There's Nothing Mute About Nick Spangler

Bellport, Long Island is a quaint South Shore community known for its maple-lined streets, Currier and Ives architecture and its popular regattas on the Great South Bay.  It is also the home of the Gateway Playhouse which is one of the oldest summer theaters in New York State. Once housed in an old barn, the theater expanded into an adjacent modern facility on South Country Road about 40 years ago. 

During the summer of 2006, one of the Gateway's featured attractions was Tom Jones and Harvey Schmidt's perennial favorite, THE FANTASTICKS.  Audience members were treated to a fine production of the show and were impressed by some marvelous vocalizing, particularly from a young actor named Nick Spangler who played Matt.  His renditions of such favorites as "Soon It's Gonna Rain" , "Metaphor" and "I Can See It " caused the New York Times to comment that "Mr. Spangler is a thrillingly pure-voiced romantic interest with a boyish face to match." 

Theater-goers attending the current Off-Broadway revival of THE FANTASTICKS were recently greeted by inserts in their Playbills announcing that "At this performance, the role of Matt will be played by Nick Spangler".  They were treated to Spangler's boy-next-door looks and more of his memorable singing.  Spangler, who normally plays The Mute, understudies Matt in this production and has gone on as The Boy about 15 times since joining the cast on October 30, 2006. His performance as Matt is fresh and wholesome and his singing is even more clarion than it was the summer before.  The ladies in the audience were smitten by him and one woman remarked that not only was he physically attractive, but "there wasn't an ounce of fat on his body." 

Meeting Nick Spangler in the lobby of the new Snapple Theater Center after a recent matinee found him casually dressed in jeans, a gray tee shirt and a yellow baseball cap which was so battered, frayed and sweat-stained that it would easily be rejected by the Salvation Army's charity bin,   At this performance he was back to his customary role as The Mute in which he proved to be a revelation of economic gesture, concentration and distinct movement which contrasts greatly with the way he approached the role of Matt.  It's hard to believe the same actor is giving these distinctly different performances in the same production.                                                                                                

Spangler is hungry and ready to enjoy a good meal before heading back to the theater for that evening's performance.  Settling down at a quiet table at a nearby Harmony View Restaurant (where he was on a first name basis with many of the waitresses), Spangler ordered his meal and was ready to talk about his nascent career as well as his experiences of sharing the stage with one of the show's creators. 

A California native, Nick Spangler credits his mother with getting him started in show business at the age of five.  She had him cast in a community theater presentation of THE WIZARD OF OZ and a member of the show's "Lollipop Guild", the actor fell in love with the stage. "When we opened the show and the cast came out for our final bows, the audience went nuts.  Even though I was a Munchkin and had the first bow--with about twenty other kids--I thought, 'This is so cool!'  It was very exciting and I must have really enjoyed it because my parents kept putting me into various community theater productions.  By the time I got to high school, I became known as 'that kid who does musical theater' and all that stuff.  Because I was so young when I started, it's always been what I do.  It always shocked me when I was in high school and teachers asked other kids what their plans were after school and the kids didn't know.  I would look at them and say, 'What do you mean you don't know?'  Even in college I'd ask people what their goals were and they felt that they'd eventually figure it out. I couldn't understand how they didn't have a plan." 

After being graduated from Mountain View High School in Mountain View, California in 2003, Spangler headed to NYU's Tisch School of the Arts.  He had become acquainted with the institution when he participated in NYU's CAP 21 program for high school students who are going to be Seniors.  The young man immediately found vast differences between life on the disparate coasts.  "My first week or two in New York was really bizarre.  I spent a lot of time hanging out in the dorm by myself and watching movies.  I really didn't get out into the city.  Once I met people from my program things changed.  My biggest adjustment is more of a state of mind.  In California you're always driving and all you see is the sky.  Every time I went home, that would be the first thing I'd notice.  My family's wonderful and whenever I'm home I spend most of my free time with them in our house.  We have a huge backyard with a nice pool. By comparison, in New York my life is career oriented.  If I'm doing nothing here I feel like I'm wasting my time." 

