DIVA TALK: Playing It Cool With Lea DeLaria and More!

By Andrew Gans
13 Jul 2001

In the past few years, Lea DeLaria has moved from one critically acclaimed role to another, hitting the mark in three revivals: the Public Theater’s production of On the Town, for which she received an Obie Award as well as a Theatre World Award and a Drama Desk nomination; the Encores! version of Li’l Abner in a role originally written for a man; and the current revival of The Rocky Horror Show at Circle in the Square, where she plays both Eddie and Dr. Scott. The often raucous stand-up-comic-turned-Broadway-star has just released her first solo CD, Play It Cool (now available on the Warner Bros. label), an extremely enjoyable collection of Broadway favorites with a jazz twist. I recently had the chance to chat with the talented performer, and this brief Q&A follows.

In the past few years, Lea DeLaria has moved from one critically acclaimed role to another, hitting the mark in three revivals: the Public Theater’s production of On the Town, for which she received an Obie Award as well as a Theatre World Award and a Drama Desk nomination; the Encores! version of Li’l Abner in a role originally written for a man; and the current revival of The Rocky Horror Show at Circle in the Square, where she plays both Eddie and Dr. Scott. The often raucous stand-up-comic-turned-Broadway-star has just released her first solo CD, Play It Cool (now available on the Warner Bros. label), an extremely enjoyable collection of Broadway favorites with a jazz twist. I recently had the chance to chat with the talented performer, and this brief Q&A follows.

Q I have to admit that I’m not a huge jazz fan, but I’ve really been enjoying your new CD. Can you tell me how it came about?
Lea DeLaria If you’re not a big fan of jazz . . . I don’t know why I’m even talking to you! . . . I performed at a Sondheim jazz event at UCLA early last year. We did it again last week at Carnegie Hall. Warner Brother execs were present, and the Reader’s Digest version: they offered me a record deal.
QI think my favorite track from the CD is “The Ballad of Sweeney Todd.” How did you go about choosing the songs, and do you have a favorite track?
LD My favorite is “Cool” because it is exactly what jazz is about. We had no arrangement, we merely followed form and created. We chose tunes that would live by themselves, out of context, and would lend themselves to the idiom. We also wanted more modern songs, say, the last 20 years, until we realized that we needed some well-known pieces for the audience.
Q This is the second time you’ve been on Broadway in a major revival. What are some of the differences?
LD Well, the major difference is, I get to share a dressing room with Alice Ripley who, besides being immensely talented, is a terrible tease. I am also on stage much less, playing two men, and, oh yes!, this show is a hit! It feels good to be in a musical that is running!
Q Since this column is called “Diva Talk,” what’s your definition of a diva, and do you consider yourself one?
LD Although I sometimes feel like I am more of a divO, a diva to me is a woman who not only knows where downstage center is, she is fully aware of what it takes to get there. (It’s not as easy as it sounds!) While she’s there, the entire audience wants her to stay in that spotlight forever.
Q You share a dressing room with one of my favorite Broadway performers, Alice Ripley, and this is the second show you’ve worked on together. Do you enjoy working with her?
LD Alice in my dressing room again! I wonder if all of Broadway is buzzing about us? I adore Alice; she is so talented. I would love to do the musical version of anything with her. There is no bigger or better star on Broad . . . wait a minute? . . . Alice Ripley? . . . I thought I shared a dressing room with Emily Skinner.
Q Okay, final question. What would you like to see happen for Lea DeLaria in the year to come? LD Let’s see . . . a Tony nomination, a second record, work with Sondheim, . . . world peace. . .

