Fox Point Native Gets 'Big Break' in My Fair Lady

T-shirts and shaggy hair give way to top hats and suit jackets when Fox Point native Daniel Cardenas transforms into Freddy Eynsford-Hill for a national touring production of “My Fair Lady.”

Cardenas, 24, has advanced from performing locally at St. Eugene Parish School and Marquette High School to this extended tour with Big League Productions.

The show has been touring for 3 1/2 months, up and down the East Coast and out West. In their closest show to Milwaukee, the cast will perform in Rockford, IL at 3 p.m. Feb. 26 at the Coronado Theater. Cardenas' family is so eager that they have rented a small bus for at least 20 people to travel down for the show.

"It's always exciting to have friends and family in the audience," Cardenas said. "Whenever I know somebody in the audience that adds a few extra butterflies."

In My Fair Lady, Cardenas plays the love interest of main character Eliza Doolittle, who is a Cockney girl trying to become her idea of a “lady.”

"In my interpretation, he doesn't really have any goals or passions or desires; he's just been told what to do and he's done it," Cardenas said. "But then Eliza comes along and throws his world upside down and he becomes deeply infatuated with her."

Cardenas said he likes his character, but really relates to the character of Eliza.

"The character of Eliza is relatable to anyone," he said. "It's a show about coming into your own and being confident in who you are, and not needing other people to justify your beliefs."

‘Fiddler’ Got Him Started

But Cardenas started on a much smaller stage as Fyedka in the St. Eugene School production of Fiddler on the Roof, and enjoyed a solo during a scene in a tavern.

"At that time, it was more just fun to be with my friends," he said. "And then eventually I got more into singing; singing is what's propelled me through my career so far."

His love for music and singing deepened when he was a cantor at St. Eugene, and later at Marquette High School.

At Arizona State University, Cardenas strayed from this passion to another, majoring in math. But he soon realized his strongest interest was in music.

"Since I was little, math was my first love," Cardenas said. "But having done musicals, specifically Les Miserables at Marquette, when I went to Arizona and studied math I realized how much I missed music."

He graduated from the musical theater program at Arizona State in 2010, and moved to New York looking to begin a career. Taking on the role of Freddy Eynsford-Hill in My Fair Lady has been his first big break, he said.

Broadway is the Goal

After the show finishes touring, Cardenas said he will keep working on his long-term goal: to perform on Broadway.

"Music can take me anywhere," Cardenas said. "I'll be happy as long as I get to keep singing."

Cardenas said since leaving Fox Point, he has come to appreciate some of its more modest qualities.

"One of the things I love when I go home is how quiet it is," Cardenas said. "It always strikes me. It's just so peaceful, to be home in the middle of the day and there's my dad working on the computer and my mom reading. I've come to appreciate that.

"And the trees. In Arizona I always talked about how I missed the trees. I come back and it's just so green."