Dallas — Hunter Ryan Herdlicka grew up in Dallas, went to Plano West High School and then studied musical theater at Carnegie Mellon University in Pittsburgh. Now, in his mid-20s, he has his first professional acting job in his home city, in Dallas Theater Center's The Tempest, which runs through Oct. 9 at the Wyly Theatre.
His route to getting there? Try a year and two months in the 2009 Broadway revival of Stephen Sondheim's A Little Night Music, in which he played Henrik. Perhaps you've heard of his co-stars. First there was Catherine Zeta-Jones and Angela Lansbury, and then Bernadette Peters and Elaine Stritch.
Not bad for a local boy.
He recently confirmed to us in an interview that he will return to Broadway soon, in a musical, but can't say what it is yet.
Meanwhile, catch him as the sprite Ariel in The Tempest, which is directed by Kevin Moriarty and opens DTC's 2011-'12 season. The show also features Abbey Siegworth, Steven Walters, Lee Trull, Chamblee Ferguson, Joe Nemmbers, Jerry Russell, J. Brent Alford and a host of other local luminaries. For Herdlicka, it was high time he revisted Shakespeare, having done productions of Othello, King John and The Winter's Tale in college.
In this video interview, he talks about the Broadway experience with some famous names, auditioning for Trevor Nunn and Stephen Sondheim, and being cast at Dallas Theater Center. Oh, and there's a story about one particular performance of Night Music with Stritch. Enjoy.
