By Andrew Gans
09 Feb 2007
Question: I remember when it was out of town and they were reworking things, it was questionable how long the show might run when it came to New York.
Murney: And the truth of it is, [musicals are] the hardest thing to do, to get a musical right from scratch. Musicals are hard. No one puts up a bad show on purpose! . . . There are all of these elements that are individual to each show, and there are all of these people who all have an opinion and get a say in the creation, and one element can bring the whole thing down. You can have a great score, weak book. You could have fantastic choreography, weak lyrics, and one of them can bring the whole thing down. When it flows just right, you go, "I don't know why, but God bless ya!"
Question: So, how fast can you get into the green make-up now?
Murney: Well, I actually don't do it. It's done to me I just sit in a chair. It takes half an hour. I mean, in an emergency for example, when I had to call out in the middle of the act you can slap it on a girl in about 12 minutes or less, but the real [application] is about half an hour. Jimmy Cortes, who does the make-up here, is just fantastic. That was another thing where I was so used to Joe [Dulude II] and Lisa, who were the make-up and hair people out on the road. Joe is the one who created the make-up design, and he is just great. I thought, "Oh no, what will I look like? Will they make me look funny?" And, Jimmy is just phenomenal, and Chris [Clark], who does my hair. It's definitely not the show where you have quiet time in your dressing room before your show. From half hour on, I'm surrounded by people.
Question: That must be exciting in a way. . .
Murney: It is. I'm a social person, so it's okay. And, they have certainly let me know that they have had all kinds of moods in that room. [Laughs.]
Question: So you don't have to be on "happy mode" every night.
Murney: Exactly, so they're very cool. My dressing room door is always open because I like knowing what the mood is. The way the show is set up and the way the theatre is set up, I could easily walk onstage if my door was shut, without seeing anyone before the show, and that's strange to me. I like to know how's everyone feeling and how's everyone doing and are we all good? Okay, now let's all go do this together. It's too hard, to me, to do it as an island. I'd rather do it as a I don't know what the metaphor is as a continent! [Laughs.]
Murney: Honestly, I'm so tired. On other shows, you change your clothes, and it's like, "Hey, anyone want to go out?" With this one, [the post-show high] lasts about 40 minutes with me taking a shower, me saying hi to whoever may have come to the show, me signing things at the stage door, and going home. And then I crash. Usually, I'll come home and have an English muffin or something totally on the edge like that. I don't have much of an after-show life. If I had to, I could. I'm sure I could rally and get some second wind, but right now I just crash. This coming Sunday night, I'm going to go see Spring Awakening, which I'm very excited about. I spend most of the week with a hat or some kind of a kerchief on my head because my hair is green. To wash my hair every night just to get it green again the next day seems futile. [Laughs.] So Sunday, after the show, I'll actually wash my hair that will be exciting, and then I'll go see Spring Awakening. It's nice because there's a few shows I want to see that all have Sunday-night shows, so I'm happy about that. I've got friends in shows, so it works out well.
Question: What I didn't realize until I read your Playbill.com Cue&A is that your dad's also an actor.
Murney: Yes, he is.
Question: Was he a big influence on your deciding to become an actress?
Murney: He was, but only in terms of [that] it's what I grew up around. He doesn't really do theatre so much anymore, but he does lots and lots of voiceovers, and he did a number of films and television in the eighties and nineties. When I was little, he was doing theatre. He was with Theatre of Louisville we lived in Louisville for awhile and then we moved here. So, I was kind of one of those backstage babies, so you grow up around it. I never was, frankly, an acting kid. I knew Annie all kids know Annie but the only other musical I knew was Jacques Brel Is Alive and Well and Living in Paris because my parents had the album. [Laughs.] That's a little subversive musical for a seven-year-old to know. Every once in awhile I would ask my parents if I could go on commercial auditions, and they said no. They said, "Not until you can go yourself." I just let it drop because it wasn't some burning desire that I had, but when I was in junior high I was in choir, and that was the first time I sang. The choir director there it was in a New York City public school she was fantastic. She started my life really, and then I ended up at Music & Art High School which is the "Fame" school as a voice major there, only because she knew the tricks to tell us what to audition with to get in. While I was there, I spent two summers at theatre camp, at Stage Door Manor, and that also changed my life. But even that came about because my parents were like, "You can't hang around the city this summer. You have to go to camp!" I was like, "I don't want to go to camp!" And, they put the names in a hat and picked one because I was so belligerent and didn't want to deal with it. . . . I still have friends to this day from that experience, and that got me hooked [on theatre].
Question: And, you mentioned that the first Broadway show you saw was Mack & Mabel. . .
