The Great Gatsby Is Coming to Overture Theater July 29 - August 2: Striving to Be the Best (Part 1 of 2)
Above: A scene from The Great Gatsby; Below: Leanne Robinson
by Jonathan Gramling
Leanne Robinson, who stars as Jordan Baker in the musical adaptation of The Great Gatsby coming to Overture, took the safe route — some would say the hard and long route — to her career in musical theater. Robinson, who hails from London, England, chuckled when she said that her first introduction to theater was as a child. Her parents took her and she cried all through the production.
But during adolescence, Robinson realized that she wanted to pursue something in theater.
“When I was thinking about going to college at 16-years-old, I spoke to my singing teacher about what I wanted to do,” Robinson said. “I said I wanted to study musical theater in some way, shape or form. Her nephew was going to the Brit School at the time. She told me that I should go to there. The Brit School is like the free performing arts school in UK. I applied and auditioned and I got placed. That’s where I did my formal education in musical theater.”
By the time she got to the university level, Robinson was more interested in writing music and performing R&B. And in terms of musical theater, she decided to play it safe.
“I wanted to study the business side of it,” Robinson said. “So I went to the university to study business. And then I worked in music publishing for a while. And then I decided that I wanted to stay in entertainment, but I wasn’t being fulfilled working at a desk job. I felt like I was wasting myself.”
And then opportunity came knocking — sort of.
“A friend of mine told me that there was an open call for Dream Girls,” Robinson said. “She told me that I should go. I was like, ‘I should go.’ It was one of my favorite shows. It was my favorite movie. And so I went to the open call. I explained I didn’t have an agent. I didn’t really have a head shot either. I said to a friend of mine, ‘Come on to the house and take a picture of me in my parents room.’ I had an old piece of sheet music on hand from college. And I walked up with everyone and there were tons and tons of people in the room. And I did an open call and the casting folks were very gracious. They were like, ‘Hey, do you want to audition for anything else?’ I was like, ‘Sure.’”
Robinson spent the next 18 months auditioning for parts while also working her job in music publishing. Robinson eventually got her big break.
“I got on The Book of Mormon’ US tour as Nabulungi,” Robinson said. “At that point, it was a whirlwind because I didn’t really know there was a US tour. And so when I got the offer to go on the US tour, I was like, ‘What are you talking about?’ I was at work and my mom called me and she said, ‘Hey, this guy named Adam wants to speak to you.’ I said, ‘Okay.’ I called him and asked him what tour he was talking about. And he started laughing. It was crazy. In a month, I packed up and quit my job and went on the US tour for six months. And then I came back to the UK and they offered to take the role in the West End. And I was in the show for about six years. That was the beginning of my journey.”
Robinson worked on a developmental production of Mandela: A New Musical in London before she took the big leap of faith and moved to New York.
“When I got here, a friend said, ‘New York is never going to give herself to you,’” Robinson recalled. “’You have to take her.’ He was like, ‘Just go and get her.’ And I truly believe since I’ve been here that New York is for the brave. I know people who say everyone is amazing. I say, ‘Yes, that is so true. Everyone is. So you have to be so great in order to go out there and push yourself and expose yourself in a pool of talent unlike any other place. You go from being the big fish to a very tiny fish in a huge bowl with huge whales and sharks. You have to believe in yourself and do the work or drown.”
Robinson was blessed with making the right contacts.
“I was about 32-33-years-old when I moved to New York,” Robinson said. “I had some friends who were doing pretty small projects that I may be able to help out on. I moved to New York and I had to work and grow. I met someone by the name of Destiny and she was really interested in mentoring me and instrumental in introducing me to people and helping me perfect my craft.”
Robinson also got an agent before she came to New York.
“I was very fortunate to find an agent before I made the permanent move,” Robinson said. “And so I reached out to a friend of mine who recommended, ‘Hold out baby. You should look at these few people.’ They liked the work that I submitted to them. And they were gracious enough to take me on as a client. That was very helpful having the representation. I was very blessed and very fortunate to enter the right room and also proactively kind of work on myself. I will always remember when I started auditioning again, I realized I needed to take classes. I needed to build up my music portfolio. I had to do the independent work that I probably would have done if I went to vocational school like other people. I still had to do the work for myself.”
And eventually, Robinson’s talent got her noticed.
“My agent got me in to audition for The Great Gatsby,” Robinson said. “I auditioned to do the Hugh Jackman performance at Radio City Music Hall and things like that. There have been people who have definitely helped me along my journey while I have been here. I had to get into acting classes. I had to fill my time. It was a two years between being on stage and booking The Great Gatsby.”
Getting the part of Jordan Baker was a nerve-wracking experience.
“I got a tape request. I was on vacation here in London seeing my family. This tape came in. I was like, ‘Okay.’ The truth is I hadn’t seen the show at the time. In my mind, it was just another audition. I had gotten into the cycle of it’s just another audition. It’s fine. I did the tape. And then I got the recall from the tape. I worked with Jen Wolfman. She was very helpful with my journey in New York. She taught some classes. I was like, ‘Hey Jen, I got this recall. Can you help me with this?’ She said, ‘Absolutely.’ We worked through the material. We workshopped the material. And then I got a recall and then I got into finals. And then I had to wait a little while. When I got the phone call from my agent, maybe I had gotten to the place where my instincts told me it was going to be a no. And we had been waiting and I knew there was somebody else that they were considering. In my heart, I had gotten to the place where if it was no, it was fine. But it was a yes. It was very strange because it was my first long contract in nearly two years. It’s the first long-term contract I received since I moved to New York. I was like, ‘Oh, I don’t know if I can do this again, to be on stage, to do this big musical on its first national tour, which is very exciting.”