‘Sunday’ songs: Julia Rifino at center stage in freeFall musical

She’s appeared with almost all of Tampa Bay’s professional theater companies, as an actress, singer and dancer (she’s even been an acting, singing, dancing puppeteer). Everything on Julia Rifino’s already-impressive resume, it seems, was a lead-up to her current role at St. Petersburg’s freeFall Theatre.

Rifino is the centerpiece of Tell Me on a Sunday, a dizzyingly melodic musical by no less than Sir Andrew Lloyd Webber, with lyrics by Don Black.

Although there are three male dancers on the stage, at various times, the show belongs to Rifino. It’s a song cycle “told” by a young working-class English woman (her name, we learn, is Emma) who emigrates to the United States with a California boyfriend who promises a breezy, affluent lifestyle.

There is no dialogue.

Julia Rifino is a native of Spring Hill. Photo by Bill DeYoung.

Tell Me on a Sunday follows her through several romantic encounters, all of them exhilarating at first, then inevitably disappointing. Emma learns important life lessons along the way.

Among the numbers: “Come Back With the Same Look in Your Eyes,” “Unexpected Song,” “It’s Not the End of the World,” “Ready Made Life” and the title song.

Rifino sings for nearly the entire 70 minutes, only leaving the stage for the occasional brief costume change.

“All the work that I’ve done has been rewarding, but this feels really special,” explains the Spring Hill native, 30. “I feel so loved and appreciated by the community right now.

“I tend to be an introverted person, so this is new territory for me – but it feels so wonderful and I don’t want to take a second for granted.”

Not that she isn’t just a little pumped. “There is this feeling like no, girl, you can belt your face off, sing that note and enjoy this moment. You worked so hard for it.”

Said the show’s director Eric Davis, freeFall’s artistic director: “Julia is an incredible singer and actor. As a performer she puts an audience so at ease.

“A little over a year ago when this show crossed my mind I thought, ‘Wow. We definitely need to do this with Julia if she’s willing to take it on.’ And as suspected, she’s a revelation in this part. It might as well have been written for her.”

It was, in fact, written in 1979 with Marti Webb in the role, and revised by the composers several times over the years. Sarah Brightman did it on the West End; Bernadette Peters won the Best Actress in a Musical Tony for the first American production (it was then called Song and Dance), in 1986.

Big shoes to fill.

“I was a little nervous about the undertaking because it is a lot,” Rifino admits. “But there was a lot of self-talk: ‘You can do this.’ It was such a gift to be approached with this show.”

When Davis asked her, she recalls, “Gratitude was the first thing I felt, immediately. I said yes, absolutely, I would love to be a part of this with you.

“I have felt, with this process, that I have been in the best hands possible to do something like this. Everyone at freeFall takes very meticulous care of their actors, and the show quality – putting together something that will leave an impact on the audience.”

The company’s musical director Michael Raabe leads an (unseen) seven-piece band; the choreography (which often includes “Emma” in step with the dancers) is by Leann Alduenda.

Rifino has a day job with freeFall; she’s a jill-of-all-trades, working in graphic design, set painting and in other shoes as needed.

Because she lives in Tampa, every drive across the bay is taken up with line (or in this case, lyric) memorization and vocal warmups.

Rifino insists she’s in no hurry to move to New York City to take this musical theater thing to the next level.

“I have always told myself that when that feeling comes, and you feel like you’re ready to go, that’s when you go,” she admits. “But I haven’t quite gotten the urge to move up there.”

She has friends in New York, she says, and although the thought of joining the thousands of talented hopefuls in search of a big break is daunting, she’s considered it. “I’ve just been enjoying developing this life here so much, enjoying my friends and this great community, that it hasn’t been top of mind.

“We’re all just people. And it is such an honor to share a gift with other humans, and connect with other creatives. And I never want to lose that. Because – then what?”

Find showtimes and tickets for Tell Me on a Sunday at this link.