Moulin Rouge! Triple Threat Robyn Hurder on Damn Yankees Dreams, Working at the 'Broadway Bakery' & More on Show People

When Robyn Hurder takes the stage as the fiery Nini in Moulin Rouge!, every eye-popping moment appears effortless. The audience roars as she struts her stuff alongside her "Lady Marmalade" cohorts at the top of the show, and her sultry act two showstopper with Ricky Rojas elicits cheers and sometimes even mid-number standing ovations. Offstage, things are much quieter in the home she shares with fellow hoofer Clyde Alves (On the Town) and their five-year-old son Hudson. This talented stage vet sure makes her life look easy, but her career path has been paved with perseverance and tenacity in the face of obstacles. Watch her discuss all the highs and lows on this week's episode of Show People with Paul Wontorek.

Here are some of the highlights:

WHATEVER LOLA ROBYN WANTS
“My first Broadway show was Damn Yankees when I was 11. It was the revival with Victor Garber, who was my show crush forever. It’s everything to me still. I was sitting at the Marquis [Theatre]. And he says, ‘Get me Lola!’ And you hear all this big band music, and Lola comes up out of the ground. Everything’s pink. Platinum blonde wig. She just enters out of the floor on the chaise lounge. I turned to my mom, and I said, ‘Mommy, I want to do that when I grow up.’ That was it. And I still do! So, someone needs to revive Damn Yankees, and I need to be Lola.”

A CASSIE CAREER CRISIS
“When I got Marty [in Grease], I was 25, and that’s a very right type for me. After Grease, I get Cassie in [the national tour of] A Chorus Line. I was supposed to go out as Val, which is what I really wanted to do and what I should have been doing at that age. But I couldn’t get out of my Grease contract. Six months later, they offered me Cassie. I didn’t work for three years because I didn’t know who I was. I do the tour, and I come back. I’m going on these auditions. I’m like, ‘I’m not doing any more ensemble.’ I did Marty, and now I’m doing Cassie. Because I did Cassie, I’m not going in for those dumb blonde roles anymore. Those three years [after Chorus Line], I plummeted. I was failing every audition, getting cut, not getting any callbacks. I was like, ‘Who am I? What do I want?’ I know what it is to go through what [Cassie] went through.”

SILVER SCREEN DREAMS
“When I was 19, I saw the [Moulin Rouge!] movie opening weekend. When ‘Roxanne’ happened, I started shaking. I loved the whole movie. I was obsessed with it. But when that scene happened, I was shaking and crying. At the end of the movie, I couldn’t leave the theater for like 10 minutes because I was convulsing crying. I was like, ‘That needs to be a musical’ obviously but also, ‘I need to be her.’”

GITCHI GITCHI YA YA
“I went through a tough time [trying to get the role of Nini]. During the [Moulin Rouge!] lab, I was also doing double duty with Chicago. I was exhausted. The only reason why I was going through this gamut of emotions is because I care so much. When I know something is right, I’m like, ‘This has to be it. There’s no way I can’t have this role.’ Fortunately, by the end of the lab, I got the offer.”

TIME TO MAKE THE MAGIC
“I need to have that outlet, that artistic outlet, that wild, crazy, ‘I still feel like I’m 20 years old on stage,’ fooling around with everyone backstage. But that’s just a little part of me. That’s like the medicine that I need everyday. But I also need to wake up in my house with deer and bunnies and my kid jumping on me telling me to go be a Power Ranger with him. We call [my job at Moulin Rouge!] the Broadway Bakery, and I go and make the donuts. Literally, [my son] Hudson’s like, ‘Have fun making the donuts!’”

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