Lakeland native Darrington enjoys his time in musical 'Memphis'

When Broadway actor Quentin Earl Darrington auditions for a role, he often considers whether his sons can watch him perform.

That's one of the reasons he's so excited about starring in the musical "Memphis," playing at Ruth Eckerd Hall in Clearwater Tuesday through Feb. 12.

"(My children) totally affect what I do on stage," Darrington, 33, said during a telephone interview from Durham, N.C, where the show has a five-day stop. "And this is definitely a show for the entire family. Children will enjoy it, but so will grandparents who can identify with it. It's so powerful and so exciting. The dancing and choreography borders on dangerous. It's just phenomenal."

"Memphis," which won four Tony Awards in 2010, including Best Musical, tells the story of a white radio disc jockey and a black club singer who fall in love in the segregated South.

In the production, Darrington stars as Delray Farrell, the overprotective big brother of a nightclub singer, Felicia, and owner of a black nightclub where a lot of the action takes place.

Darrington said he was thrilled to nab the part of Delray, particularly because he auditioned for the role via videotape.

"I was working on a show in Cincinnati and got a call (casting agents) wanted to see me," he says. "We decided to submit a tape, and I was cast directly from the tape. I never met (the casting agents), shook hands with them or anything. I met them on the first day of rehearsal."

Darrington, a Lakeland native, caught the acting bug after taking his first drama class in seventh grade.

"What attracted me is the entire class was filled with girls," he recalls. "I was the only guy in the class. But the teacher taught class in a way I had never been exposed to. She taught in the dark, outside, on the floor. That experience really opened me up to something new and enhanced the way I looked at learning all the way around. That's really why I fell in love (with acting) the way I did."

Darrington is a graduate of the University of South Florida and the Hoffman Institute at Ruth Eckerd Hall.

He began his professional career starring in several productions at the Jaeb Theater at then-The Tampa Bay Performing Arts Center.

In 2009, Darrington made his Broadway debut in the Tony-nominated revival of "Ragtime," playing the starring role, Coalhouse Walker Jr. He later toured in shows such as "The Color Purple" and "The Lion King." Last fall, he starred in the American premiere of Douglas Tappin's "I Dream," the musical about the life of the Rev. Dr. Martin Luther King Jr. Darrington portrayed King.

Despite the success he's found on the stage, Darrington says Broadway isn't colorblind when it comes to roles for minorities. He looks forward to the day when actors will be considered for roles based only on their skills.

"I'm tired of seeing our Broadway community in shows where the value of what we have to offer to a show is the fact that we are black," he says. "Too many times we continue to see our value on stage as a race issue and a race struggle. I would love to see a time when you have a leading black man or woman in a show and they are not the black doctor, they are just a doctor — just a man or woman in a leading principle role. We don't see that enough."