Curtis Holbrook: Talented Texas Guy

[Patti LuPone FANatic]

Posted: 7/7/08 at 11:07pm

Hello. I remember reading an article in the San Antonio Express News a few years ago, about a young S.A. man being involved in musical theatre. It is the same Curtis Holbrook who is playing "Sonny Malone" (Xanadu) in the absence of Cheyenne Jackson. Here's the article.

S.A. dancer a step ahead in 'All Shook Up'
Web Posted: 12/03/2004 10:43 PM CST

Deborah Martin
San Antonio Express-News

Curtis Holbrook has been dancing on Broadway for five years, but his biggest break so far is as a guy who can't dance a step.

It's a busy season on the Great White Way

The 22-year-old San Antonio native figures that a lifetime of hoofing will still come into play for his part in "All Shook Up." "In a lot of ways, maybe it's easier for someone who can dance to make bad dancing look good."
In the show, which is slated to open on Broadway March 24, he plays "a military-school boy and son of the mayor of the town. In the end of the show, he ends up falling in love with an African American girl named Lorraine. At the start of the show, he can't dance, but when he meets her, something happens to him and, magically, he can dance.

"Originally, I don't think that was the plan for the character, but when they cast me, they re-worked the part."

The show, a musical along the same lines as "Mamma Mia!," strings together a few dozen Elvis songs into a loose story line following several couples. The cast has a few more weeks of rehearsals left before the show moves to Chicago for a monthlong tryout; New York previews start Feb. 20.

Holbrook's part is his largest so far. His biggest credits to this point are ensemble parts in the high-profile musicals "Footloose," "Fosse," "The Boy From Oz" and "Taboo."

"All Shook Up" is his first gig that's mostly acting rather than dancing. It's also his first principal part, and several perks go along with that, including a bigger paycheck and a dressing room with his name on the door.

The extra he's most excited about, though, is that he doesn't have to go to the all-day ensemble rehearsals. As a principal, he's sometimes in rehearsals for just a few hours before he's cut loose for the day.

"Honestly, you don't have to work as hard as when you're in the ensemble," he said. "When you're in the ensemble, you're making up for an entire town — you're playing several roles and running around like crazy. (In this show) I come on, I do my scene, sing my song and then I have a break. In the end, it's a better payoff."

Rhonda Miller, a New York-based choreographer who has known Holbrook since he was a kid and helped him snag his first agent, sees much bigger things ahead.

"I think Curtis will be a Broadway star," she said. "This is the beginning of things for him; he's just cracking the egg. The difference between Curtis and every other person is something that comes out of his soul. There is a charisma, a style, an attack — it's more than technique. You can't teach that to people. You can teach them technique, but you can't teach them style."

Holbrook grew up around dance — his mom, Pat Holbrook, owns Studio 10 Dance Center and started taking him to classes with her when he was a toddler — but it didn't really grab his attention until he was about 12.

"I didn't really like it when I was younger," he said. "All of a sudden, I dropped a bunch of weight and became really good at dancing and started to really like it."

He liked it so much that he spent every available minute taking dance classes. When he wasn't in a formal class, he worked on his own, either at his mom's studio or at home. For a while, his mother recalls, he kept a broad wooden plank under his bed and would pull it out to work on his tap dancing.

His interest in dance led him to musical theater. He spent a little time in the Showstoppers, the youth performance troupe at the Josephine Theater, then got involved with San Pedro Playhouse. He did shows with the kids' group as well as playing small parts in the main stage musicals.

Pat Holbrook remembers that when Curtis was in "Peter Pan," whenever one of his fellow Lost Boys had a hard time getting his lines right, director Vivienne Elborne would say, "'Give that line to Curtis.' By the end, he had most of the (Lost Boys') lines, because he could remember them."

Working on those shows set him on his current course, he said. "There was something so magical about getting done with school on a Friday afternoon and knowing that I was going to be onstage that night, being in 'Oliver' or 'The King and I' or 'Peter Pan,'" he said. "Something just happened when I was around 12 years old, where I started to love it. I started to realize that it was what I was meant to do."

