Welcome home: Broadway vet returns to the 'burbs to star in Marriott's 'Gypsy'
As a youngster, Lucia Spina recalled her father advising her and her brother to choose careers carefully.
The Broadway veteran's dad told them to choose something they loved because they would be doing it for a long time, and for longer than 40 hours per week. Still, the former Wheaton resident was uncertain about pursuing a career in the arts until Brian Lynch, former fine arts director of Naperville's North Central College, offered his perspective.
"Somebody has to be an actress," he said, "why shouldn't it be you?"
Why, indeed. Now, 17 years after she left Chicago, Spina returns to star as hard-driving stage mother Rose in Marriott Theatre's "Gypsy."
"I've been wanting to play Rose for as long as I can remember," said Spina, who last performed at Marriott in 2005's "Oliver!"
Few female roles are as challenging, said Spina, who describes Rose as musical theater's equivalent of King Lear.
"She's so driven. She never apologizes," she said. "She uses what she has and she's not afraid to ask for what she wants."
The production marks Spina's reunion with Nathaniel Stampley, who plays Herbie and who she last worked with on "Big River" at the long-shuttered Apple Tree Theatre in Highland Park.
"To get to work with him again is so lovely," she said of her fellow Broadway vet. "So much has happened since we met as much younger adults."
Growing up, sports not theater, occupied Spina's time. She played volleyball and basketball, ice skated and ran track during junior high and played volleyball while attending high school at Lisle's Benet Academy.
"I didn't decide to be an actress until college," said Spina, who initially considered a career in recreation. "I wanted to play Division 1 volleyball and go to the Olympics."
Playing Rizzo in a Wheaton Park District teen production of "Grease" and a stint in a junior college production of "Little Shop of Horrors" prompted her career change. After a year at the University of St. Francis in Joliet, she transferred to North Central College at the suggestion of a friend. After graduating in 1997, she began working in Chicago theater performing at Marriott, Drury Lane and Apple Tree theaters.
"Initially, I didn't have dreams of Broadway," she said, describing New York City as a nice place to visit but not a place she thought she wanted to work.
In 2004, she performed in the Ravinia Festival's production of "Sunday in the Park With George," starring Michael Cerveris, Audra McDonald and Patti LuPone. The following year she returned to Ravinia for "Anyone Can Whistle."
After a stage manager pointed out those were Broadway-style productions, she reconsidered leaving until she was cast as Rona Lisa Peretti in 2006's sit-down production of "The 25th Annual Putnam County Spelling Bee" at Drury Lane Theater Water Tower Place. That kept her here another six months. But when "Spelling Bee" director James Lapine offered her a chance to fill in for two weeks in the Broadway production, she accepted.
"That's how I made my Broadway debut," she said. "I was already moving to New York and I lucked into that opportunity to play the same role I played in Chicago."
She's worked steadily ever since, appearing in "Les Miserables," "Legally Blonde," "South Pacific," "Kinky Boots" and 2022's "Into the Woods." She also added TV credits ("Pose," "Manifest," "FBI" and "The Blacklist") to her resume.
"It was just timing," Spina said. "I moved to New York when I was 31. If I had gone after college, I don't think I would have fared as well as a young character actor ... I stayed in Chicago, cut my teeth and learned so much."
Now she's back.
"It's been very lovely so far," she said. "I'm really enjoying myself."
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"Gypsy"
When: 1 and 7:30 p.m. Wednesday; 7:30 p.m. Thursday; 8 p.m. Friday; 4 and 8 p.m. Saturday; 1 and 5 p.m. Sunday, Aug. 23 through Oct. 15
Where: Marriott Theatre, 10 Marriott Drive, Lincolnshire, (847) 634-0200, marriotttheatre.com
Tickets: Starting at $55, dinner/theater options available
COVID-19 precautions: Masks optional