By Andrew Gans
25 Mar 2005

Joanna Gleason in Dirty Rotten Scoundrels

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

JOANNA GLEASON

The original Broadway cast of Stephen Sondheim and James Lapine's Into the Woods boasted so many treasures. One of them was Joanna Gleason, who radiated warmth in her role as the slipper stealing and ultimately ill-fated Baker's Wife. I was lucky enough to catch her Tony-winning turn four times, a performance that was both comical and touching as well as beautifully sung. Thankfully Gleason's work was captured on film for a PBS broadcast, which was subsequently released on video and DVD. Gleason then went on to star as Nora Charles in the short-lived musical Nick & Nora, where she met husband Chris Sarandon, who played Victor Moisa. The twosome relocated to Los Angeles for over a decade, but Gleason was recently enticed back to New York to star in one of the season's hit new musicals, Dirty Rotten Scoundrels, which is based on the movie of the same name. Gleason portrays Muriel, a wealthy American divorcee who becomes involved in a delightful, humorous love story with the French rogue Andre Thibault, played by Gregory Jbara. I recently had the chance to chat with the charming actress in her dressing room — which is adorned with photos of her family as well as her two dogs, Joe and Paddy — at the Imperial Theatre. That brief interview follows:

Question: To come back to New York for Scoundrels, I know you and your husband drove cross-country with your dogs. What was that experience like?
Joanna Gleason: Just fabulous. It took us four days and four hours. There is something about driving — you take the time to talk. I used to do this with my son when he was little. We would take trips to Yosemite. We would go to San Francisco, but instead of flying anywhere we would drive. Somehow, when a parent and a child or spouses are not face-to-face talking, there's a more dreamlike state than sitting side by side. You're much freer. Maybe it's why therapy started out lying on the couch.

Q: What was your original reason for driving rather than flying?
Gleason: I didn't want to fly the dogs, especially Paddy, she's old. We thought it would be an interesting opportunity to load up the dogs and some stuff and take some time together.

Q: How long do you plan to stay in New York?
Gleason: We took a year lease here on a sublet, and we rented our place out for six months with an option for another six months. But, who knows? I'm knocking wood — the show is a big hit right now, and it looks like, God willing, I'll be a here a year. The show could go on — I could go on with it or go do something else here. It turns out to have been quite a wonderful gamble.

Q: When did you leave New York for Los Angeles?
Gleason: I had lived here for ten years, [but] I had been back and forth since the seventies. Lived here the entire eighties. A lot of my work was here in the eighties. Then in '91 I did Nick & Nora with Chris. When Nick & Nora closed, we decided to go back to L.A. for two reasons. I wanted to be full time with my son [who was 12 at the time] and not have the back-and-forth craziness of moving him around. And, there was more work out in L.A., and Chris has three kids. . . What happened was we went back there, and I could literally get in and raise Aaron without ever leaving him. [Gleason points to a poster on her door featuring her son, who is the lead singer and songwriter for the group All Hours]. Their album comes out this week! It's rock-n-roll. They're first album is called "In Flagrante Delicto," and it's on the Hybrid Label. He's 26 now, so basically from the time he was 12 to 26, I didn't go anywhere. That's exactly what I needed and what he needed.

Q: How did the role of Muriel in Dirty Rotten Scoundrels come about?
Gleason: I know Jeffrey Lane, the [musical's] book writer. Jeffrey is a friend of mine because we had worked on Bette Midler's series ["Bette"] together. And when that show ended, we were talking on the phone once, and I said, "What do you want to do?" He said, "I want to write a Broadway musical." I thought, "Yes, yes, and I'd like to fly the space shuttle!" [Laughs.] And then I thought why couldn't he? A couple years later, I heard there was a workshop and a reading [of Scoundrels] with a very, very small part. And I said to him, "What's that part like?" He said, "We don't know yet. It's small." Then, they were going to do another [reading], and the part still hadn't been written, but the actress who had played the original reading wasn't interested because the part was so small. And, I said to Jeffrey that I was coming to do the Normal Heart, and I would love to do this reading. He said, "We've been thinking it over, and we think that there is more of a part there, and if you really want to do it, we'll just see what we can make happen here, but it's not written yet. It's sort of a leap of faith." So I said, "I'm jumping. If it's you, Jack O'Brien, Jerry Mitchell, David Yazbek, I'm jumping."

Q: How did the role change from that workshop to Broadway?
Gleason: It became a role. There really was no role. David started writing music. Jeffrey created a fabulous love story between me and the amazing Greg Jbara. And, Jerry Mitchell created this dance, this number that we have. And, suddenly, it started to [become a woman] who is conned, but the willingness of being conned, at first, is just because it's a place to be in a life that doesn't seem to have any real meaning. Then she gets caught up, and she realizes she finds something else and changes Greg from being just a lonely, aging bachelor and con man into somebody who wants something, too, something real. And they drop all pretense with each other, and it becomes real.