Spangler has amassed a list of impressive credits for someone who has just graduated from college.  In addition to doing THE FANTASTICKS at the Gateway, he also played Jimmy in their version of THOROUGHLY MODERN MILLIE that same summer.  Additionally, he's done various productions of TOMMY, THE WILL ROGERS FOLLIES, BATBOY and THE LAST FIVE YEARS.  That's an impressive resume for someone who is just about to turn 22.  How did it all happen? 

"At NYU, you aren't allowed to perform for the school during your Freshman year.  So while I was taking classes and basically doing nothing every night, I became aware of The Tisch.  It's a student-run organization where actors can submit their headshots and film students can submit breakdowns of the actors they're looking for and outside people as well.  I signed up for that and I got e-mails every day about projects  that people were working on.  There was one that an NYU alum was doing and because it wasn't NYU affiliated I auditioned for it.  The project was a musical called SAVED BY THE BELL and he cast me as Zach Morris.  It was my first taste of working on original material.  We even got to do a recording of it.  I had a blast doing it. I realized that NYU was cool but that there were other cool things for me to do in the city, too! 

"My first 'New York' audition was an open call for HAIRSPRAY.  It was in my freshman year.  It was one of their initial open calls because the show had just opened the previous year.  They wanted me to do a 60's pop song and I didn't know any, so I tried to learn Stevie Wonder's "For Once In My Life" on the night before the audition.  I went in and embarrassed the hell out of myself.  I started to sing the song and just forgot it.  They wanted to hear it all a cappella because that was the way they were running the audition.  I tried it and just couldn't remember it and they said, "Okay, start it again."  I did it again and still couldn't remember it.  At that point I explained that I'd tried to learn the song the night before and couldn't remember it.  I apologized.  They said, "All right, do you know anything from the show?"  I answered, "Totally!  I know everything from the show!"  I did Link's song, "It Takes Two" and it went well, so the experience ended positively.  Still, it wasn't the way to start my auditioning experience." 

Spangler keeps trying to get to every audition possible and feels that things really started to pick up for him in the past year.  "After my sophomore year I did non-Equity summer stock, which was the most work I'd ever done in my life for the least money I've ever earned in my life.  Still, it was the best summer I ever had because I was working on several shows with a group of very talented people.  I realized that now I was doing what I normally do for fun but I'm getting a paycheck on top of it!" 

The actor continues:  "In my junior year I was lucky enough to get cast in a production of BAT BOY at NYU.  I was fortunate enough to get cast in the title role.  Through a friend, I invited several agents to see it.  They came and I started free-lancing with one or two of them   By the end of the year I was signed for Bellport and got my EQUITY card.

Every job that Spangler took seemed to be a stepping stone for his career.  While working on THE FANTASTICKS in Bellport, one of Spangler's fellow cast members was Robert Oliver, who is currently playing Mortimer in THE FANTASTICKS.  It was he who suggested Spangler for his present gig. The young actor comments, "You've always got to keep your eyes open and see what comes next in this business." 

Although Matt is the showier of the two roles, Spangler is quite happy playing The Mute—the silent presence in the production.  The Mute is onstage for great periods of time and provides special effects like confetti, snowfalls and the gentle rain.  At various times The Mute becomes the on-stage percussionist and leads the rhythmic finger snapping in "This Plum Is Too Ripe"   Spangler comments: "It's funny sometimes I feel as though I'm more proud of that performance than I am of Matt !!! And I certainly do get the most fan-mail (mostly via e-mail) for The Mute, rather than when I'm Matt... I think it's because of his silence."  

There is much confusion among theatergoers concerning the differences between understudies and standby's.  Spangler tries to explain the difference:  "I'm fortunate enough to be a performing understudy in this show.  Remember, though, that this is a small production.  In a bigger production, an "understudy" is someone who is in the ensemble and performs a track every night but is prepared to go on for one of the leads..  A "standby" would be somebody who is backstage in the green room every night and only knows one or two leading roles and they don't perform every night.  In this show the understudies for the fathers and El Gallo are backstage all the time.  They're allowed to leave once the characters they are understudying make their final entrances.  For me, it's a bit different because I get to go on every night.  Granted, I don't speak, but I'm on stage and I'm acting." 

