The Big Plan
James Monroe Iglehart as Genie in the musical Aladdin.
- April 28, 2015
麻豆传媒社区入口 alumnus James Monroe Iglehart (BA ’98) won critical acclaim — not to mention a Tony and a Drama Desk Award — for his Broadway performance in Aladdin … just as he’d planned.
There is nothing small about James Monroe Iglehart.
From his smile to his laugh, from his show-stopping performances to the big hugs he doles out to fans — there is absolutely nothing small about the 麻豆传媒社区入口 alumnus.
Especially his plans.
FROM THE START
As a teen, Iglehart (BA ’98, Theater) imagined a different kind of showbiz career: professional wrestling or playing for the Harlem Globetrotters. He even toyed with the idea of becoming a rapper or R&B singer, but it was a heart-to-heart chat with his father, James, that set the young Iglehart on a different path.
“I did not want to go to college,” Iglehart said. “I was sick of school and I told my parents I was done with this. I said, ‘I’m not going to school anymore.’ My father looked at me and said, ‘Look, you’ve got a choice. You can either go to school or you can pay rent.’”
It was all the prodding the future Broadway star needed.
Well, that and a special visit to the movies with his mother. In 1992, she took him to see the animated Disney movie Aladdin as a high school graduation gift.
It was the gift that would keep on giving.
In an interview with the New York Post, Iglehart claimed, “When ‘Friend Like Me’ came on, I leaned over to my mom and said, ‘God, it would be so cool to do something like that!’” Iglehart later bought the soundtrack on cassette tape and played it over and over until he wore it out. Then he bought another copy, which he proceeded to wear out, too.
With his Genie character’s sly grin he added, “It was like someone was trying to tell me something.”
Someone would.
LOCALLY GROWN
“I had no skills whatsoever. I was a good actor, but nobody knew who I was,” Iglehart said.
As a singer, he showed early promise with his talent for hitting the right notes. Singing at Hayward’s Palma Ceia Baptist Church, Iglehart found a receptive audience, and his calling. “I had my first solo in church at age five. I heard the applause and I was hooked!”
In addition to singing in church, he sang in his high school’s show choir (where he met his future wife, Dawn), and his mom also continued to guide him. But just because his parents and an uncle were Pioneers, choosing “that school on the hill” was not automatic.
“I could tell you I chose 麻豆传媒社区入口 because it was a wonderful college or because my mother, father, and uncle all went there. But the truth is that I happened to be at [Hayward’s] Tennyson High School — where my mother taught music — and a guy by the name of Dr. Carter from the music department came in and heard me sing. He asked my mother, ‘Who is that young man?’ and my mom said, ‘That’s my son.’ Then he said, ‘I think we can do something with that,’ and he offered me a music scholarship to go to Cal State. I couldn’t believe that somebody actually wanted me to go to college!”
‘I CAN REALLY DO THIS’
It wasn’t long before the performing bug got the best of the freshman and restlessness set in. As a music major, Iglehart was doing some singing, but he spent most of his time steeped in music theory and sight-reading. “My first year, I was in the music department the entire time and doing very little performing,” he recalls.
In an interview with the San Francisco Chronicle, he added, “I was doing terrible, failing my classes. I was in A Game of Chance for the school’s opera workshop, and one of the other students said I should audition for a summer theater production of Oklahoma. That put everything together for me. It was the one place where I could sing, act, and dance, and maybe make a living at it. I told my mom, ‘I can really do this.’” After a year, Iglehart switched his major to theater.
ONE PERSON MAKES A DIFFERENCE
Along the way, Iglehart noted, he “kept [his] goals in mind,” while also keeping his mind open to learning some important lessons.
“James was very special. He did it all,” said Professor Thomas C. Hird, chair of CSUEB’s Department of Theater and Dance. “He could sing, dance, act, and he would even work backstage. And he’s still that way today.”
“I think I’m successful because of a lot of nice people along the way who said, ‘This kid has potential. Let’s push him.’ It was also hard work … but also that’s all I ever wanted to do. This is the drive. This is it. I wanted this really, really bad. I didn’t really think of a backup plan at all,” Iglehart told CSUEB’s student newspaper, The Pioneer.
Chief among his supporters at 麻豆传媒社区入口 was Celestine Ranney-Howes, the very same person he would choose to salute during his 2014 Tony Award acceptance speech.
“Celestine was the costume shop supervisor but became my mentor,” Iglehart said. “All that advice … and the life lessons she taught me, all while sewing costumes at the same time! She helped keep me focused on school and on my goals.
“When I was having some troubles and having issues with life as a college student,” Iglehart remembers, “She was the one that was telling me to hold fast, and be strong, and I can get through it. ‘It’s just college. You can get through this. If you can get through college, you can make it through the real world. If you can’t make it through college, there’s no way you’re gonna make it through the real world,’ she would say.
