BWW Interviews: Andy Huntington Jones Talks Romance, Broadway, And What It's Like To Be The Prince

CINDERELLA just may be the epitome of romance with it's tale of love at first sight, a fairy godmother, and a beautiful magic coach taking a sad, lonely girl to live out a fantasy. The Broadway version has all the whimsy and wonder that we equate with CINDERELLA, but with a refreshing, updated script. Houston is in for a magical experience when TUTS hosts the production this month at the Hobby Center.

Andy Huntington Jones plays Prince Topher, the dashing young man who finds the love of his life at the ball. Having been in the original Broadway casts of both Cinderella and Bullets Over Broadway, Jones extends his talents as the prince in the Broadway touring company of CINDERELLA and graciously shares his thoughts on the pleasures of touring, the romance in his own life, and what it's like to play an infamous prince.

BroadwayWorld: The song "Ten Minutes Ago" is the prince's romantic solo. What is your "Ten Minutes Ago", when something wonderful happened in your life, out of the blue?

Andy Huntington Jones: Audrey Cardwell, our wonderful Cinderella, is my girlfriend of several years. We met performing in Rodgers and Hammerstein's THE SOUND OF MUSIC in St. Louis. She was standing with me when I got the call that I would be making my Broadway debut and I was by her side when she got the call that she would be promoted from understudy to leading lady on tour with CINDERELLA. We have been through so much together, and spent very many cumulative years apart, so to be working on the same show, and starring opposite one another is a fairy tale come true.

Your profession requires quite a bit of travel. What's your favorite place?

While on the international tour of WEST SIDE STORY, we played Le Théâtre du Châtelet in Paris. That venue, smack dab in the middle of Paris, will be hard to beat. I have also been lucky to work on Broadway for a bit of my time out of school, and while traveling has it's perks, working in New York City feels the most like home.

Are you a romantic? Do you feel pressure to be the perfect romantic hero, playing such an infamously romantic character?

Something wonderful about this adaptation of R+H's CINDERELLA is Douglas Carter Beane's new script. He has taken this romantic story, and added humor, and wit, and perspective, so that our version feels brand new. CINDERELLA is as much a coming-of-age story as a romance, and in this new version, the audience gets to see both the Prince and Cinderella grow up while they fall in love. The Prince is no longer an archetype: he is a regular guy trying to do what's right for his kingdom. Once the audience realizes that they can relate to him, the pressure is off and I don't have to worry about being a romantic hero.

When did you become interested in singing and theatre?

I have always wanted to perform. I wanted to be a clown, then a magician, then a puppeteer, then an actor. This career path was inevitable. I did a lot of community theatre growing up, and the Rodgers and Hammerstein canon was a part of my introduction to musical theatre. We have have added some old songs of theirs, long lost in the discard piles of past musicals. They are the pioneers of American Musical Theatre, and to be performing some of their never-before-heard material is a thrill.

How do you handle stress when you want a part really badly and you're up against a lot of other actors?

I have yet to perfect my emotional defense for a career full of rejection. It is always a challenge to simultaneously invest in an audition and remove yourself from the possibility of rejection. One of my favorite lessons from college comes from the chair of the musical theatre department at The University of Michigan, where I earned my B.F.A. in Musical Theatre. Brent Wagner says something to the effect of, and I paraphrase: 'You can't move forward while looking sideways'. It is a powerful reminder to focus on what you have control over and and to let go of the rest.

What do you do when you have a day off, a day completely free to do whatever you want?

A great benefit of touring is the ability to act like a tourist around the country. Although we are working a lot, we try to pretend like we're on vacation whenever we can!

For tickets to CINDERELLA, go to: http://tuts.com CINDERELLA will be playing May 26 - June 7.

Photo Credit: Carol Rosegg

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