SEATTLE — Billie Wildrick likes to draw parallels between the Seahawks and 5th Avenue Theatre’s professional actors.
“We get similar care. There’s a certain amount of Pete Carroll-ness in (the theater’s artistic director) David Armstrong,” she said. “Coach Carroll likes his guys and he knows how to use his talented team and David builds shows around and for his talented local actors.”
Preview performances of Rodgers &Hammerstein’s “Carousel” are playing this weekend at The 5th Avenue Theatre, with the official opening night set for Feb. 12.
In the show, Wildrick, a Snohomish High School alumna and regional musical theater star, portrays the bubbly Carrie Pipperidge, the gal who’s in love with Mr. Snow.
This is Wildrick’s 23rd production at The 5th, and Everett audiences will see her again in July as the star of Village Theatre’s upcoming production of “Cabaret.”
But back to comparisons to the Seahawks, win or lose.
“As a cast, as a team, as a repertory ensemble, we support each other and we rely on the audience, like the 12th man, to encourage us to fight to reach the emotional plane that the story requires,” Wildrick said. “We fight to give our local audiences our best, just like the Seahawks do in a game.”
Wildrick, 36, is still as beautiful as she was just out of the gate as a graduate of Western Washington University. Along with the 5th, she’s also been a regular with Village and ACT and has appeared at Seattle Repertory and Seattle Children’s theaters.
Singing was her outlet when Wildrick was a member of now-retired teacher Pat Castro’s jazz choir at Snohomish High. Two years ago she was just home from a stint on Broadway when she sang for a fundraiser to benefit Castro’s vocal music scholarship at Snohomish High.
Castro was thrilled to have Wildrick perform for the concert.
“Billie is really making a name for herself,” Castro said.
She appeared on Broadway in Kathie Lee Gifford’s musical “Scandalous” at the Neil Simon Theatre in midtown Manhattan. In addition to playing the character Eve in “Scandalous,” Wildrick also understudied the leading role of Aimee Semple McPherson, a 1930s-era Los Angeles-based Pentecostal evangelist and radio celebrity.
After the run of that show, Wildrick played the Diva in a production by the Unsung Musicals Co., called “Bless You All,” featuring Broadway’s recent standbys, understudies and alternates.
“After New York, I was out of gravity,” Wildrick said. “I did some teaching and directing, which I love.”
Most recently, Wildrick played the mother in “A Christmas Story” at the Ordway theater in St. Paul, Minnesota.
“It was great. Acting is a journey and sometimes you take jobs elsewhere,” she said. “But I am not a fan of the hustle and I will always live here.
“Theater is hard work, I want to work with good people and I am prepared to do good work.”
Wildrick said she loves the classic 70-year-old “Carousel,” which had its debut on Broadway in 1945.
“There’s been a little noise about the show romanticizing domestic violence,” she said. “But it’s a nuanced story about flawed people, bonded in their humanness. People in trouble need us to paint the possibilities on the stage. In the end, it’s a hopeful show that speaks to perpetual optimism in crappy circumstances.”
“Carousel” tells the love story of carnival barker Billy Bigelow and mill worker Julie Jordan. Together they sing “If I Loved You.” After his untimely death, Billy is allowed to return for just one day for a chance to redeem his life and make peace with Julie and the daughter he left behind.
“Billy is played by Brandon O’Neill, who has become this wonderful leading man,” Wildrick said. “Julie is played by Laura Griffith, who has this gorgeous, thrilling voice. Anne Allgood is Nettie, who sings the ballad ‘You’ll Never Walk Alone.’ Anne has so much emotional capacity, she’ll fit the whole audience in her heart.”
And don’t forget the show’s “fabulous” 21-piece orchestra, Wildrick said. “That’s the sort of thing you get with local theater.
“A lot of musical theater touring companies come to town, and some are very good,” she said. “But the local community of musical theater actors and musicians are worth supporting. For the audience, knowing who we are makes a huge difference. Just like the Seahawks. Every town should rally behind their theaters.”
Gale Fiege: 425-339-3427; gfiege@heraldnet.com. Twitter: @galefiege.
If you go
Rodgers &Hammerstein’s “Carousel” plays through March 1 at The 5th Avenue Theatre, 1308 Fifth Ave., Seattle.
Tickets: Start at $29; available online at www.5thavenue.org, by phone at 206-625-1900 or at the theater box office.
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