Broadway’s Mandy Gonzalez to Celebrate the Holidays at KU Dec. 6

Broadway's Mandy Gonzalez to Celebrate the Holidays at KU Dec. 6

November 26, 2024

By Susan L. Peña

KUTZTOWN, Pa. - Broadway star Mandy Gonzalez will join the Kutztown University Choir and Berks Youth Chorus in "Home for the Holidays," 7:30 p.m. Friday, Dec. 6, Schaeffer Auditorium, as part of the KU Presents series.

"Christmas time is one of my favorite times," Gonzalez said. "I have a very distinct story to tell, and we all have that kind of story. Christmas time allows us to all come together."

Tickets for "Home for the Holidays" are $56; $48 for students and seniors and can be purchased at the KU Presents website or by calling the KU Presents Box Office 11 a.m. to 3 p.m., Tuesday through Thursday, at 610-683-4092. Established to be the center of cultural life at Kutztown University, KU Presents serves the campus and community by bringing world-class live arts that entertain, educate and enrich.

Her story begins in Santa Clarita, Calif., just north of Los Angeles, where she was born; but it also includes her parents' story - the subject of the title song of her 2017 album, "Fearless."

Robin Gonzalez, Mandy's mother, grew up in a Jewish family in the San Fernando Valley; her father, Paul, was born into a Mexican American family in Harlingen, a small town in south Texas' Rio Grande Valley. His family, who worked as migrant farmers, settled in northern California; when Paul was 19, he was drafted into the U.S. Army and was deployed to Vietnam in 1970.

Robin, who at 17 was still in high school, exchanged letters with Paul when she participated in a pen pal program for Vietnam soldiers. They became friends, and when Paul was discharged, he showed up at her door, and the two married.

"Mom kept the letters in a box," Gonzalez said. "She said they were private and I shouldn't read them, but I would sneak a letter once a week, and I learned about their friendship, and eventual love. They were so innocent. And now they've been married for 50 years."

Gonzalez grew up with both cultures; she had an "Abuela" (Spanish for grandmother) and a "Bubbe" (Yiddish for the same), and her family celebrated both Chanukah and Christmas. "All kinds of people come to my shows - people who don't often get to see people like them perform. I'll be singing Christmas songs in Spanish and English and sharing stories."

Her Bubbe, who came from a musical family in St. Louis, Mo., loved to sing and spent many hours singing with Mandy while her parents were working. "My grandmother loved musical theater and big torch songs and singers like Ethel Merman and Judy Garland."

It was at her instigation that Gonzalez started voice lessons at age seven. That was the start of her journey toward Broadway, as she joined local theater groups, performed in high school theater and moved on to a second, more advanced voice teacher.

When she was 15, that teacher encouraged her to audition for the Broadway Theater Project, founded and run by the late Ann Reinking, on the campus of the University of South Florida in Tampa, where many stars got their start. Gonzalez was accepted and "all of a sudden, I was not the best in the room," she said. "And that's the only way to grow."

After returning home, she studied at the California Institute of the Arts but left when she auditioned and was accepted as a backup singer for Bette Midler, with whom she toured in 1999 and 2000. "It was a total dream," she said. "I loved her so much, and the incredible thing was that she was such a boss! To see a woman take charge and be in control of the creative process! I learned so much, including how hard it is."

Gonzalez saved the money she earned touring North America and used it to move to Brooklyn, N.Y., along with her husband-to-be, artist Douglas Melini. She worked odd jobs and went to open calls, and in 2001 landed her first off-Broadway role - in "Eli's Comin'," based on the music of Laura Nyro - for which she won an Obie Award.

"It was a great way to start," she said. "I was surrounded by such wonderful people" (including creators Diane Paulus and Bruce Buschel, and fellow cast members Judy Kuhn, Wilson Jermaine Heredia, Ronnell Bey and Anika Noni Rose).

This success led to her Broadway debut as a standby for Idina Menzel as Amneris in "Aida"; she was cast in that role in 2003 after Menzel left. She was also cast in the short-lived "Dance of the Vampires" and "Lennon" on Broadway.

Then, Gonzalez said, "I got a call from my manager that a new writer wanted a Latino cast for a musical." The writer was the then-little-known Lin-Manuel Miranda, and the show was "In the Heights." She went to the basement of the Drama Book Shop in Manhattan for her audition and was cast in one of the leading roles, Nina Rosario. "Everyone was there," she said. "We all read through the play, and Lin-Manuel sang all the songs…I wanted to be part of it forever; it was so amazing and interesting. And he really is special."

The cast became tight knit through the out-of-town tryouts, then off-Broadway in 2007, and the next year's Broadway opening. "It was the first time that Latinos were portrayed in a way that was like everybody else," she said. The show won a Tony Award for Best Musical, and Gonzalez won a Drama Desk award for her performance. "Some of my closest friends are from that company," she said.

Gonzalez went on to play Elphaba in the Broadway production of "Wicked" in 2010-2011, and replaced Renee Elise Goldsberry as Angelica Schuyler in the original production of "Hamilton" in 2016. After releasing her album "Fearless," she performed a solo show at the Café Carlyle. She has also performed as an actor in many TV shows, including "Madam Secretary" and "Only Murders in the Building."

She is currently guest starring every Tuesday as Norma Desmond (alternating with Nicole Scherzinger) in the Broadway revival of "Sunset Boulevard." "It's an absolute dream," she said. "It's a role I never thought I'd play…I saw a production of it with Glenn Close and Judy Kuhn on a middle school field trip. As a young person, that changes your life. And now I get to do it!"

Which brings us back to her Christmas show, in which she will sing in English and Spanish, and include songs such as "Feliz Navidad" and "Noche de Paz." Because her mother is "the strongest person I know," as well as being fearless, Gonzalez said, "this show is for my Mom."