Solea Pfeiffer Wants You To Leave WANTED So Inspired That You Run For Office

Solea Pfeiffer has booked almost every dream role she’s ever had in her 10 years in New York. But what she’s wanted the most? Originating. 

She’s getting her wish when Wanted comes to Broadway this fall. She’ll originate the role of Mary Clarke, opposite her “best friend” Liisi LaFontaine as Martha Clarke, two Black daughters of a sharecropper who pass as white during the reconstruction era in the United States.

Theatrely chatted with Pfeiffer about Wanted’s long and exciting road to Broadway, her relationship with her co-star, and why Wanted should be required in history class.

‍This interview has been edited and condensed for length and clarity. 

‍You've been with this project for many, many years, so I’m very curious: what drew you to it in the first place? ‍

Well the first time that I laid eyes on it was for a 29 hour reading in NAMT and that was actually when Liisi [LaFontaine] and I met for the first time and like she had just come to the city and we became like instant best friends you know and those are those things we get I think you get paid like 150 bucks and you just you go. We just had this amazing time together. Also it was like getting to really play specifically myself on stage was something that I hadn't even come across. Getting to really embody and explore within musical theatre the experience of being a half black, half white person was something that I hadn't gotten to do, and that's what this show was cracking open. Plus, the music is crazy fun to sing. What we're talking about, the themes of this show, I've seen it in little moments here and there in musical theater, but haven't had one for our generation necessarily. Also, getting to create a show that will originate two roles I would have loved as a kid, and have a hand on putting that out in the world was just like, that's the whole point, you know? That's why I got into this.

‍That has to feel so gratifying to be a part of. 

Beyond. I feel like we've had like a handful of truly original stories, and there’s no source material for who Mary Clark and Mary Martha were. We are creating them with Angelica for the first time, and I’m so excited to be one of the first people to sing something, one of the first people to bring something to life. That’s what I've always wanted to do the most. This is my 10th year in New York actually, and I have been honestly gagged that life has gone how it has. I can't believe the things they've let me do since I've been here. I've gotten to do almost every single dream role. I've gotten to do just the scores that I've loved the most. But the main thing I’ve always wanted to do is to create something from the ground floor, and this year, I get to. 

‍10 years, congratulations. 

Thank you! And if anyone asks, I got here when I was 10 years old. 

‍Exactly. 

Ever since I arrived here on my tenth birthday, it's been a wild ride. 

‍(Laughs) It’s good to know that the feeling of “I can't believe that somebody let me be here” never goes away. 

I've been thinking about this, the whole concept of how it's very popular online to be “you’ve got to be delusional.” I'm getting kind of sick of it because I'm just like, “why is it delusional to assume that these things can happen?” I find that it's always really important to never acclimate to the air that we're breathing when we're doing this. Broadway is the hub of this art form for the whole world, and when all of our friends are doing it, it's easy for it to start feeling like the school play. When you're in the repetitiveness of the schedule, you have to be like, “wait this is this is crazy that this is happening right now.” My younger self, the girl who was singing Light My Candle all the time, would be like, “are you kidding me?” I know that what I have to offer is worth being on Broadway, and that is a really good feeling, but I want to make sure I protect that little kid to be like, “remember this is what you dreamed about. Stay in awe of the fact that you are doing this.”

‍You mentioned the dream of originating fully, with no source material. I'm curious how that has changed your process, if it has at all. 

The first time I played this role I was 24, and that was eight years ago. When I did the out of town six years ago, it was literally the last thing we did in the before times; we literally closed less than two weeks before the pandemic began. I'm so happy to be playing this role again as an older artist, at this point, and to have a few more roles under my belt. I think at first I really wanted to get it right, but now I know we are creating the blueprint in real time. Our writer’s right here with us, we can ask her any question we want. We’re just really taking in as much as we can so that these girls feel like they're from such a different era when life was so, so much harder. 

