By Andrew Gans
18 Jan 2008
Question: Looking back on your Broadway experiences, do you have a favorite role?
Gibson: I have to say I'm very happy that I was very choosy. I feel like Les Miz, Beauty and the Beast and Cabaret — when you think of those three shows, in their particular genre, they're the best. I just feel so lucky every time I think about it that I got to be a part of those. Each one was unique in its own way. Les Miz was my first. Beauty and the Beast I did for nine months, so I got to really sink my teeth into it and be a real member of the Broadway community for a long period of time. . . . If I got called every year to play Sally Bowles in Podunk, Iowa, or wherever, I would jump and do it. That role is just unbelievable, and it challenged me in ways I had never been challenged. I didn't envision myself doing [that role]… Usually everybody who goes to see a show, who is a performer, if there is a role they want to do, they start picturing themselves in the role and campaigning for the role. When I first saw Natasha Richardson do [Sally Bowles], I think I was a little younger and I thought, "Well this is a self-destructive character." I just didn't relate to it at all, but by the time I got to do it, I had lived a little bit more and I was ready to do it. It was just so incredible. Every night I'd go to the theatre thinking, "Oh, my God, they entrusted this role to me?" [Laughs.] And, Neil Patrick Harris was incredible. It was quite an experience.
Question: Would you like to do more Broadway?
Gibson: I would. It seems like every four or five years is the number, so I'm about due. I'm ready! [Laughs.] I really feel like it's got to be the perfect fit for the show and for you, and the right timing, and so many things have to align. Like I said, I've gotten called to do stuff that I've said no to because I feel like I've, for myself, raised the bar so much and the experiences that I've done have been so incredible, it's like, "Well, if it's not going to be up at that level and challenge me in that way, then I'd rather not do it."
Question: Do you get to see much theatre?
Gibson: I haven't gotten to see as much as I'd like in the last two years. … Over the holidays I saw Legally Blonde because Orfeh and Laura Bell Bundy are both friends of mine. Laura Bell and I did Gypsy together. I'm so proud of Laura Bell because I knew her when she was truly a little girl. Now she's grown into this leading lady and is carrying a show. And, Orfeh was just made to play that role, hysterical. And I saw Wicked, I saw Jersey Boys, I saw Color Purple [in the past few years]. I haven't gotten to see as much as I'd like to because lately I'm kind of in and out of New York, usually to perform.
Question: Is there any role that you've seen that you'd like to try?
Gibson: For awhile I wanted to do Wicked, and I was up for Wicked. I auditioned here and they flew me out. Basically the feedback came back that I was too worldly! And I thought, "That's odd" because I'm such an eternally youthfully spirited person. I have seen the world, but sometimes I think that's where perception gets in the way. If people know that you have actually traveled the world, that might enter their mind, whereas if they didn't know anything else about me, it might not have. With that said, my voice truly does not live up there. [Laughs.] So I kind of took it as a blessing and I thought, "I would have had to live like a nun [to play Elphaba]." When I did Funny Girl on the road, I would sleep with one of those facial steamers blowing on me all night. I had to go to such great lengths to do it. You can do that for a time, but then you can also go kind of insane. I do think there are people better suited for that role.
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| Deborah Gibson in Beauty and the Beast |
| photo by Joan Marcus |
[For more information about Gibson's summer arts camp, visit campelectricyouth.com; for more information about her performance schedule, visit www.deborah-gibson.com.]
DIVA TIDBITS
Carol Channing, Phyllis Diller, Tippi Hedren, Florence Henderson, Angela Lansbury, June Lockhart, Rose Marie, Julie Newmar and Esther Williams have all donated memorabilia from their award-winning careers to the National Museum of American History, which is part of the Smithsonian Institution in Washington, D.C. A by-invitation-only ceremony will be held Jan. 29 at the El Portal Theatre in North Hollywood, CA, to unveil the various donations, which follow: Channing: Diamonds gown worn as Lorelei and her 1964 Tony Award for Hello, Dolly!; Diller: Her personal library and collection of jokes; Hedren: The original scripts with notes for Hitchcock's "The Birds" and "Marnie" as well as for Chaplin's "The Countess From Hong Kong"; Henderson: The TV Land Pop Icon Award; Lansbury: Mame's dressing gown (donated by Stephanie Troulman) and bugle from Broadway and the typewriter from "Murder She Wrote" (co-donated by Universal Studios); Lockhart: Her Tony Award for her role in For Love or Money; Marie: The Baby Rose Marie dress and shoes from "Baby Rose Marie the Child Wonder," a dress from The Dick Van Dyke Show and her signature black hair bow; Newmar: The Catwoman outfit from "Batman"; and Williams: Her two MGM career scrapbooks.
