standards that people have known for years, for 50 or 60 years, and we are turning them on their ear. So, we could do a musical theatre tune as a samba or a country-western tune as a loose ballad. People will know most of the songs, but hopefully they will hear them, for a lack of better words, for the first time in a new and exciting way. So, that is kind of what we are going for.
So, you've done TV and you've done theatre, what made you decide to release an album? Is it something you've always wanted to do?
It was always my dream, you know as a kid just singing. I loved going to shows. I remember seeing my first musical, but I remember my first time I saw Bernadette Peters in concert and Mandy Patinkin in concert and I was just riveted by the fact that they got to pick all of their own songs and do them the way that they wanted to do it. This has been a dream, literally, three decades in the making. I've tried a couple of times before to do it on my own and then once I met Tommy Krasker and PS Classics the synergy just happened and I knew I was in the right place at the right time. So, it has just been such a blessing to work with those guys and I wouldn't have it any other way. I wouldn't take it back. It has been a dream come true.
Could you talk about your work with the Broadway Dreams Foundation?
It's amazing. Part of the proceeds from the CD go to the Broadway Dreams Foundation, just because I am so passionate about it. We are a non-for-profit organization and I am their artistic director. I've worked for them for seven years and for the last four years, I've been the artistic director. We take Broadway actors, directors, choreographers, casting directors and we go around the country and we do master classes with students who have a passion for what we do in the arts. We make sure we always have people that are currently alive and vital in the business, but it's more than just teaching the classes. We provide a social network and an outreach for these students who range in ages from 15 through college. So, this way that they can ask questions to people who are in the business. Our business is constantly changing and frankly people can feel very alone. So we create a network and a family of artists that provide much more than just the classes and the training. It's mentorship and leadership. It has been awesome. I mean, we have so many faculty members. Right now, we are doing a workshop in L.A with Tituss Burgess and Taye Diggs. I find it amazing that Taye Diggs was suppose to start rehearsals for Hedwig and the Angry Inch, but he wanted to do this. We find and we get just as much out of it as we give.
Back to your album, were there any songs that you wanted to include, but they didn't make the final cut? Or do you have any you would like to do if you made another album?
It's funny, there is one song that we almost didn't put on because we felt like, 'Do we really need it?' And at the last minute we did include it because I just love it so much. I'm not going to tell you, which one it was. That's just the thing, I have zero regrets. There's always going to be more songs and more things I want to sing and everyone has told me when I do the next one, but this one we put so much passion and so much love and work into it that everything we wanted to say got said. So, I think there will always be more songs to sing, but for the first time out of the gate, I think it definitely says this is who I am as an artists. I am so proud of it. I think the album is going to surprise a lot of people. Just from the selections and I hope people hear songs in a way they have never heard them before. I think it's really interesting that you can have a Dolly Parton tune right next to a Sondheim song. So, hopefully people will enjoy it.
For more information on Nicholas Rodriguez upcoming Birdland show and for tickets visit here: http://www.birdlandjazz.com/event/834267-nicholas-rodriguez-in-first-new-york/
Nicholas Rodriguez is a stage and TV actor. Known for his work in Broadway's Tarzan, ABC's One Life to Live, Sex and the City 2. His regional credits include Beauty and the Beast (Beast), Camelot(Lancelot), Les Miserables (Javert), Oklahoma! (Curly), Damn Yankees (Joe Hardy), South Pacific (Joe Cable), The King & I as "Lun Tha" with Lou Diamond Phillips, Nefertiti (Akhenaten), Cinderella (Prince Charming), Last 5 Years, Candide with Harrisburg Opera, Love, Valour, Compassion! (Ramon), Master Class (Tony). http://www.thenickrod.com/
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