An ominous feeling lingers throughout Arts Bank on the opening night of “American Idiot.” A sea of eerily lit individuals is spread across the stage, glued to the illuminating light of their cellphones.
Suddenly, the radiance of the smartphones disappears, and a curtain of darkness drapes across the stage as the performers begin to make their way backstage.
The once quiet ensemble quickly descends into the chaos of the boogaloo. The group creates a circle, and begins ritualistically chanting “let me see you pet your pussy” to help raise the spirits on opening night.
The tangible energy of the cast is similar to an unstoppable football team preparing to take the field at the Super Bowl. The quarterback leading the charge was Brady Fritz.
Like any musical theatre major at the University of the Arts in Philadelphia, there’s a certain cadence to the way Fritz carries himself. He rhythmically taps his foot and hums in tune with the muffled sound of Bruno Mars’ “24K Magic” ringing out inside of Barnes & Noble as if he’s on stage in front of hundreds of people. The only difference is the bookstore is barringly deserted.
Treating everything you do as if you’re about to take the stage in a major production is necessary to become a successful performer. You’re on stage in front of hundreds of people whose sole attention is devoted to judging everything about you, whether it be your line delivery or body movement.
For being such a mentally demanding profession, theater has been renowned for being one of the least financially stable career paths one could pursue.
“Us performers and actors are totally fucking crazy going into this business,” says Fritz laughingly. “There’s no security, there’s no ‘I’m going to be making this amount of money’ for this year. That’s not really a thing until you get super big and famous and even that’s not guaranteed.”
The difficulty of the absence of financial stability is amplified by competitive nature of theater. In the case of the University of the Arts, nearly 1,900 actors, dancers and singers are enrolled as full-time students according to the institution’s admission statistics. These same individuals are also paying $46,530 in annual tuition in order to attend the university, showcasing the need for success for the young performers.
According to Fritz, the competitive and expensive nature of theater can be discouraging at times, but having supportive parents is ultimately what drives him.
“I have many friends whose parents aren’t supportive of theater, and it’s super hard on them because their parents are less likely to help them with expenses,” he says. “I’m super grateful and fortunate to have them. They’re the ones seeing my growth and they’ll tell me about it, and that’s what keeps me going.”
To Fritz’s mother Judy, it was an easy decision to support her son’s decision to pursue theater. “We have always encouraged our boys to do what they love,” says Judy. “It has been easy to support Brady as he has not only stayed focused in what he wanted to do, but applies himself fully and stayed true to who he is in all of it.”
Born and raised in Bel-Air, MD to a family of stage performers, entertaining is in Fritz’s DNA. His parents met in a band and fell in love over their mutual passion for performing music, while his older brothers Jordan and Tyler pursued careers in music production and theatrical tour guiding respectively. However, the push to perform didn’t come from his family, it came from instinct.
His passion for the stage dates back to reenacting a viral YouTube video during an elementary school talent show.
“I want to say I caught the ‘bug’ then,” Fritz says. “Performing for a crowd and getting a massive reaction is exhilarating. There’s nothing else like it.”
Since then, Fritz has performed in nearly 50 productions spanning across 4 different states, which lead him to the University of the Arts where he resides as senior graduating this May. As a student of the institution, he’s been able to develop and grow his stage abilities, and his family has been able to witness his development first hand.
According to his older brother Tyler, Brady’s ability to make every role, both big and small, his own is unparalleled. “He can really fit the roles that he’s given, but give it a Brady flavor,” Tyler says proudly.
His former improv adviser Frank Nardi says this “flavor” is driven by the “it” factor that Fritz possess, which is the “on the spot thinking you just can’t teach” that has allowed him to become “one of the top performers at the school.”
The it factor that Nardi describes is shown through Fritz’s dedication and commitment to his craft, even in the face of hardship.
“Walking into an audition and seeing 30 other guys with the same height and haircut as me can be hard,” says Fritz candidly. “But they’re not me. We’re all here for the same part, but we all do things differently, so making bold decisions and being confident in them is what helps me the most.”
As graduation closely looms, Fritz has started to feel cheated by his lifelong dedication to musical theater. He’s spent the majority of his life married to the stage only to realize a much larger entertainment industry exists.
Recently, he’s found himself pondering the question, “should I move to L.A. and focus on TV and film?”
His response, “‘Why not?’ Strike while it’s fucking hot.”