Even more theatre favorites have been added to the ever-growing lists of artists taking part in Broadway Backwards III, which is scheduled for Feb. 4 at the American Airlines Theatre. As previously announced, the annual Broadway Backwards concert — featuring male singers performing songs traditionally sung by women and women singing tunes written for men — will be hosted by The Ritz's Seth Rudetsky and will boast the talents of Lainie Kazan, Karen Mason, Julia Murney, Liz Callaway, Jen Colella, Tony Yazbeck, Neil Patrick Harris, Gary Beach, Charles Busch, Cheyenne Jackson, Nancy Dussault, Malcolm Gets, Tituss Burgess, David Burtka, Tastiskank (Kate Reinders and Sarah Litzsinger), Len Cariou, Brooks Ashmanskas, Sandy Duncan, Jose Llana and The Little Mermaid's Sierra Boggess. Newcomers to the evening — a benefit for New York's Lesbian, Gay, Bisexual & Transgender (LGBT) Community Center — include Kerry Butler, Anthony Rapp, Ann Harada, Julie Halston, Michelle Blakely and Aaron Lazar. Only $250 orchestra seats remain; they are on sale through theatermania.com. For more information visit www.gaycenter.org.
Tony Award winner Priscilla Lopez, who will return to the Broadway stage later this season in the new musical In the Heights, will host a benefit for the A-T Children's Project Jan. 21. Entitled A Very Special Evening, the benefit will be held in the Clark Studio Theatre at the Samuel B. and David Rose building at Lincoln Center. Lopez, who has hosted most every benefit for the charitable organization since its inception in 1994, will be joined onstage by co-host Louis Zorich. Show time is 8 PM. A Catered Affair's Kristine Zbornik will perform as will pianists Natalia Kazaryan and Matthew Graybil. Attendees can also expect to enjoy a dance piece by Lynne Taylor-Corbett, featuring Yuki Osagawara and Kurt Froman; and tenor James C. Martin, composer Nancy Ford and the American Guild Ambassadors performing songs from Ford and Gretchen Cryer's show for The American Girl Stores. Lincoln Center's Clark Studio Theatre is located in The Samuel B. and David Rose Building at 70 Lincoln Center Plaza. For further information or to purchase tickets, visit www.atcp.org.
Tony Award winner Audra McDonald will make a rare New Jersey concert appearance April 5 at the New Jersey Performing Arts Center in Newark. McDonald will be backed by a full orchestra for the 8 PM concert in Prudential Hall, which will feature a mix of tunes from Broadway and Hollywood. Audiences can expect to hear songs by Stephen Sondheim, Rogers and Hart, Lerner and Loewe, Harold Arlen, Kurt Weill, Jerry Herman and George Gershwin, among others. The cabaret season at the Chase Room — located within NJPAC — will also feature several theatre favorites. Faith Prince, who is headed back to Broadway later this season in A Catered Affair, will offer An Evening with Faith Prince Jan. 26 at 7 and 9:30 PM. Klea Blackhurst and Billy Stritch will team up for Dreaming of a Song: The Music of Hoagy Carmichael Feb. 9 and 7:30 PM; their show will feature such tunes as "Georgia on My Mind," "Stardust," "Skylark," "Heart and Soul," "I Get Along Without You Very Well," "In the Still of the Night," "The Nearness of You" and "Two Sleepy People." Two-time Tony Award winner James Naughton will perform his acclaimed cabaret evening, Looking for the Heart of Saturday Night, March 22 at 7 and 9:30 PM. And, former Miss Saigon and Cats star Liz Callaway will play the Chase Room May 3 at 7 and 9:30 PM. The New Jersey Performing Arts Center is located at One Center Street in Newark, NJ. For tickets call (888) 466-5722 or visit www.njpac.org.
The latest solo recording from Tony Award winner Betty Buckley, "Quintessence," is currently available for pre-sale in the Playbill Store. The new disc, Buckley's second on the Playbill Records/Sony BMG Masterworks Broadway label, is due in stores Feb. 5, and the single CD can be purchased on line for $13.95. The CD's title refers to the quintet of musicians who have accompanied Buckley on record and in live performances for over a decade. They include musical director Kenny Werner on piano, Tony Marino on bass, Billy Drewes on reeds, Todd Reynolds on violin and Dan Weiss on drums. The complete track listing for "Quintessence" follows: "So Many Stars," "The Surrey With the Fringe on Top," "Like a Lover," "Stardust," "Cry Me a River," "Dindi"/"How Insensitive," "No One is Alone," "Anyone Can Whistle," "Blame it on My Youth"/"I've Grown Accustomed to His Face," "Something's Coming," "The Man I Used to Love" and "Get Here." Buckley — whose debut CD on the Playbill Records label, "Betty Buckley 1967," hit the Billboard charts — will celebrate the release of "Quintessence" with an upcoming engagement at Feinstein's at Lowes Regency. Directed by Richard Jay-Alexander, Buckley will perform "Then & Now" at Feinstein's Feb. 5-23.
Well, that's all for now. Happy diva-watching! E-mail questions or comments to agans@playbill.com.
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