DIVA NEWS

The McCallum Theatre in Palm Desert, CA, will spotlight two Broadway heavyweights next year. Kristin Chenoweth will perform there on January 11, 2002, and Betty Buckley will follow on March 30, 2002. Jazz singer Diana Krall will also sing in concert at the McCallum on Dec. 13, 2001. . . Speaking of Buckley, the Tony-winning Cats star will be a part of the “American Songwriters Series” at Lincoln Center’s Alice Tully Hall on Wednesday, Sept. 19 . . . Original Renter Daphne Rubin-Vega will perform songs from her latest CD at The Cutting Room on July 16. Rubin-Vega, who currently stars on Broadway in the acclaimed revival of The Rocky Horror Show, will perform many tunes she penned herself at The Cutting Room, which is located at 19 West 24th Street, between 6th Ave. and Broadway. Show time is 8:30pm, and tickets are $10 . . . A host of fabulous gals will perform at Hartford Stage this season, including Elizabeth Ashley (in The Glass Menagerie), Jean Stapleton (in the world premiere of The Carpetbagger’s Children), Kathleen Chalfant (in two Tennessee Williams one-acts) and Kate Mulgrew (in Tea at Five). The famed Connecticut theatre will also premiere Eve (The Vagina Monologues) Ensler’s new play, Necessary Targets, as well as a new work about the life of Rita Hayworth, entitled Diosa . . . Cabaret’s Barbara Fasano will return to New York’s FireBird Cafe (West 46th Street) on Fridays, August 24 and 31 at 9 PM. Fasano will also make her Algonquin debut on Monday, Oct. 22, when she plays the legendary hotel’s Oak Room . . . Rrazz Productions will present two Broadway divas this August at San Francisco’s Alcazar Theatre. From Aug. 15 through Aug. 19, that “singular sensation,” Donna McKechnie, will perform her one-woman career retrospective, Inside the Music, and from August 22 through Aug. 26, TV and stage star Bea Arthur will appear in her new show, ...And Then There’s Bea.. Tickets may be purchased by calling (415) 441-4042 . . . The one-and-only Barbara Cook returns to London for four weeks (July 18 through Aug. 11) at the Lyric Theatre, where she will perform her evening of Sondheim tunes; Wally Harper will accompany her on piano . . . Rita Harvey, who made her Broadway debut performing the role of Christine Daae in The Phantom of the Opera will go solo at Judy’s Chelsea on Sundays, July 15, 22 and 29 and Wednesday, July 25. Harvey will sing the works of Rodgers, Sondheim, Weill, Porter, Yeston, Maltby, Shire, Flaherty and Ahrens, and there is a $15 cover and a $10 minimum. Judy’s Chelsea is located at 169 8th Avenue, and reservations may be made by calling (212) 929-5410.

FOR THE RECORD

On Monday, April 2, 2001, a host of Broadway favorites gathered at the Fashion Institute of Technology’s Morris Haft Theatre to perform a one-night-only benefit concert of Bill Russell and Janet Hood’s Elegies for Angels, Punks & Raging Queens, a musical inspired by the unveiling of the Names Project Quilt in 1987. Alice Ripley, who starred in Russell’s Side Show, began the evening with a belty, heartfelt version of “Angels, Punks and Raging Queens,” one of the evening’s many highlights. Other high points included Brian d’Arcy James, in fine voice, who sang “And the Rain Keeps Falling Down”; Ripley and her Side Show co-star, Emily Skinner, who had some fun with the uplifting “Celebrate,” which found the two trying to outsing one another; Kane Alexander, Robert Gallagher, Kathy Brier and Marie Danvers, whose voices blended well on the touching tune, “Heroes All Around”; Skinner, again, who delivered a beautiful rendition of the show’s most powerful ballad, “My Brother Lived in San Francisco,” in which a woman remembers the brother she loved, a young man who found his heart and soul when he moved to San Francisco; and Norm Lewis, who applied his creamy tones to the show’s final song, “Learning to Let Go,” in which he was joined by the entire company. The CD concludes with six often-touching monologues delivered by the likes of Veanne Cox, Erin Torpey, Bryan Batt, Mario Cantone, Steve Burns and Christopher Durang. “Elegies for Angels, Punks & Raging Queens” is now available directly from fynsworthalley.com.  Continued...