Robbie Fairchild (born June 9, 1987) is an American dancer and actor. He is best known for originating the role Jerry Mulligan in the musical ''

An American in Paris ''An American in Paris'' is a jazz-influenced symphonic poem (or tone poem) for orchestra by American composer George Gershwin first performed in 1928. It was inspired by the time that Gershwin had spent in Paris and evokes the sights and en ...

'', and as Munkustrap in the 2019 film ''

Cats The cat (''Felis catus''), also referred to as the domestic cat or house cat, is a small domesticated carnivorous mammal. It is the only domesticated species of the family Felidae. Advances in archaeology and genetics have shown that the ...

''. He was a principal dancer at the

New York City Ballet New York City Ballet (NYCB) is a ballet company founded in 1948 by choreographer George Balanchine and Lincoln Kirstein. Balanchine and Jerome Robbins are considered the founding choreographers of the company. Léon Barzin was the company's fir ...

Early life

Fairchild was raised in

Salt Lake City Salt Lake City, often shortened to Salt Lake or SLC, is the capital and most populous city of the U.S. state of Utah. It is the county seat of Salt Lake County, the most populous county in the state. The city is the core of the Salt Lake Ci ...

. His mother is a dietitian and his father worked for Utah's wildlife resources. He started dancing at the age of four, and began formal ballet training at age ten. After attending the

School of American Ballet The School of American Ballet (SAB) is the associate school of the New York City Ballet, a ballet company based at the Lincoln Center for the Performing Arts in New York City. The school trains students from the age of six, with professional voc ...

's summer intensives in 2002 and 2003, he relocated to New York City and enrolled in the school as a full-time student in fall 2003. Fairchild's elder sister,

Megan Megan is a Welsh feminine given name, originally a diminutive form of Margaret. Margaret is from the Greek μαργαρίτης (''margarítēs''), Latin ''margarīta'', "pearl". Megan is one of the most popular Welsh-language names for women in ...

, is a principal dancer with

Career

Dance

Fairchild became an apprentice at the

in 2005, and joined the company's corps de ballet the following year. He became a soloist in 2007 and principal dancer in 2009. During his time in the company, he had danced works by

George Balanchine George Balanchine (; Various sources: * * * * born Georgiy Melitonovich Balanchivadze;, Romanization of Georgian, : April 30, 1983) was a Georgian-American ballet choreographer, recognized as one of the most influential choreographers ...

Jerome Robbins Jerome Robbins (born Jerome Wilson Rabinowitz; October 11, 1918 – July 29, 1998) was an American dancer, choreographer, film director, theatre director and producer who worked in classical ballet, on stage, film, and television. Among his nu ...

Christopher Wheeldon Christopher Peter Wheeldon (born 22 March 1973) is an English international choreographer of contemporary ballet. Early life Born in Yeovil, Somerset, to an engineer and a physical therapist, Wheeldon began training to be a ballet dancer at th ...

Alexei Ratmansky Alexei Osipovich Ratmansky (, born August 27, 1968) is a Russian-Ukrainian-American choreographer and former ballet dancer. From 2004 to 2008 he was the director of the Moscow Bolshoi Ballet. He left Russia in 2008. In 2009 he was appointed the ar ...

and Justin Peck. In October 2017, Fairchild left the company after a performance of Balanchine's '' Duo Concertant'', he danced with his longtime stage partner,

Sterling Hyltin Sterling Hyltin is an American ballet dancer. She was a principal dancer at the New York City Ballet. Early life and training Hyltin was born in Amarillo, Texas. She wanted to be a figure skater, and would train before school started. However, H ...

Acting

In December 2014, Fairchild starred as Jerry Mulligan in the musical ''

'', directed and choreographed by

, in

Théâtre du Châtelet The Théâtre du Châtelet () is a theatre and opera house, located in the place du Châtelet in the 1st arrondissement of Paris, France. One of two theatres (the other being the Théâtre de la Ville) built on the site of a ''châtelet'', a ...

, Paris, which ran until January 2015. The musical also starred Leanne Cope. The musical transferred to Palace Theatre on Broadway the same year. The previews began in March and officially opened on April 12. He and Cope starred in the show until his departure in March 2016. He was nominated for a Tony Award for Best Actor in a Musical in 2015 In 2017, the show premiered in

Dominion Theatre The Dominion Theatre is a West End theatre and former cinema on Tottenham Court Road, close to St Giles Circus and Centre Point, in the London Borough of Camden. Planned as primarily a musical theatre, it opened in 1929, but the following ye ...

on West End. Fairchild and Cope returned to the show, though he only stayed for three months. Fairchild had also starred in ''

A Chorus Line ''A Chorus Line'' is a 1975 musical conceived by Michael Bennett with music by Marvin Hamlisch, lyrics by Edward Kleban, and a book by James Kirkwood Jr. and Nicholas Dante. Set on the bare stage of a Broadway theater, the musical is cent ...

'' at the

Hollywood Bowl The Hollywood Bowl is an amphitheatre and Urban park, public park in the Hollywood Hills of Los Angeles, California. It was named one of the 10 best live music venues in the United States by ''Rolling Stone'' magazine in 2018 and was listed on ...

, ''

Oklahoma! ''Oklahoma!'' is the first musical theater, musical written by the duo of Rodgers and Hammerstein. The musical is based on Lynn Riggs's 1931 play, ''Green Grow the Lilacs (play), Green Grow the Lilacs''. Set in farm country outside the town of ...

'' at the

Royal Albert Hall The Royal Albert Hall is a concert hall on the northern edge of South Kensington, London, England. It has a seating capacity of 5,272. Since the hall's opening by Queen Victoria in 1871, the world's leading artists from many performance genres ...

in London and ''

Brigadoon ''Brigadoon'' is a musical with book and lyrics by Alan Jay Lerner and score by Frederick Loewe. The plot features two American tourists who stumble upon Brigadoon, a mysterious Scottish village that appears for only one day every 100 years; on ...

'' at the

New York City Center New York City Center (previously known as the Mecca Temple, City Center of Music and Drama, and the New York City Center 55th Street Theater) is a performing arts center at 131 West 55th Street (Manhattan), 55th Street between Sixth Avenue, Six ...

. He played Munkustrap in ''

'', the 2019 film adaptation of the stage musical of the same name. He also appeared in the 2019 Netflix series, ''

Soundtrack A soundtrack is a recorded audio signal accompanying and synchronised to the images of a book, drama, motion picture, radio program, television show, television program, or video game; colloquially, a commercially released soundtrack album of m ...

''. In 2024, Fairchild starred in the stage adaptation of the film '' The Artist'' on the West End. He played George Valentin, a silent film era star who finds his career in jeopardy when the "talkies" become popular.

Other ventures

In 2020, in the midst of the

COVID-19 pandemic The COVID-19 pandemic (also known as the coronavirus pandemic and COVID pandemic), caused by severe acute respiratory syndrome coronavirus 2 (SARS-CoV-2), began with an disease outbreak, outbreak of COVID-19 in Wuhan, China, in December ...

, Fairchild started his floral arrangement business, boo.kay, which was intended to be a "side hustle". The company closed in 2024.

References

{{DEFAULTSORT:Fairchild, Robbie American male ballet dancers New York City Ballet principal dancers School of American Ballet alumni Mae L. Wien Award recipients American male musical theatre actors American gay actors Living people 1987 births