When I played Clara or Penny Lane, I was like, okay, I think I feel like I'm not the usual person who would play this role necessarily. Even like at Hamilton or Moulin Rouge or Hadestown, those are also the heavy hitters, I should say, where you're coming into something that people love so much. That can be hard to do sometimes, because people have these roles in their head and are so emotionally attached to what they know, which they should be, you know? Like, I feel like that's the cool thing about the musical theatre fandoms: they can have such a life outside of the actual show. What I loved so much about the artists that originated the shows that I did, they were all so distinctly themselves. That's what I've always loved about my favorite musical theater divas. They're so distinct, from Audra to Bernadette to Sutton to Adrienne, these women are so unique from the way they sound to their style and their approach. The thing that I love about each of them is they are them through and through. What I'm trusting is this role has found me again and again in all these different times in my life, and each time I’m bringing myself, not just me trying to get it right. I believe that my involvement in this show is a very spiritual thing, honestly. And every time I work on it, I learn so much about myself and the most magical people. I gain sisters every time. The approach with this one is a little bit different in that I can just fully be like “here I am, here is my spirit.” 

‍Speaking of sisters, you mentioned Liisi earlier already. I'd love to hear more about your relationship and how you two work together.

She's just one of my favorite people ever. I think it was day three or four of the workshop and we had just been getting in trouble for talking during rehearsals as adults. I feel like when we met, our souls were like, “hee hee, hoo hoo hoo.” She was very much a puzzle piece person in my life, she just fits. We have traveled the world together. Our boyfriends literally have a DJ duo now — never saw that coming. We both played Satine in different places, we've had a lot of mirrored experiences, and it's just incredible to be able to relate to another human on so many levels, from identity to work to just having a really, really good time together. Getting to Broadway, it takes so long, so we were like, “okay, okay, let's not get our hopes up.” At this point in my career, I know better than to expect anything is for sure. We weren't sure if things were gonna happen, and then finally, when we saw the poster, that picture of us that they have, and I was like, oh, holy shit. What's my best friend and me on a poster for a Broadway show? And that is so insane. I get to be on stage with her for her Broadway debut. I get to have the best seat in the house for this major life moment. It’s just the best. It's crazy. We're literally neighbors, she lives like 10 blocks away from me. Four days into our time working on the reading, we both told each other “I wrote in my journal this morning that I'm pretty sure you're going to be one of my bridesmaids.” We had done the same thing on the same day. So corny. But I feel like the older we get, when you have people in your adult life that you just click with right away, it's like, “oh, yeah, I'm keeping you.” 

‍That’s so wholesome, I love that.

Super wholesome. 

‍Looking ahead to previews and opening, I'm curious: when young people come to see the show, what are you hoping that they might take away from it? 

Oh my God, so much. This story is obviously really specific in what it's about. It’s about the two daughters of a sharecropper who pass for white in the deep. That’s not a life that most theatre-going people have ever experienced. I think at this moment in history, when they're trying to rewrite history. They're trying to take this chunk of time of post-emancipation, pre-civil rights — the era of Reconstruction I think is like the blueprint for everything we're experiencing right now in America. There’s a few things that I hope. This is a story about feeling whole in your body, in yourself, feeling like you were born worthy, and the power of unconditional love to be able to give that. I think that's a big part of this story. There's also a part of me that hopes that young people will be like, “wow, I didn't know this about my country. I didn't know that this was happening,” and that it can be a jumping off point to learn more. The more you learn about this time, the more you learn that a lot of the things that are happening right now in our country have happened before. A lot of things that we are witnessing are just a part of the American playbook, really, and our freedoms were hard won. That’s what it's done for me. I've learned so much that I didn't learn in school that I'm like, I can't believe this isn't required. The last thing we want to give is just a history lesson, but it is a time that is just rife with moments in history that I think should be required learning. It excites me that if people love these characters, that they might find out more about this time and what it was like to be people at this time and be like, “oh shoot, okay. I didn't know that about America. Maybe I'll run for city council,” you know? I hope people leave this show, and then they run for office and start fighting for what they believe in.