Jordan Dobson Lets the Sun Shine In
metroweekly.comHair at Signature Theatre.The actor is still an able player of all the woodwind and percussion instruments. “Plus piano and guitar,” he adds. “Because that was what my life was going to be.”But then, the young musician, who grew up between South Jersey and Philadelphia, saw a production of Parade at the Arden Theater that changed his entire direction.
He struck a bargain with himself.“I was like, ‘You know what? I’ll audition for one school, for musical theater,” he recalls. “The rest, I’m auditioning for music performance.
If I get into the musical theater program, that’s a sign that I should do that and be an actor.'” So Dobson auditioned for Temple University in musical theater, and got in.“I was like, ‘All right, switching it up,'” he says.While at Temple, Dobson continued doing theater in Philly, got his Equity card, joined the professional union, and then, on a whim, “I decided to move to New York.
I just moved with a thousand bucks and was like, ‘Let’s see what happens.'”What he saw were stints as a real estate agent and waiting tables, and brushes with his big break that instead ended in disappointment. “Booked one show that we thought was going to Broadway, and then it didn’t go to Broadway,” Dobson says. “Then got really close to a Broadway show, and I didn’t get it, and I was like, ‘Okay, I’m moving back to Philly.'”Of course, that’s when Dobson got a call from his agent, telling him, “You’re going to Broadway.” It was for Ivo van Hove’s 2019 revival of West Side Story, which played 77 previews and 24 performances before the pandemic shutdown closed the show.
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