NEW YORK (AP) 鈥� is surrounded by music these days. She's making her Broadway debut in a daring stage musical, and when she retreats to her dressing room, her own songs demand attention.
鈥淲hen the inspiration hits, I've got to write. I've got to have a guitar there or else I鈥檒l go crazy,鈥� she says. 鈥淚 just kind of have to wait for them. I can鈥檛 really force a song.鈥�
The folk-pop singer-songwriter is following-up last year's release of her third album, 鈥淥lder,鈥� with a role in a musical about life, death and fame. She calls it perfect timing.
鈥淚 was starting to feel like I wanted to do something new, and this kind of came at the perfect time. It鈥檚 the first and only Broadway show that I鈥檝e ever auditioned for,鈥� she says.
McAlpine has been building a sonic reputation for raw, stripped-down tracks and intimate, deeply reflective lyrics. Her single 鈥淐eilings鈥� went viral on TikTok, and 鈥淥lder鈥� has been hailed by critics.
Broadway made sense for a woman who grew up watching shows in New York and who has an 鈥渁bility to infuse each song with character, as if acting,鈥� the AP said in a review of 鈥淥lder.鈥�
鈥淚 feel like all of my music has musical theater in it because I have loved theater for so long,鈥� she says. 鈥淚 saw my first Broadway show and I was like 8, and so, it just kind of seeps into my music whether I am conscious of it or not.鈥�
鈥業n her own world鈥�
鈥淔loyd Collins,鈥� tells the tale of a hapless explorer who gets himself trapped in a Kentucky cave in 1925, triggering the first modern media frenzy. McAlpine plays Floyd Collins' sister, a woman who doesn't fit in.
鈥淪he is strange, definitely, but it鈥檚 just because she鈥檚 in her own world, and she sees the world differently than everyone else. She sees the beauty in it. She鈥檚 like a sponge. She picks up everything that everyone is throwing out. She鈥檚 just different. Not necessarily in a bad way,鈥� McAlpine says.
鈥淚t explores being a young woman in the 1920s and being misunderstood and not listened to and not heard, and that鈥檚 like been a theme in my life because I鈥檓 working in the music industry. I鈥檓 surrounded by men all the time.鈥�
McAlpine, 25, didn't know much about 鈥淔loyd Collins鈥� 鈥� it deputed off-Broadway in 1996 鈥� but was a fan of its composer and lyricist, who created 鈥淭he Light in the Piazza,鈥� one of her favorite musicals.
鈥淚 saw his name and I was like, 鈥極h, I love him.鈥� So I listened to the cast recording on Spotify from the original production and immediately was just hooked,鈥� she says. 鈥淚t just sounded like nothing that was on Broadway now. It was just so unique, and I love that kind of stuff.鈥�
Broadway lured her
McAlpine, who was raised in a suburb of Philadelphia and attended the Berklee College of Music, did theater in high school. Her grandparents would take her and her siblings to Broadway every year, and her mom would sing 鈥淲icked鈥� in the car. During the pandemic, she livestreamed Broadway covers on Instagram.
鈥淪he had a kind of unaffected directness and purity and honesty in how she approached the reading of the role, to say nothing of the singing,鈥� says Tina Landau, who directed 鈥淔loyd Collins鈥� as well as supplied the book and some lyrics.
鈥淚 really felt that there was something in how unfettered and organic and unadorned her approach to it was that was perfect for the character, because Nellie just speaks truth.鈥�
McAlpine remembers seeing 鈥淢y Fair Lady鈥� at the Vivian Beaumont Theater at Lincoln Center 鈥� the same theater she graces in 鈥淔loyd Collins.鈥� 鈥淪ometimes I鈥檓 on stage and I鈥檓 just thinking about I was in the audience one time, and it is just so crazy.鈥�
After the musical, she plans on another album, and the music that's coming out has been touched by the show. 鈥淚t feels like it鈥檚 becoming more complex because I鈥檓 singing these songs that are so complex every day,鈥� she says. After that, she's open to ideas, even to more theater.
鈥淚t has to be the right thing. This felt like it came to me at the exact right time in my life, and this was the exact right show for me. And so, if something else comes along, it would have to be the exact set of circumstances.鈥�
If that sounds like a singer-songwriter who is taking charge of her career, McAlpine would agree. She's done, for example, with an unhealthy pace to her tours.
鈥淚鈥檓 finally at a place in my career where I can make decisions and do things that really align with myself. There was a while there before my last album where I was kind of just being pulled along, and I was just doing things because that鈥檚 how everyone does them,鈥� she says.
鈥淚 feel like I am now more sure of myself, and I know what I have to do to make myself feel comfortable. Even if it鈥檚 outside of the norm or what other people do in the industry, I鈥檓 going to do it anyway.鈥�
Mark Kennedy, The Associated Press