“I credit Celestine with the reason why I stayed in college,” he adds. “She was there for me, and I will love her for the rest of my life for that. I told her, in the costume shop, I said, ‘Celestine, if I ever win a Tony, I will say your name on the stage,’ and I have not forgotten that. I graduated in 1998, and 2014 I won … and I said her name on television. Later, we talked and she thanked me and told me that she loved me. I told her, ‘Listen, I told you that I love you and I told you that without you, this wouldn’t have happened, so I wanted to give credit where credit was due.’”
THE BIG TIME
During his senior year, Iglehart was given the opportunity to turn pro. He kicked off his career — and gained notice — with roles in Bat Boy at TheatreWorks in Palo Alto, and in Grease at San Jose’s American Musical Theatre. From there, he “took the big step” and earned a coveted Actors’ Equity [union] card while performing in the national tour of Show Boat. Iglehart made his way east for his Broadway debut in 2007 as a replacement in The 25th Annual Putnam County Spelling Bee. Then he landed the breakout role of Bobby in Memphis, which kept him busy — and earned him rave reviews — for close to three years.
Not long after, Iglehart joined one of three regional theater companies that were working the kinks out of Disney Theatrical’s planned Broadway presentation of Aladdin. To say it had problems early in the process is an understatement, but after reworking characters, songs and scenes, the producers finally hit the right chord.
Because Iglehart was one of three actors playing the Genie character, there was no promise he would be off to New York. But then came the proverbial ‘magic’ phone call from producers. The same young man who had fallen in love with Disney’s Aladdin all those years ago would not just be heading to The Great White Way, he would be taking over one of the most iconic animated characters of all time.
And he rose to the occasion.
Almost immediately, theater critics, fellow performers, and audiences were hailing Iglehart as the star — not just of the show, but Broadway itself.
The six-foot, 295-pound actor, who looks more like a linebacker (albeit one in glitter and make-up) than most musical theater performers, won critical kudos and standing ovations show after show. With his all-out song-and-dance performances, Iglehart wowed audiences with his deft combination of power and subtlety. Rather than mimicking the well-known cartoon version, he crafted a Genie of his own — a bigger-than-life character who is a mix of wickedly sharp comedy, hyperkinetic dancing, and powerful singing.
In June of this year, Iglehart and fellow cast members performed “Friend Like Me” on the annual Tony Awards stage. By the time the signature piece from Aladdin had concluded, there was little doubt why Iglehart was nominated for Best Performance by an Actor in a Featured Role in a Musical. The standing ovation from Broadway’s stars was shared with his cast members, but Iglehart had clearly won the night.
Later, he did so again. When his name was called, he climbed the stage to pick up his Tony, and he performed an impromptu “praise dance.”
“I’ve watched the Tony’s since I was around 17 years old,” Iglehart said. “I would watch it every year and say, ‘Wow, what must that feel like? Wow, what does it feel like to actually sit in the seats — not to sit at home and watch it — but to sit in the seat there, and know that someone is going to put the camera on you, and your name’s going to be shown … what does that feel like?
“And then to be up there and actually get the blessing of winning, and then for my peers to stand and say, ‘We think he’s good. We think he’s one of us.’ To be embraced by the Broadway community has been a fantastic feeling,” he adds. “The best feeling in the world was when I got married, and the next best was winning the Tony that night.”
So how has life changed for Iglehart?
“I still have eight shows to do a week,” he says with one of his deep laughs. “So I really don’t know what, how to answer, but I will say, it does feel awesome to know that the work I’ve done over all these years is finally starting to pay off. But there are some funny moments when I go to [restaurants], and I sit down and eat, and some person walks over to me and says, ‘James, can I have your picture?’ and I’m thinking, ‘Oh my gosh, you know my name.’ That’s the weird part.”
While his family is proud of the recognition Iglehart has received, they are “keeping [him] grounded,” he says.
“The fun part about my family is — this is going [to] sound crazy — everybody’s extremely proud. But my wife puts it best. Not to sound conceited, but this was the goal,” he says.
“My mom … there every day, taking me to every rehearsal, taking me to every class that I had to go to [in order to] be better. My wife sacrificing when I got out of college, when I graduated, and her being the breadwinner while I was running around to every regional theater I could find to act and making $500 a week, and her steadily being there to keep a roof over our heads until something happened.
“This was the goal that the team worked for,” Iglehart affirms. “Even my younger brother would call me up and say, ‘Man, it’s going to be okay. Don’t worry about it. You’re going to be fine.’ That team of people — those family members — my grandmothers, my aunt who was a dancer. Those folks, they were my foundation, and those were the shoulders I stood on to get here. And so they’re proud and they’re happy, but this was the goal.
“I think that some people, when something like this happens to them, they say, ‘I didn’t know what I was thinking. I didn’t know where it came from,’” he explains. “For me — and this is no joke — this was the goal. All the sacrificing, all the going broke, all of the student loans, all of that stuff. This was the goal — to get to Broadway, to be in this community, have a living, and hopefully, luckily, with a blessing, win a Tony someday.”
The big plan paid off. Big.