What's it like to get called to go on in a leading role in a major show playing in New York City?   "The first time I got a call it was a Sunday, so we had a 3 o'clock show and a 7 o'clock show and I think they called me at about 11, so I had a couple of hours.  Unfortunately, that first morning I was still asleep and had a meeting at the NYU library  to work on a group project  from 12 to 2.  I made it to the theater for the 2:30 half-hour call.  I couldn't even think about what was happening.  In a way it was good because I didn't have two hours to freak-out about it.  Still, I was so excited I could barely contain myself!"  Presently, Anthony Federov of TV's "American Idol" is playing the role of Matt and will probably remain in the role throughout the summer months. Spangler will stay in his role of the mute and continue to understudy The Boy. 

It was commented that THE FANTASTICKS is playing in one of the most intimate venues in midtown Manhattan, yet the production is miked.  "Even though the accompaniment is only a piano and a harp, sometimes they can drown out the singers depending on where you're sitting in the audience.  It's just a way of balancing the sound.  I enjoy the fact that we don't have to wear individual mikes, though." 

The intimacy of the playing space also has provided some unusual observations about the audiences. Because THE FANTASTICKS is such a family show, the Snapple Theater is often filled with school groups and frequently they just aren't the least bit involved in what's happening on the stage.  The show also attracts an older crowds and  there are instances when audience members fall asleep.  "There was a time when Burke Moses had just given the line '...a perfect time to be in love' and we heard someone snoring in the audience. Sometimes the timing is uncanny!"  Spangler relates that at a recent performance, he had gone on as Matt and was nearing the end of the performance when the alarm system at the theater malfunctioned while he and Julie Craig were singing "They Were You".  The mood was broken and the performance was halted. There was nothing that could immediately be done about the situation and the remainder of the performance had to be cancelled.  Such are the exigencies of live theater! 

When the original production of THE FANTASTICKS opened at the Sullivan Street Playhouse in 1960, the role of the Old Actor was played by an actor who billed himself  as "Thomas Bruce". In actuality was the show's lyricist and librettist Tom Jones.  In the present production, Jones is reprising the role and using the same pseudonym. He has also directed this incarnation of the show.  This means that one of the theater's youngest and most promising actors is sharing the stage with one of the most experienced and cherished show business veterans.  That has to be intimidating for Spangler. "At first it was a little daunting," remarked the actor, "but this time I'm fortunate in that I don't speak at all.  That means I won't get his words wrong." 

It's quite obvious that Nick Spangler is a happy, healthy heterosexual male working in a business that is usually associated with the gay community. Spangler has just asked Ryan Scott Oliver, the composer and lyricist of ALIVE AT TEN to write a cabaret/comedy song for him called "I'm Straight". Spangler explains that when he was younger he was taking dance classes after school while other guys were playing flag football and other sports.  "Granted, in junior high and high school I was a wrestler and ran cross country, but in any given production I got comments. The razzing came even when I played Riff in a high school production of WEST SIDE STORY.  He was the leader of the Jets.  You couldn't get more macho than that, but I still caught flack from people because of the dancing and the stylization of it.  It did bug me when I was younger and in elementary school.   There were times I'd have a school show during the day and come to school late and I'd have some eyeliner on that my mother had done for me.  I definitely got picked on for stuff like that.  In fact I stopped taking dance classes for a little while because it bugged me so much." 

Spangler's attitude about the subject has substantially changed.  According to the actor, "Guys don't realize the perks to being a heterosexual in musical theater and that's one of the major facets to the song Ryan is writing.  Look, the ratio in the business is ten girls to every guy and then it's ten gay guys to every straight guy.  Do the math and you realize that the world is your oyster!  Because so many guys are gay, the women get so comfortable with them that they forget you're the straight one so they're very open with their bodies and there's physical contact and stuff.  I've enjoyed it!"  He said all this while a impish grin danced across his face. 

