It was a surreal moment for Michael Andreaus. As he scanned the packed house at Oklahoma City’s Civic Center and took his bows, it was hard for him to believe what he was looking at.

Andreaus had just concluded a six-night summer 2023 run as the lead in the musical Ain’t Too Proud: The Life and Times of the Temptations back in his home state.

More than 15 years earlier, the thought of making such a triumphal return would have been inconceivable. In fact, just being on stage performing seemed like a far-off dream.

“That was such a full-circle moment for me because up to that point I had performed on that stage once before with Lyric, but to especially lead this show when I came back to Oklahoma … ” Andreaus says. “I can remember the best I could do was buy a ticket way up at the top of the balcony to see Lion King. To go from that to leading the show and getting standing ovations — it was a dream come true.”

Portraying Berry Gordy and later Otis Williams, Andreaus has been the face of Ain’t Too Proud since 2021 when the show began its U.S. tour. Being the lead on a major production for three years has proven something he couldn’t even have imagined early in life.

A spark was ignited in 2006 when Andreaus found himself sitting in a movie theater near his home in Moore and watching the film adaptation of Dreamgirls.

“I had always been a singer,” he says. “I kind of grew up singing in the church and doing little singing in choirs and stuff like that. I didn’t really ever think of musical theater as a viable job for me until I saw Dreamgirls at the movies and saw some people that looked like me on the screen singing and dancing and acting. Then it just kind of clicked for me that that was the way that I could kind of express myself in all those ways.”

Seeing the likes of Jamie Foxx, Beyonce, Eddie Murphy and Jennifer Hudson perform in the film adaptation of the highly successful musical ended up being the inspiration Andreaus needed. At the time the then 34-year-old was languishing, and admitted he didn’t know which direction to take his life and career.

“I had a lot of odd jobs. The thing that I was kind of banking on building my career on was education. At the time I had been a teacher’s assistant and coached track and field at Moore High School,” Andreaus says. “I was kind of deciding whether I wanted to go back to school to get my teaching certificate or try to pursue something else. I was actually all the way through the process of joining the Air National Guard. So that was kind of just at the point where I feel like I needed to make a step in a direction toward actually being fully accredited at something.”

But after seeing Dreamgirls, he knew what he had to do. The long-dormant dream of being a performance artist had woken back up and was pulling him toward the stage.

While performing locally at places like the Lyric Theatre of Oklahoma, Andreaus went back to school and finished his degree in musical theater from the University of Central Oklahoma.

“I then wanted to take the biggest step I could take, and so I moved to New York the fall right after I graduated and just started auditioning heavy and just trying to be a part of things as much as I could,” Andreaus says. “I hate to call it an act of desperation because I don’t think it was quite that drastic, but it was something that was just necessary, I felt like. So it didn’t really feel like it was a bold step as much as just something that I had to do.”

In his mid-30s, Andreaus didn’t seem to fit the mold of the fresh-faced teenager who takes a bus to New York right after high school to make it on Broadway. But he was no less determined to make his mark.

“I don’t know that I thought of it as bold at the time,” he says. “I think that I just looked around and just wanted more. I knew I was talented, and I knew that I kind of felt like I knew what I was capable of and didn’t want to look back and not have taken that chance. I had put it on hold for such a long time and I knew I was just kind of up against it. I just knew my personality and knew that if I didn’t do it now — ‘You’re going to get settled. You’re going to get comfortable and it’ll never happen.’”

However, Andreaus didn’t find success right away. In fact, he said he went on 150 appointments in his first year in New York without locking down a part. While that might have driven younger artists out of the business in frustration, he had steeled himself in advance for the constant disappointment. 

“I knew it was going to be hard. I really am grateful that I went when I did because I didn’t feel the need to rush,” Andreaus says. “I feel like I knew what I wanted. I knew from other people’s experience that it was going to take time, and so I kind of settled myself in and just knew that it was going to be about building relationships and showing consistent good work in the audition rooms and things like that before people would trust me with their projects. That’s the one thing that I’m able to recognize, is that it’s a business. Oftentimes it doesn’t have anything to do with how talented you are when you go into these rooms.”

His first official role came in the off-Broadway musical Love and Yogurt. He got the part when he showed up to the audition despite not having an appointment, but he knew the casting director.

“I just showed up. I was like, ‘I know this person. I don’t know if there’s a role that’s right for me in this show or not, but I’m going to show up and I’m going to sing and show them what I can do,’” Andreaus says. “And turns out that the role that I was eventually cast in was actually written for a woman, but they enjoyed what I did so much in the room that they changed the role so that I could be a part of the project. And so that’s how I was able to be cast in my first thing in New York, which led to me being cast in my first Broadway show, which was A Soldier’s Play.”

Since then Andreaus’ credits include Songs of Fire and Ice, Ragtime, Rock of Ages and even Dreamgirls. He also made his film debut with Finding Carlos.

With Ain’t Too Proud wrapping up in early March, Andreaus plans to take some time off and plot his next course. While he is looking at other roles, he is also not sitting back waiting for something to fall in his lap. He wants to create and perform in his own Broadway musical, and also get into television as well.

After waiting years to go after his dream, he is not holding back anymore.

“I have learned to not put limits on myself because at one point I thought Broadway was unattainable for me. I thought being a part of a first national tour was a pipe dream, and now I’m getting the chance to not only be in it but be in the lead role of it,” Andreaus says. “So I’m taking the limiters off and just believing that the sky is literally the limit for me.”