“American Idol” season six winner Jordin Sparks is heading to Broadway, and she couldn’t be more thrilled about the journey on which she’s about to embark.
The “Battlefield” singer is joining the cast of the multiple-Tony winning musical, “In The Heights,” on the Great White Way beginning August 19.
“I’m really excited,” Jordin, 19, told AccessHollywood.com during a Midwestern tour stop on her “Battlefield” tour, which wrapped up on Sunday night, just in time for the singer to begin her Broadway training.
“It’s going to be intense because I have rehearsals every single day,” Jordin said of her upcoming schedule. “I think I have to watch the show every night and get used to it… It’s definitely going to be intense and I want to make sure I take care of my voice because I’ve never done as many shows as Broadway’s gonna have all in one time.”
Jordin, whose Broadway poster was unveiled on Monday, will play Nina Rosario in the musical, a 19-year-old who heads home to her family’s neighborhood in Washington Heights, in New York City, with a heavy heart after losing her college scholarship.
“The first time you see her [is] her getting home off the plane and she’s really nervous,” Jordin explained. “She’s got this anxiety that she has to tell her parents and she’s really sad because [she] didn’t make it. She wanted to make her parents proud.”
As for Jordin herself, scoring the Broadway gig was a welcome triumph in the Sparks household.
“Both of my parents and my grandparents were pretty much freaking out,” she laughed. “Nana sent us all a picture from when I was 4 years old and I was in New York. We all went and saw the Rockettes… I’m in this red coat and my mom and Nana told this story of how I literally ran up to the stage after the show was over, I stood on the stairs and said, ‘Look Nana, look Mom, I’m gonna be up here one day.’”
Beyond making a childhood dream come true, Jordin’s Broadway trip marks another new phase in her life – living on her own for the first time.
“It’ll actually be my first time living on my own,” Jordin acknowledged to Access. “Now it’s going to be… not only am I living in my apartment, but I’ll be living in New York City. So I’m really excited.”
However, she won’t be entirely alone.
“I will have my dogs,” Jordin added of her traveling companions, Miles and Maggie, both small, mixed breed canines.
“I hope that they’re OK,” the singer said out of concern for her four-legged friends. “I’m definitely going to have to get them some training. I don’t want to have any complaints about them barking.”
Although she’ll be busy, Jordin is also planning on enjoying some adventures and making new friends during her time in the Big Apple.
“I’ve never been to the Statue of Liberty, I’ve always wanted to see that,” she said. “This theatre business is so close-knit, I’m hoping I make some really good friends and they’ll be able to show me around. It’s going to be fun — since I’m going to be in the one spot –I’ll actually have a normal schedule for the first time in a very long time.
“I’m excited to be able to be like, ‘OK, I’m going to get up in the morning, make coffee, take the dogs out for a walk,’ just do ‘normal things’ that I haven’t been able to do for the past three years,” she added. “So I am just so ecstatic to be able to do this.”
Copyright © 2024 by NBC Universal, Inc. All Rights Reserved.
This material may not be republished, broadcast, rewritten or redistributed.