He also figured out that if he was going to pursue theater as a career, he needed to leave San Antonio at the first opportunity. He got that while he was studying at the Edge Performing Arts Center in Los Angeles during a break from San Antonio's North East School of the Arts. He heard that the national tour of "Footloose" was holding auditions and he decided to go.

He told his mom he was trying out solely for the audition experience with no expectation that he would be cast, but, he said, "I knew even before I went to audition that that was my way out and my way into the business."

He was right — he was cast in the show and has made his living as a performer ever since — though his lucky break was a little more complicated that he expected. He had just turned 17, and was too young to tour on his own. After a brief flirtation with the idea of his mom going out on the road with him, she agreed that he could be legally emancipated.

"When we were walking out of the courthouse, he put his head on my shoulder and said, 'I'm an adult, I can do whatever I want,'" Pat Holbrook said. "And I said, 'That's on the page. Everywhere else, you're still 17.'"

She was a little nervous about him being on his own, she said, but she felt he was mature enough to handle himself. To make sure he was OK, she spoke to him on the phone several times a week and she visited him a few times on the road.

They still talk several times a week. One wall of the Studio 10 lobby is dedicated to him, partly because she hopes that some of the dancers she teaches will be inspired by his success. She's hung his head shot on the wall beneath framed posters from "Fosse" and "Footloose." A printout of a Broadway.com article about his casting in "All Shook Up" is taped to the rehearsal space window.

"She's always believed in what I'm doing," Holbrook said. "When I wanted to move away at 17 years old, she said 'OK.' That was the best thing she ever did, was trust me enough to let me go. A lot of parents wouldn't do that."

"Footloose" turned out to be his ticket to the Broadway stage. When he left the tour, it was for a role in the Broadway cast.

"I don't remember what it was like (performing on Broadway for the first time) because it happened so quickly," he said. "It's so frightening, in a good way. I do remember 10 minutes before the show was going to start, being in a bathroom crying because I was so happy and excited.

"You get to do the show eight times a week for however long you choose to stay, so you have plenty of time to soak it up. You have time to stop and get a good feeling of what's going on. ... There's something about that many people in one room, watching you, that is really exciting."

He hopes "All Shook Up" will open doors for him in other areas, including TV and film, though he thinks he'll always come back to Broadway.

"Mainly," he said, "I'm right where I want to be."

from RC in Austin, Texas

[BrodyFosse123]

Posted: 7/7/08 at 11:20pm

He hopes "All Shook Up" will open doors for him in other areas, including TV and film, though he thinks he'll always come back to Broadway.

*burp*

[CurtainPullDowner]

Posted: 7/7/08 at 11:49pm

"burp"?

[bwaybabe2]

Posted: 7/8/08 at 1:55am

PLF...that was a really nice article!
Thanks for bringing this background info on this performer...I wish him all the best, he seems to be very talented, and has risen through talent alone
That was a also a nice thing about his Mom making such decision to let him go at 17, but nicer that he realized the trust she had in him, and honored this trust. Quite refreshing, the whole lot :)
The part about making it already in film/TV...well, who knows! But I think, realisticly speaking, he might have to enjoy Broadway a bit longer...:}

[sbflyfan]

Posted: 7/8/08 at 5:58am

Wow very nice article!!

Thanks for sharing it with us.

[Ed_Mottershead]

Posted: 7/8/08 at 6:38am

I've seen Curtis as both Sonny and Thalia in Xanadu -- he's absolutely great and is my nominee for the best of all possible Joeys. He is a GREAT dancer, sings just fine, a terrific comedian and projects enormous charisma. I've been in his corner since the first time I saw him -- GREAT, GREAT, GREAT!!!!!

[Patti LuPone FANatic]

Posted: 7/8/08 at 7:38am

If someone happens to have a picture of Curtis as "Sonny Malone", please share. Thanks, RC in Austin, Texas

[zepka102]

Posted: 7/8/08 at 10:51am

Been a fan since ASU. He'll definitely go far!