By Vicki Prichard
NKyTribune reporter
Luck, Angie Schworer says, is a key attribute to success on Broadway.
“Luck, and preparation, meets work ethic,” she says.
Schworer can clearly add talent and tenacity to the list of attributes that have resulted in her glowing, 25-year resume, which includes sharing the stage with Nathan Lane and Matthew Broderick on the four-year run of the Tony Award winning, The Producers.
Angie Schworer first Broadway show in 1991 with Jerry Mitchell, now an accomplished director/choreographer
Currently, she’s appearing in the hit Broadway show, Something Rotten at the St. James Theatre.
Recently, Schworer took time to come home and share her story with with local high school students. The students, who attend various schools in the region, came together at Schworer’s alma mater, Notre Dame Academy, for a master class.
The class was the brainchild of international opera singer and voice instructor, Catherine Keen, who teaches in Fort Mitchell and is committed to providing Northern Kentucky students with as much exposure as she can to musical venues, genres and outings.
“Angie was the perfect first choice for this series as she is a local gal and is currently performing on Broadway,” says Keen. “My main reason for inviting Angie is that she came to her craft by way of dance. I have noticed over the past few years that students do not realize the importance of dance and spend much of their time working on their voices.”
Nowadays, she says, one needs to be a “triple threat” if they want any chance of making it to Broadway.
A tall, blonde “triple threat”
Seated in the Notre Dame theatre, her legs hanging off the stage, microphone in hand, Schworer comfortably settled in to offer anecdotes and advice to roughly 30 students. They wanted to know how to get their equity union card, and what it’s like to work for Disney.
“I think the greatest moment of the class is when she told the students to ‘always listen to that little voice in your heart, and never let someone tell you, you can’t do it.’” says Keen.
Schworer didn’t necessarily aspire to be the “triple threat” on Broadway that Keen describes. You might say she just danced her way into it.
Northern Kentucky’s Angie Schworer, who has enjoyed a 25-year career on Broadway and in film, returned to her alma mater recently to share her experiences with students (photo by Vicki Prichard).
“I don’t think I even knew how to get there, I just loved to dance, and I will be that first — a dancer — forever,” says Schworer.
The dancing began at age five when she started studying dance at Covington’s Ziegler Studio of Dance, where she later taught.
“She’s like our second daughter,” says Nancy Ziegler.
Schworer studied dancing with Ziegler’s husband, Bobby.
“Her older sister was taking dance and Angie would come with her and her mother,” says Nancy Ziegler. “Angie and my daughter would play in the yard while Mary took dancing, then Angie started dance when she was older. She’s the best.”
While Schworer didn’t necessarily know where dancing would take her, she says she got where she is by saying “yes” to opportunities.
Disney . . .where the magic began
The acting bug likely struck at Northern Kentucky University when Schworer appeared in Kiss Me Kate.
The first opportunity that would ultimately land her on a Broadway stage, however, came when Schworer was in her third year at NKU.
Hoping to earn college credit while performing, Schworer left for Disney World where she performed in 15 Years of Magic and at the park’s Diamond Horseshoe. But, she says, it evolved into an actual job and she wound up turning professional.
For a while, she continued to work at Disney, then danced as a showgirl in Atlantic City and Japan. Later, she went back to Disney and opened at MGM Studios.
Instead of returning to NKU, she just kept working.
A young Angie Schworer cut her teeth in the business dancing at Ziegler’s Studio of Dance in Covington (Photo provided).
With consistent work, Schworer was making good money at a young age and was ready to settle in Orlando, putting a down payment on a house. Then dancing partner, D.J. Salisbury, also a Kentucky native, from Louisa, helped her get a big break.
Salisbury, a production assistant for Broadway’s The Will Roger’s Follies, called the Disney casting office to say he thought Schworer would be great for the show — and everything changed.
The prerequisite, she says, was that dancers for the show be at least 5’8” which was no problem for the 5’11” Schworer. She sent audition tapes and was told she was too talented, but would be good for the show.
On February 9, 1991 she was off to New York and began rehearsals with director Tommy Tune. So much for settling in Orlando.
“I still see D.J. Salisbury a lot. He’s the reason I’m there, and I always bow down to him,” she says. “He changed my life.”
On being Ulla
Schworer’s non-stop resume includes Broadway’s Big Fish, Catch Me If You Can, Young Frankenstein, Chicago, Sunset Boulevard, Crazy For You and Annie Get Your Gun. Off stage, and in front of the television camera, she’s appeared on Law & Order-CSI, Queer Eye, As the World Turns, Smash and The Kennedy Center Honors, honoring Mel Brooks and Kander and Ebb. She also appeared in the 2005 film version of The Producers.
But there’s no question as to her favorite.
“The Producers,” says Schworer. “It was so special from the beginning and you knew you were in something special.”
When The Producers opened, Schworer was the understudy for Tony Award winner Cady Huffman. When Huffman was hit with a bout of flu it was Schworer’s turn. Directors Mel Brooks and Susan Stroman saw her own the role and asked her to star in the show’s touring production.
The Producers won an unprecedented 12 Tony Awards.
“If I never do another principal on Broadway, no one can ever take that away from me,” says Schworer.
Schworer with students at a master class held at Notre Dame Academy.
Schworer got to close the show as Ulla on Broadway, after the national tour, and when it opened the second time with Matthew Broderick and Nathan Lane.
“I remember the moment I went on for the first time, Ulla’s entrance is to knock on the door, and I knock, and Nathan says, ‘Come in,'” she said.
“I go through the door and there are their two faces, waiting for me to come through the door, and it was so sweet, and I say my long name — “Ulla Inga Hansen Benson Yanson Tallen Hallen Swadon Swanson” — and Nathan takes my hand and he says, “Ooh Ulla, what do you do Ulla?” and he didn’t let go, he just kept rubbing my hands and somehow I just knew I was going to be okay.”
Certainly, by any standards, Schworer has done far more than “okay” for the last 25 years on Broadway, and there is an almost palpable joy when she shares her story. She speaks to the highs and the lows with a grounded, matter-of-fact wisdom, which must surely resonate with young performers.
“I told the kids, “How many times did I hear ‘no further interest?’ Probably hundreds, I don’t really know. but then there are those other thousands that you got it. They say don’t take it personally but come on, how do you not?”
She can’t help but wonder if it is a culture that gets into your skin.
“I don’t know, because when it sucks, it really sucks, and when it’s great it’s really great,” says Schworer. “When I get an email that tells me they want me to do a show, there’s a feeling I get and that never changes. That first day you go into a theater — and I’ve been in a lot now — and you see the marquee go up — there’s just nothing like it.”
With all her accomplishments, Schworer recently added college graduate to the list.
“About five or six years ago I just got this itch and finished my degree,” she says, crediting Ken Jones, director of NKU’s School of the Arts.
Schworer in Times Square
“Now, when I teach a master class, I always say, “Finish, finish, finish,” says Schworer. “My late father (Northern Kentucky physician, Dr. Phil Schworer) was so big into education and I was so glad that he actually got to see my diploma before he died, because it was a big deal for him.”
Along with saying yes to opportunities and finishing a college degree, Schworer also stresses the importance of kindness.
“I always tell the children, be kind, because if I’d been a pain to work with, D.J. would have never recommended me. You never know who you’re working with,” says Schworer.
When she wraps up her performance in Something Rotten, Schworer will be off to Atlanta where she’ll appear in the Broadway-bound musical comedy, The Prom, at Atlanta’s Alliance Theatre at the Woodruff.
The show is directed by Tony Award winner Casey Nicholaw, director of Tuck Everlasting and co-director of The Book of Mormon.
