Local actor’s Cinderella story

For Nick Spangler, stage fright is not an option.

“I’m being watched all the time,” Spangler said. “When you’re on stage, no matter how small your role is, somebody in the audience could be watching you at any given moment, so you can’t ever relax.”

While many would crumble under the pressure, Spangler thrives on it. It’s safe to say the Los Altos native seeks it out, from his work on reality television to roles in a number of productions on and off Broadway, culminating in his recent debut as Prince Charming in the Tony award-winning adaptation of Rodgers & Hammerstein’s “Cinderella” currently on Broadway.

Spangler has felt at home on stage since he was a munchkin playing a Munchkin. When he was 5, his mother signed him up for a Los Altos Youth Theatre production of the Wizard of Oz, marking his theater debut as one of the story’s famous small-statured characters.

“When I was growing up, doing shows was my after-school activity,” Spangler recalled. “Instead of sports, my mom would drive me to wherever I was doing a play or musical.”

After graduating from Mountain View High School, Spangler moved to New York to attend New York University, where he received a bachelor of fine arts degree in musical theater. His first major role was the character of Matt in an off-Broadway production of “The Fantasticks.”

When the show ended in 2006, Spangler directed his energy in a very different direction. Nick and his sister Starr were cast in the 2008-09 season of “The Amazing Race,” a globe-trotting reality show, and Spangler immediately began preparing by exercising and studying maps. Spangler found that the skills he developed for acting were very similar to those required of the television show.

“In order to compete in a race around the world, you have to be very outgoing and ready to confront any problem that comes at you, which I think is very similar to being onstage,” Spangler said. Twenty-three days and more than 40,000 miles later, Nick and Starr crossed the finish line in Portland, Ore., in first place.

Spangler, whose family owns a chain of mortuaries on the Peninsula, attributes their million-dollar victory to his family’s “competitive spirit,” which motivated the pair to constantly be aware of their surroundings and always “keep a guard up.” Their excitement in winning, however, was tempered by the sensation of total relief.

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