On her way to the great white way Local actress chases dream of making it on Broadway
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But Rubenstein understands that competition is tough, and isn't easily discouraged. She even jokes about the fact that she has yet to get a Broadway part, barring her husband Josh from saying the two-letter word. "I say, 'say yes to me because I constantly hear no,'" she explained, laughing.
The 28-year-old Hoboken resident recently heard an important "yes," when she was cast as Julie in a local theatre group's production of Show Boat. Next week, she will have the opportunity to do something most aspiring performers only dream of - she will perform alongside Broadway stars. Rubenstein will share the stage with Tony Award-nominee Robert Cuccioli and Broadway star Gay Willis in a fundraiser-performance for Broadway Ala Carte, the Theatre-in-Residence at the North Jersey YM-YWHA in Wayne.
So could this be the big break Rubenstein has been looking for?
She sure hopes so.
"To be in a show with these people is a big step," she said.
Arrivederci Roma
It's also a far cry from what she was doing up until very recently.
Up until a little over a year and a half ago, Rubenstein was in Italy, performing with an American opera company in Rome and putting on musical theatre productions on the side. Though she and her then-boyfriend (now husband) enjoyed the two years they spent in the Italian capital, they realized it was not where their dreams could be made.
"Performing made us decide to come back," Rubenstein said. "There's only so far you can get in Rome with musical theater. My passion is musical theatre, and as we know, that can only be done in one place - here." Although Rubenstein's family is Italian from an area outside Naples, she did not get bitten by the opera bug at home.
"I grew up on Sinatra and classic rock like the Beatles and Springsteen," Rubenstein said. She said that opera was something that came almost naturally to her. "I'm a Soprano and that's just where my voice went," she explained. "I started off as a violinist and I played for 10 years."
"In high school I switched to voice," she continued. "Even though I always sang it was never my main focus." At 14 she joined the Princeton Opera Company, just for the challenge.
"I love challenges," she said. "I wanted the hardest training possible. That way everything else would come easy."
Looking for that break
And though hitting the right notes may now come easy to her, landing a role on the great white way has been a challenge. Since moving back to the United States, Rubenstein has spent most of her time auditioning.
During audition season (Broadway only has auditions in the spring and fall), her day starts before dawn, beginning with her commute to Manhattan for open call auditions which start at 6:30 a.m.
"You put your name on a list and hope to be seen," she said, explaining that since she is not a member of actor's equity, she has to report to the open audition and cannot make appointments in advance.
"I'm waiting to get cast in a show from an equity theater," she said. "Then I don't have to be up at 6:00 any more." After a morning of auditions, Rubenstein reports to Fiamma, the trendy SoHo restaurant where she waits tables and stays till late at night. And then she does it all, all over again.
"I'll work till 1 a.m. and wake up at 6 a.m.," she said. "The hardest part is to juggle [waiting tables] with auditions and not lose that job," she said. "It's a mind game."
Is it an exhausting lifestyle? She smiles and gives a resounding "yes" answer. But, she said, she has already noticed that she has made a certain degree of progress: Last Wednesday she got a call at 8:30 a.m. from a director who wanted her to come in and audition for a part.
"It makes me feel lucky," she said. "It's nice to know that already in the past year-and-a-half, I've gotten to that category of getting phone calls, albeit the random ones."
Classic musicals
Rubenstein's call from Broadway Ala Carte Executive Producer Stephen Kantrowitz last month was not-so random. She had auditioned for the starring role of Magnolia, which was given to Broadway actress Gay Willis. But after another Broadway actress Kantrowitz had cast as Julie turned down the part, he offered it to Rubenstein.
"The fact that they didn't look for another Broadway person says a lot about how they feel about me," Rubenstein said.
The performance is a benefit for the non-profit theatre organization, which Kantrowitz explained is an apprenticeship program for young student performers. Since she has one of the lead roles, Rubenstein is considered one of the professionals in the performance. Before she left for Italy, Rubenstein performed at famous venues like Carnegie Hall as a member of the Pacific Opera Company in Manhattan.
She started right out of college. (Rubenstein holds an MFA in music education and also said that she would like to teach one day.) She said she joined the company so that she could keep singing while auditioned for musicals.
"For me I'll take singing where I can get it. I love to sing," she said. Rubenstein appeared in Anything Goes at DeBaun last year, and puts on her own cabaret shows in Manhattan at Don't Tell Mama's cabaret house. She's done five shows in the past year. The classic rock fan said that her favorite show is The Who's Tommy.
"It's one of the first I ever saw. Obviously I fell in love with it," she added. As a genre, Rubenstein said she prefers the classic musicals, like Show Boat or Carousel.
"My voice was kind of made for them," she said. But, she added, this has made the audition process all the more difficult. "Broadway isn't really geared for that type of singing (anymore). It's just belting pop."
What the future holds
Nevertheless, Rubenstein still holds on to her dream of making it in the world of musical theatre. She said that after Show Boat, she plans to continue going on auditions.
"The fall season ends at the end of October," Rubenstein said. "Then you spend the winter waiting tables and waiting for auditions to come again (in the spring)."
But she remains positive about the nearer future. "I have a whole bunch of auditions coming up. We'll see what comes out of it. Hopefully something."
Rubenstein will perform along with Robert Cuccioli and Gay Willis in Broadway Ala Carte's version of Show Boat on Oct. 21 at 2 p.m. at the Rosen theatre at the North Jersey YM-YWHA, The theatre is located at One Pike Drive in Wayne. Tickets for the performance are $40. For more information, or to buy tickets, call (973) 595-0100, ext. 226.
Comments on this story can be sent to: mfriedman@hudsonreporter.com.
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