BC Welcomes Broadway Star Jeremy Jordan

The Gavel
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When most people think of musical theatre, they think of Neil Patrick Harris and Idina Menzel. However, as people spend their time praising these indisputably amazing stars and making countless gifs of them, they’re often neglecting other incredibly talented Broadway stars. Enter: Jeremy Jordan.

A recognizable name for musical theatre fans (and devotees of the TV show Smash), Jeremy Jordan has a slew of impressive acting credits. His career began in 2007 when he landed a New York agent during a showcase by his school, Ithaca College. He received his BFA in Musical Theatre that year, and then moved to the city to start auditioning. Finding jobs was a struggle at first, and Jordan

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had to support himself by working as a caterer for a year and a half before he finally landed his first Broadway job as a “swing” (an understudy for multiple parts) in Rock of Ages. Since then, Jordan has performed as Tony in West Side Story, the lead in Newsies (for which he was nominated for a Tony Award), and even did some television work in NBC’s Smash.

Considering all that Jordan has accomplished, and all that he’s likely to do, getting him to speak at Boston College did not seem like an easy feat. But fortunately enough, the musical theatre gods have descended upon the Boston area. Conveniently, Jeremy Jordan was in town for the American Repertory Theatre’s (ART) sold-out production of Finding Neverland, playing the male lead, J.M. Barrie. Because Jordan was already in Boston, when the Dramatics Society asked him to chat with interested BC students, he agreed.

Though very successful, Jordan was surprisingly casual when he came to dear old Robsham. Dressed in jeans, a leather jacket and a baseball cap, Jordan sat perched on a stool, juggling some Vitamin Water and a water bottle. He was scruffy and his voice was tired but he was eager and ready to talk about his experience and even answer questions from audience members.

The Dramatics Society representative, Jared Reinfeldt ’16, started off the talk with a few basic questions. This enabled Jordan to provide a bit of background about himself and his career. This then segued into a question-and-answer session with the audience members.

Throughout the whole talk, Jordan remained incredibly candid, providing honest, frank and ultimately very

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insightful answers to the students’ questions, a refreshing change from the ordinarily fluffed-up nonsense other speakers will occasionally spew from their mouths. There seemed to be nothing that he wouldn’t talk about; he discussed everything from actors’ unions to his new film with Anna Kendrick, an adaptation of the musical The Last Five Years. He also tried to motivate the students, telling them to never “half-do” anything, to “trust [their] gut” and to always take risks. His remarks rang true not only for actors, but also for people in general. His advice about patience was especially strong.

He explained that actors need to have patience because they’re not going to get everything, and they’re not going to get most things. But having patience doesn’t mean waiting around for roles to fall from the sky, either. People have to continuously keep trying and putting in effort while keeping their frustration to a minimum. Because, Jordan says, “You have to put something forward or you won’t get anything back.” This rings true not only for actors, but also for just about everyone.

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