Spencer Sutherland Calls His Broadway Debut in & Juliet His ‘Favorite Chapter Yet’

Spencer Sutherland has come a long way from Pickerington, Ohio. The indie pop singer-songwriter has competed on The X Factor, toured the world, racked up millions of streams and is currently starring as Romeo in & Juliet on Broadway. The smash hit jukebox musical, powered by Max Martin’s catalog of hits, has Sutherland singing crowd-pleasers like “It’s My Life” and “Love Me Like You Do” eight times a week. Walking to work at the Stephen Sondheim Theatre, Sutherland spoke with The Broadway Show correspondent Charlie Cooper about making his Broadway debut as "the original lover boy."

“This is my favorite chapter yet,” says Sutherland. “There's no bigger stage than a Broadway stage, and I've always wanted to do this, ever since I was a little kid. I was in theater in high school. It's so different than touring. It's so different than film and TV. There are no other takes. What you do on that stage is what it is. That's really exciting and really nerve-racking and I'm just sweating the entire time.”

For a longtime theater kid like Sutherland, opening night was an occasion for waterworks. “I did indeed cry,” he admits. “I didn't expect it to be that emotional, but it was. I think seeing my parents and family and all my friends there was really intense emotionally, in a great way.”

Sutherland described performing on Broadway as “a giant stamp of approval” that has required an intense level of discipline. “This is maybe the hardest that I've ever worked in my life. When I do my own shows, I kind of let whatever's inside of me take over. But you're part of this big thing [in a Broadway company]. If you don't do your line right, it messes up everything. So learning teamwork was huge too.”

“There were definitely some futon couch floor years in Los Angeles, but I was just happy to be making music and making my dream come true slowly, one brick at a time,” says Sutherland of his career beginnings. “I'm still doing that, but now I get to be on 43rd and in & Juliet as a pretty iconic role.”

These days, Sutherland has swapped couch surfing for high-flying entrances. “Spoiler alert, I come down from the ceiling on this swing with a giant Romeo sign behind me. It's a problem, because my tour budget is going to get out of control. I need to be lowered from the ceiling for the rest of my tour,” he jokes.

Appraising & Juliet, Sutherland says, “If you have never seen a Broadway show or if you are like, ‘Yeah, I'm not really into live theater,’ this is 1,000% the show for [you]. You'll know every song, you'll be able to sing along to every song and it's just very available.”

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