Broadway vet brings his show to ‘the miracle that is Music Theatre Wichita’

When Jeremy Stolle takes the stage at Capitol Federal Amphitheater for a series of Music Theatre Wichita concerts this week, it’ll be the culmination of nearly 14 months of waiting and worrying.

“This is our ‘coming back concert’ for the miracle that is Music Theatre Wichita,” Stolle said from his apartment on Times Square.

The concert is part of a seven-show return season for MTW, including four outdoor shows in Andover and three at the convention hall of Century II.

The 44-year-old Broadway veteran, who has been in the cast of “Phantom of the Opera” for the past 13 years, has used the past few months of pandemic-forced exile to concentrate on these concerts, a continuation of his “No More Talk of Darkness” tour that he began early in 2020.

“It’s been non-stop,” he said. “I’ve been working 60, 80 hours a week on this show, every minute detail including the video and the charts and the flow and the cast, you name it. It’s been a treat to actually build something and make something and be able to present it.”

As of a phone interview Tuesday, he was both celebrating New York City Mayor Bill de Blasio’s declaration that Broadway shows would return in mid-September and wondering if he would be getting a call from “Phantom” producers asking if he would return to the Andrew Lloyd Webber musical.

“There’s a lot of joy happening in the community now, but we have to wait and see how the producers will proceed and how carefully we can get back to work,” Stolle said. “There’s hope again, where before it was just touch-and-go.”

His concert

Stolle’s “No More Talk of Darkness” tour began with a 23-city run in China in 2019 and had 15 performances in America — “and then the pandemic ended all of it,” he said.

“We were about to go take it around the U.S. We had a bunch of theaters that had wanted to bring us in, and we were coming,” he said. “It was a really special show. We got to stop and fix and improve and just really go for it. The bad side is we had to wait a year to do it.”

There will be a few songs from “Phantom” in the program, Stolle said, and all but two songs will be from Broadway. It includes what he called a highly energized bluegrass version of a classic from “Oklahoma!” compiled while he and his band were separated by the quarantine and worked out online.

With the six-person group he’s had since 2015, the Unreachable Stars Band, he is adding Arri Lawton Simon, a Wichita native and “local boy makes good” pianist and musical composer now on Broadway, and violinist Timothy Jones, associate concertmaster with the Wichita Symphony Orchestra and an assistant professor of music at Wichita State.

“I’m definitely the front man of the band, but we definitely are a unit,” Stolle said. “No part can exist without the other.”

Performing in concert is “a different connection with the audience” than playing a stage role, he said.

“We’re all in the same room — in this case, outdoors — we’re all in it together to have a good time, and we do,” he said. “I’ve watched these great bands out there like Taylor Swift’s show and Panic at the Disco! and country stars like the Zac Brown Band. They do these shows and they’ve got a lot going on. They take the music and they throw it into a higher level. I decided I want to do that with Broadway music because the music always leads to a story which leads to a scene and it’s all together.

“So when you take a Broadway song out of its environment, it’s now just a song,” Stolle added. “In this case I wanted to take the song and make it extravagant, and that’s what we’re doing.”

Stolle’s role model is Hugh Jackman, who had a successful arena tour several years ago largely with Broadway production numbers.

“We’re in that realm,” he said. “We’re taking the Broadway musical and turning it into a stage spectacular.”

Even if the “Phantom” producers don’t call, Stolle said, he’s ready to ramp up his Broadway concert performances.

“I want the concert to get bigger,” he said. “My next step is that I want to have a big concert where people know what’s coming and they want to participate with the band — like the Kiss Army would do back in the day. They come and do it together and it’s so cool.

“I want to be America’s favorite Broadway band,” Stolle added.

On hiatus

Within one hour in March 2020, Stolle got phone calls that “Phantom” was on indefinite hiatus and that his concerts for the foreseeable future were canceled.

“On a positive note, for the last year I’ve been able to be in the world,” the father of two said. “I’ve been able to be with my kids and go to their respective extracurricular activities and be home in the evenings.

“That’s a gift, because I usually don’t get to do anything past 6 p.m. because I have a show,” he added.

“The other half has been a living nightmare. I’ve been through a myriad of emotions and ups and downs for sure. I’ve lost my concert career and my dream show all in the same hour, and it was quite devastating. I think it would have been easier if it there was any certainty of return,” Stolle said. “It’s just been touch and go for over a year now.”

Grants from the federal government never meant an economic hardship for himself nor his family, he said, and the first few months of the pandemic pause had him working online with his band and posting many of the videos to YouTube, as well as experimenting with graphic design and video work, and picking his guitar back up — “not playing for a profession, but playing for fun like I used to.”

He would be asked to perform virtually for Zoom meetings and holiday parties in the latter half of 2020, but “I’ve definitely not had as much arts in my life in the past few months,” he said.

‘Phantom’ life

Stolle has been part of the “Phantom” cast for 13 years, as a member of the ensemble and as an understudy for Raoul, Piangi and the iconic, masked title character.

He’s had the chance to play the Phantom hundreds of times, he said, as well as performing for advance publicity and spots on TV’s “Good Morning America” and with the New York mayor for Broadway promotions.

As an understudy, he’s had 20-minutes’ notice that he was going on in the role, and several times had to take over after intermission.

“We are very prepared for it,” he said of life as an understudy. “We rehearse a lot, and we keep the standard of the show to its tip-top at all times.”

“Phantom” is Broadway’s longest-running musical, opening in 1988 and receiving seven Tony Awards, including best musical.

Stolle said he’s not intimidated by the classic musical role.

“I’ve been singing the role since I can remember, so I didn’t have a hard time jumping in and doing it,” Stolle said. “The direction and the expectations are very specific. I took it like a surgeon would do a surgery — every moment was on purpose and calculated and studied and rehearsed. I’ve never worked harder, I guess you could say.”

MTW memories

The California native has been on stage with Music Theatre Wichita in 2006 with “Thoroughly Modern Millie” and in 2017 with “Seven Brides for Seven Brothers” – an Eagle review at the time called his angsty “Where Were You?” at the beginning of the second act “a show-stopping moment.”

Stolle said he’s loved every experience he’s had with MTW.

“The staff and the way the place is run, it’s like a unicorn theater,” he said. “But the thing I’ll always remember is the talent that they bring in, the ensembles at Music Theatre Wichita all become Broadway performers.

“Every time I’m there, I’m fully intimidated by these college kids,” Stolle added. “They’re so good.”

‘NO MORE TALK OF DARKNESS: JEREMY STOLLE IN CONCERT’

When: 8 p.m. Thursday, May 13, to Saturday, May 15; 2 p.m. Sunday, May 16

Where: Capitol Federal Amphitheater, 1607 E. Central Ave., Andover

Tickets: $45, from 265-3107 or mtwichita.org

This story was originally published May 9, 2021 at 3:07 AM.