Murney: Yes, because my dad was in it.
Question: Do you remember that at all?
Murney: You know, honestly, I don't remember the show. I remember backstage, and I remember the only times I ever met Bernadette Peters were either at the show where she wore a black wig [and] I do recall once when the show went to California . . . [and] she always had giant hats on with her hair pinned back. To my six-year-old brain, she had black hair. Years later, there was a commercial for Song & Dance, and my dad was like, "Oh, there's Bernie in her new show," and I went, "Oh, her hair is red." And my father's like, "Her hair's always been red." "No, her hair is black," and we had this ridiculous little argument . . . and that's the biggest thing I remember. [Laughs.] . . .
I also remember I went to see the revival of Candide because my dad's best friend was playing Maximilian, Sam Freed. I went by myself I must have been seven and Sam waited and waited for me backstage, and he finally went and found an usher and he said, "Have you seen a little girl?" He didn't know where I was, and they went out into the house. I had never been [to the theatre] myself, so I didn't know what to do, so I just sat there. The entire house was clear, the ghost light was onstage, and I was just sitting in my seat in my little dress waiting for someone to tell me what to do.
So I did see shows. I do remember I saw Baby, and I saw Dreamgirls that's my favorite. I saw Sunday in the Park With George. I saw The Wiz with Stephanie Mills. Yeah, I got to see some good ones!
[Wicked plays the Gershwin Theatre, 222 West 51st Street; call (212) 307-4100 for tickets or visit www.ticketmaster.com.]
DIVA TIDBITS
A host of the theatre's leading ladies will take part in the 12th Annual Nothing Like a Dame concert March 19 at the Marquis Theatre. The annual fundraiser, which benefits The Phyllis Newman Women's Health Initiative of The Actors' Fund of America, will boast the talents of Stephanie J. Block, Liz Callaway, Victoria Clark, Kate Clinton, Joyce DiDonato, Jill Eikenberry, Melissa Errico, Sutton Foster, Jenn Gambatese, Ana Gasteyer, Milena Govich, Jennifer Holliday, Judy Kuhn, Beth Leavel, Julianna Margulies, Maureen McGovern, Varla Jean Merman, Julia Murney, Bebe Neuwirth, Lynn Redgrave, Lea Salonga, Jennifer Smith and Julie White. Also taking part will be the women from the casts of In the Heights and Company as well as young dancers from the Westchester Dance Academy. Show time is 8 PM. One highlight of the evening promises to be Callaway and Salonga's duet on "I Still Believe," which they premiered on Broadway in the original cast of Miss Saigon in 1991. Tickets for Nothing Like a Dame are available by calling (212) 840-0770 or by visiting www.broadwaycares.org.
While she is in San Francisco appearing in the Broadway-bound musical Legally Blonde at the Golden Gate Theatre, Leslie Kritzer will offer three performances of her acclaimed cabaret act at the Empire Plush Room. Leslie Kritzer Is Patti LuPone at Les Mouches will be presented at the intimate cabaret located within the York Hotel Feb. 23 at 11 PM, Feb. 25 at 7 PM and Feb. 26 at 8 PM. Ben Rimalower directs. The Empire Plush Room in The York Hotel is located at 940 Sutter Street in San Francisco, CA. For reservations call (415) 885-6800 or visit www.ticketweb.com.
It's only appropriate that Bob Martin the Tony-winning creator (and star) of The Drowsy Chaperone should be part of The Broadway Musicals of 1928, since the fictional Chaperone (the musical within the musical) premiered on The Great White Way in 1928. The Broadway Musicals of 1928, the latest in Scott Siegel's acclaimed Broadway By the Year series, will be presented Feb. 26 at Town Hall. The 8 PM performance will also feature Nancy Anderson, Joyce Chittick, Jeffry Denman, Malcolm Gets, Eddie Korbich and Lari White. Joel Froomkin will direct the concert with musical direction by Ross Patterson. Concertgoers can expect to hear tunes from such musicals as Rosalie, The Three Musketeers, The Greenwich Village Follies, Present Arms, Blackbirds of 1928, Grand Street Follies, The New Moon, Paris, Animal Crackers and Whoopee!. Song titles will include "You Took Advantage of Me," "I Can't Give You Anything But Love," "Let's Do It," "Hooray for Captain Spaulding" and "Softly as in a Morning Sunrise." Tickets, priced $40 and $45, are available by calling (212) 307-4100 or by visiting www.ticketmaster.com. Town Hall is located in Manhattan at 123 West 43rd Street. Visit www.the-townhall-nyc.org for more information.
Well, that's all for now. Happy diva-watching! E-mail questions or comments to agans@playbill.com.
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