Now the story of the battered baseball cap is strangely analogous  to something in the novel THE CATCHER IN THE  RYE, where Holden Caulfield cherishes his brother Allie's baseball glove: 

Removing the cap, Spangler looks at it and explains, "Every time I wear it, people make comments that it's a bit beat up and suggest that I paid a little extra for it to be like this..  Because of the styles today, everyone assumes I bought it in this condition.  It's actually eight years old  It's from the Portland Pilots from Portland University and that's where my older brother went to college.  In his freshman year we were missing each other terribly  In my head I like to think that he brought it back for me from his school, but in reality it was his cap and he brought it with him when he came to visit.  He liked it. So did I. When he went back to school I hid it so he couldn't find it.  Now I wear it all the time. I like to think that I'm not a self conscious person, but when it comes to hats I really am.  This is the only baseball cap I can wear.  I don't look good in other hats.  I've yet to find another that I feel okay in." 

While involved with THE FANTASTICKS, the young actor has participated in a number of other projects.  The aforementioned ALIVE AT TEN was the first one he'd done. Are there prospects for other productions of this show?  "You know, I recently asked the writers that," he said.  "Because it's coming out of the NYU graduate musical theater writing program, they said 98% of the work that comes out of there never goes anywhere..  It's some of the first stuff that any of these writers have ever done.  It's not that the material isn't good, it's just that they consider it their first works and feel that now they know how to do it.  Now they can do something 'real'.  Every once in a while a small show will come out of the program and have a brief regional theater life.  I may just be biased with ALIVE AT TEN because I was in the reading and have a connection to it, but it's right on for the current atmosphere on Broadway.  It's got sort of a ROCKY HORROR SHOW pop score and is contemporary musical theater. It addresses this whole idea that everyone can be on TV nowadays with YouTube and modern technology.  It really comments on how everyone can be seen and how everyone wants to be seen.  We all pay the price for it, though. I loved working on it. The writing is great.  Kirsten Guenther is the book writer and she's  hilarious.  She's hysterically funny, but she writes very well.  Ryan is only 22 and the music he writes is brilliant.  That's why I asked him to write the cabaret song for me."  The good news is that Stephen Schwartz picked ALIVE AT TEN out of 200 submitted musicals to be done at his ASCAP Workshop.  Very possibly, this will be seen on other stages in the near future. 

Would Spangler enjoy a career in television or the movies?  Well, he certainly wouldn't turn it down but he is really a man of the theater.  My audition book is filled with songs like "Goodbye Old Girl" and "If I Loved You" I have lots of Richard Rogers stuff, and I do have some contemporary things there, but I have a real 50's sound.  I'm dying to be seen for JERSEY BOYS.  Boy, would that be a lot of fun!  I can do the falsetto singing, but I think the show's a real work-out," Another show he'd like to do is Altar Boyz.  "Talk about a brilliant show!  There's nothing closer to being a superstar in a boy band than being an Altar Boy!  Every number ends in a silhouette and the score is loaded with  big, full harmonies.  I was raised Catholic, so all the comedy sat very well with me." 

Whether any of these projects become a reality for Nick Spangler, it is obvious that there are numerous options in his future.  One of them is always a return to the Gateway Playhouse. The theater's Associate Producer, Paul Allen, recalls Spangler very favorably.  He remarked, "Nick was a wonderful young actor with great instincts.  He was easy to work with, very 'down to earth' We liked having him around so much he stayed on to play a lead in our following show, MILLIE."  Obviously Spangler would be more than welcomed if he returned to Bellport.

For now, though, he's happily a member of THE FANTASTICKS' talented cast.  When not performing, he's easy to spot in New York's theater district.  There isn't another living being who would have the courage to wear that battered yellow cap! 

[NOTE:  Several months after this article was written, Nick Spangler was asked to take over the role of Matt full-time in the current revival of THE FANTASTICKS.]

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THE FANTASTICKS is playing at the Snapple Theater on Broadway and 50^th Street. Tickets are available from Ticketmaster: www.ticketmaster.com