Q: Did you base Muriel on anyone?
Gleason: No. There are a lot of these women with a lot of money and they're alone. And there comes a time when they have all the right clothes but nowhere really to be. So they try to be where the clothes would be [laughs] — which is how I sort of thought about it — until they fill out their life. And they live in a kind of fantasy world. And they're wonderful women and really American and giving and problem solving and "What can I do to help?" and "I'm going to volunteer here" women. These are fantastic women, but a lot of them are quite lonely. My favorite line of Muriel's is — he says, "You have a lot of energy, don't you?" and she says, "Well, I have a lot of time." It's just heartbreaking. Her husband left her. She's got money and nothing for the heart, so she runs around.

Q: Are you having as much fun onstage as it seems?
Gleason: Probably more. [Laughs.] I've been extraordinarily blessed. The cast of The Normal Heart, even under very, very difficult circumstances, these men and I developed an incredible love for each other and had a wonderful time. And, certainly in Nick & Nora I met my husband. And, in Into the Woods I made friends, and Chip Zien is my lasting, lifelong friend to this day. It's actually his birthday today. So, I come into this company, and it's headed by John Lithgow, who is exactly who you think he is — the sweetest, smartest, most elegant, lovely guy. Norbert Leo Butz, a pistol, an absolute pistol; what a doll, father of two. We all have children — Sherie [Rene Scott] just had a baby; she's like my new little sister, and I'm in love with that child. And, Greg Jbara with two amazing kids and a fabulous wife. We have a lot to talk about that isn't just the theatre and love to be together and socialize apart from here. And, it's rare if you actually want to hang with the people [you work with]. Also, there are members of the orchestra and the ensemble — we have game night. We play vicious, competitive, bloody games — word games, running charades.

Q: Tell me about your experience on "Bette."
Gleason: To my mind, in concert from what I have seen or just seen film of, there's almost nobody who can do what she does. My admiration for her is absolutely unbounded. She's an interpreter of a song with almost no tricks, and she's always been that way. She's always been right from the heart, from the kishkas. She's clever, she's a smart woman. Nobody can hold a candle to her in that arena. I'm a huge fan. We got along beautifully — we gave each other little gifts. We would sit and laugh; we had a lot of shared history intersecting from the seventies and eighties in New York, though we hadn't known each other. It's just that [television] wasn't the milieu for her.

Q: You also directed A Letter from Ethel Kennedy Off Broadway. How was that experience?
Gleason: I loved it! Manhattan Class Company, one of the truly classy places to be. Bernie Telsey and Bobby LuPone and Will Cantler — they let me direct this play by a friend of mine [Christopher Gorman] who had just died, and his dying wish was that I direct his play. It was really quite a long and emotional story. It's his life story actually. That was quite successful, and I loved it, and I would direct again.

Q: Was that the first time you ever directed?
Gleason: No, but it's the first I ever directed in New York.

Q: What's it like for an actor to direct other actors?
Gleason: Oh my God, it's heaven. You speak the same language.

Q: Since this week is Sondheim's 75th birthday, can you tell me about your memories of being part of Into the Woods?
Gleason: My memories are all good. I made a friend of Steve — as I said, I made practically a family member of Chip — and also James Lapine, for whom I have endless admiration. When you do a Sondheim show, especially like that, it gives you a kind of iconic status, which was completely unexpected and still surprises me. But to have done a Sondheim piece, I guess, is one of the great miracles of my career.

[Dirty Rotten Scoundrels plays the Imperial Theatre, 249 West 45th Street. For tickets call (212) 239-6200.]

CHILDREN AND ART

In a wonderful, sometimes thrilling concert celebrating the 75th birthday of the one-and-only Stephen Sondheim, there were two standing ovations — one for the legendary Angela Lansbury, who made a brief non-singing appearance, and the other for the birthday boy himself — and two highly moving moments that balanced time past with times yet to come. The first arrived early in the intermissionless, two-hour evening at the New Amsterdam Theatre when Harvey Evans, Kurt Peterson, Marti Rolph and Virginia Sandifur — the Young Buddy, Young Ben, Young Sally and Young Phyllis in the original 1971 production of Follies — re-created a bit of stage magic with song and dance in a medley of "You're Gonna Love Tomorrow" and "Love Will See Us Through." As their number progressed, the foursome seemed to become rejuvenated, and their sense of joy was palpable. Towards the end of the evening, the Young People's Chorus of New York City, conducted by Francisco Nuρez, built the Merrily We Roll Along anthem "Our Time" from a gentle beginning to a full throated climax, and one couldn't help be touched by the earnestness on these young faces as they claimed, "It's our time, breathe it in/ Worlds to change and worlds to win/ Our turn coming through/ Me and you." Continued...

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