The Lion King’s Chaunteé Schuler Roars Into Her Broadway Debut
Age: “I’m at the first year where I shouldn’t start saying my age.”
Hometown: Spotsylvania, Virginia
Currently: Making her Broadway debut as the lovely lioness Nala in The Lion King
The Early Days: Schuler began singing at a young age in her church choir, where her grandfather was a pastor. She recalls watching Gene Kelly and Fred Astaire in the That’s Entertainment series, dreaming of what Broadway must be like. When she pursued an education in theater at the University of Richmond, Schuler shifted her attention towards straight plays. “I really thought I was going to be a dramatic actress even though I knew I could sing,” she remarks when asked about her musical-heavy career. At college, Schuler performed in shows like Mother Courage, A Doll’s House and even managed to earn her Equity card before graduating in a regional production of Lynn Nottage’s Crumbs From the Table of Joy.
She Can Do It: Although she never took a singing lesson, Schuler scored her first job (during a short-lived stint at grad school) touring with the Tony winning musical The Producers. “I didn’t even know what a 'production contract' meant. I was just like, ‘Woohoo! I’m going to do a show!’” Schuler says of landing the job. “I learned everything. That for me was like school. I made tons of mistakes, but figured it out pretty quickly.” The actress loved wearing the musical’s various showgirl costumes with the possible exception of one, that of tap dancing storm trooper during the “Springtime for Hitler” scene. “It was so embarrassing because my last name is German, and I’m obviously African-American, and I’m a dancing Nazi? I just kept thinking ‘this is so wrong on so many counts!'"
Living the Soap Life: After The Producers, Schuler found herself stepping into the musical spotlight again as Deena Jones in a Philadelphia production of Dreamgirls. “I got to diva out a lot. I was way too diva by the end of that show,” she laughs. When Dreamgirls ended, Schuler landed a two-year gig playing Bonnie McKechnie, daughter to a Scottish prince, and a former murdering supermodel-turned-lawyer on the soap opera, As The World Turns. “It took so much effort to just not laugh and be like ‘Are you kidding?'” Schuler says of the often wild plotlines. “There are soap actors who have been there for 20 years and are amazing at it, but I don’t know if I ever arrived. I was really thankful for the experience, though, and it opened my eyes to another genre. The on-camera work was not difficult, it was learning the ropes backstage that were a lot different [from theater]. It’s a completely different schedule.”
Singing with a Semi-Semi Star: During her soap stint in 2008, Schuler landed a gig as a “Mennonette” back-up singer in four-time Tony nominee Sherie Rene Scott’s You May Now Worship Me, a concert that would eventually evolve into Scott’s current semi-autobiographical Broadway show, Everyday Rapture. “Sherie’s a blast,” Schuler says of the actress. “She is an extremely hard worker; she’s almost like a machine.” Although her schedule has not allowed her to visit the Broadway incarnation of Rapture, Schuler recently reunited with Scott during a reading of the musical adaptation of Little Miss Sunshine at the Sundance Theater Lab.
The Circle of Life: These days, Schuler is making her Broadway debut in The Lion King, the blockbuster musical she previously toured with. “The show itself is so magical,” says Schuler. “It’s the first Broadway show my parents and I saw when I came to New York, so it’s kind of my idea of what a Broadway show is. It’s still surreal, but you just get used to seeing people in monkey and gazelle outfits every day. I feel like [adult] Nala gets away with murder because her costume just has a little head on top and my corset is only about ten pounds. It’s not nearly as bad as everyone else’s! I’m so overwhelmed by being in New York City and on Broadway. I have no idea how this girl from a country road got here. It’s so cheesy to say, but every day I’m blown away."
