By Andrew Gans
07 Jun 2009

Ashanti

News, views and reviews about the multi-talented women of the musical theatre and the concert/cabaret stage.

ASHANTI
Grammy Award winner Ashanti — who made Billboard history by having her first three chart entries land in the top 10 of the Billboard Hot 100 at the same time — will make her New York stage debut June 12 in the City Center Encores! Summer Stars production of The Wiz, which will play the famed Manhattan venue through July 5. Directed by Thomas Kail and choreographed by Andy Blankenbuehler, with music direction by Alex Lacamoire (the team responsible for the Tony-winning In the Heights), the popular 1974 rock and soul musical casts the young artist as Dorothy. The singing actress has much experience with the role of the beloved Dorothy: she played her in the 2005 TV special "The Muppets' Wizard of Oz." Earlier this week I had the pleasure of chatting with the exuberant performer during a lunch break from Wiz rehearsals. Ashanti spoke about her award-winning career and her foray into the world of musical theatre; that brief interview follows.

Question: How did this role in The Wiz come about for you?
Ashanti: I got a call from my agent. He said, "Listen, this is a great opportunity. The production [team] from In the Heights are gonna be reviving The Wiz. You need to do it!" [Laughs.] It was definitely a mutual decision.

Question: What were your thoughts when your agent first suggested it?
Ashanti: It was just like, "Wow! When?" [Laughs.] And this is the second time around being Dorothy, so I said, "I just can't escape Dorothy."

Question: Is theatre something that you'd wanted to do?
Ashanti: Well, I always said I wanted to try. In high school . . . I actually did Oklahoma!. I was Gertie in Oklahoma! Once my first album came out, I said that I definitely wanted to try theatre, and when the right opportunity came I would try. This opportunity couldn't be more perfect.

Question: How are rehearsals going so far?
Ashanti: Very long! [Big laugh.] Very long, but really, really good. I can't complain. The cast is amazing. Alex [Lacamoire] and Tommy [Kail] and Andy [Blankenbuehler] . . . it's just teamwork. Everyone wants to do their very best. Everyone's very receptive, because obviously I'm the newcomer. This is a different genre for me, but everyone has been overly nice. I'm really excited.

Question: What's been the biggest surprise or the biggest challenge so far in rehearsals?
Ashanti: The biggest surprise? I don't know. I'm still kind of taking everything in. What I will say is I am surprised by how quickly and how well-received I have been. Like I said, when you come from the music world, sometimes it's a little different. I'm entering their world over in Broadway. The most challenging, I would say, is it gets a little long sometimes, from 10 to 6, and then you have to memorize lines when you go home. It's kind of like we're cramming everything for the finals. You know what I mean? When you have finals and you have to do that last week of cramming. Usually people get about a month or maybe two or even three months to do what we're doing in two weeks.

	Ashanti and Nigel
	photo by Robert J. Saferstein

Question: How would you describe Dorothy in this version of "The Wizard of Oz"?
Ashanti: Dorothy is very innocent. She wants to do her own thing, but once she realizes that she's out of Kansas, she just wants to get back home. She's strong, and as she travels along her journey, she becomes stronger and she becomes more aware, but she still has this innocence and a little bit of being naïve along the way. But everything teaches her, and that's what makes her stronger. She learns more about herself, and obviously towards the end she learns to believe in herself.

Question: Do you have a favorite moment for her in the show?
Ashanti: My favorite song is the "Be a Lion" song. I really, really love that song. It's a great moment [for] myself and the Lion. It's kind of like a little duet that we do. I just love the message of that song. The song [may be] old — what is it '74? — but so many people can still relate to it right now in 2009, and people sometimes need to hear words of encouragement.

Question: How do you find the demands of the score versus pop music?
Ashanti: It's very different. You have piano, strings, horns and everything else happening. [Laughs.] We have a 23-piece orchestra, which is amazing. Again, some of the songs are duets, some of the songs are the whole ensemble. The musical score itself is so soulful and it's so musical. It's very powerful, like I said, because so many people can relate to each and every [song].

Question: Tell me about what it's like working with director Tommy Kail.
Ashanti: Oh, my God. Tommy is absolutely hilarious. I love working with him. He is so cool. He would have been somebody I hung out with in high school. [Laughs.] His personality is hilarious! He gives great, great direction. He lets you try things. It's really cool.

Question: You've got great co-stars. Has anyone in the cast been particularly helpful or offered you any advice?
Ashanti: Absolutely, everyone. LaChanze, Dawnn [Lewis]. Those are my good aunties. [Laughs.] They have definitely been very helpful and willing to try things and are just very open to any questions I have about anything. That's definitely been a blessing.

Question: You were also part of the Wicked celebration, "The Yellow Brick Road Not Taken."
Ashanti: Yeah, I can't get away from that Yellow Brick Road!

Question: What was that experience like?
Ashanti: That was really great. Wicked is such a huge, huge, amazing Broadway smash. . . . That was my first eye-opener to doing something [in the theatre]. It was a great, great experience and, again, I got a glimpse of what [Broadway] was all like.

Question: Could you see yourself doing a show like Wicked?
Ashanti: I don't know. We're gonna see how this one goes first! [Laughs.]

Question: Since we've never spoken before, I wanted to go back a bit. Where were you born and raised?
Ashanti: Glen Cove, Long Island, New York.

Question: Do you remember when you started performing?
Ashanti: I used to sing in church. I was one of the Sunbeams when I was about five or six. I started dance school over at Bernice Johnson Cultural Arts when I was about four-five-ish. The very first time I took the stage as a teenager to start singing and the first time I won a talent show, I was about 11 at the Boys & Girls Club.

Question: Were there any singers or artists that you particularly admired at that time?
Ashanti: I definitely took to Mary J. Blige. For me, back in '91, put the marriage together between hip hop and R&B, and that's where my passion lies.

Question: When did you know this was going to be your career?
Ashanti: I was young. Being young, you have an advantage. I would say, by my third record deal. [Laughs.] I had my first when I was 14, and I had my second when I was 17, and by the time I turned 20, I had my third one. I held on and I kept all my advances, and this one stuck.

Question: How did that first record deal come about? How did you get that break?
Ashanti: I was signed to Jive Records. Back then we didn't have money to create a demo or anything like that. I went up to Jive. We took our own headshots. I sang and I danced in this conference room with a long wooden table full of people, and we got the deal!  Continued...

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