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DIVA TALK: A Sensational Streisand Plus a Chat with Mame's Sandy Duncan
By Andrew Gans
06 Oct 2006
Q: How did this production come about for you?
Duncan: Julie Boyd, the woman who's the artistic director [of the Barrington Stage Company], called and asked if I would do it. It's not a part I've ever wanted to do or pursued, but I thought, "What the hell?" [Laughs.] "Let me take this on, and see if I can bring something to it that maybe had not been done with it before," which is the only reason to do a revival anyway.
Q: What have you discovered about the character of Mame?
Duncan: Not that she's two different human beings, but I think all that artifice that she has, I think she is somebody who's very "on," in terms of persona and how she wants people to perceive her, but then in [other] moments, there's much more reality to her — like with Patrick and with Beau. . . She sort of bares her soul a little bit, and all that arch, histrionic, dramatic thing has to be dropped. That's a character she does. I think if she did that day and night, somebody would shoot her. [Laughs.]
Q: Do you have children?
Duncan: I have two boys, 22 and 23.
Q: I was wondering if the show at all resonates for you with the idea of a child or children leaving the nest.
Duncan: Oh yeah, absolutely. The other day when I was doing "If He Walked Into My Life," I had to go over and sit down at the piano and just bawl my way through it so I could get that out of my system. I just had to sob throughout the entire song, so now I can push that down and sit on it.
Q: What are your sons doing now?
Duncan: One's graduated from N.Y.U., and is an actor and a writer, and my other son is in his second year at Tulane.
Q: Do you have a favorite moment in the show for Mame?
Duncan: The scenes and the relationship with Patrick, which I think is the most important part of the show. As many musical numbers and lyrics as there are, I think the core of the show is their relationship, so I guess my favorite part of the show is that — establishing that and bringing the warmth to it that certainly Mame has to have.
Q: Switching shows, I thought you were one of the best Roxies I've seen. What was that experience like for you?
Duncan: Thank you. [It was] fabulous!
Q: Will you be involved with the tenth-anniversary performance of the show?
Duncan: No, they called . . . [but] I'm busy with [Mame], and [then] I'm working on [a production of] Glass Menagerie. Also, I'm not comfortable with the [one-night events]. . . . You feel like an amateur by the time it's over. . . because there's not enough prep time, and it's like being shot out of a canon. I've finally learned the "no" word. [Laughs.]
Q: You mentioned you're doing The Glass Menagerie, and I was wondering whether you have a preference for doing musicals or plays.
Duncan: I think plays. . . . The female leads in most of these [musicals] are [for] younger [women] or should be, and it starts to feel not age-appropriate. And I don't want [people to say], "Oh look at the old broad. She's still at it. . ." [Laughs.] I like the concentration in plays, I like the internal work, and at this point in my life it just feels better to me than a musical.
Q: You've also toured in The King and I and Anything Goes. Do enjoy touring?
Duncan: I do love working in musicals, and I continue to get work in them; just given the preference, I think I would do plays. But I love being onstage doing a musical. In fact, I enjoy doing musicals more than I enjoy watching them! . . . I'm one of those people that doesn't play show music. It's just a form that I don't enjoy watching. That's weird, isn't it?!
Q: What music do you listen to?
Duncan: Classical. It's larger than life and inspiring. I like rock-n-roll, too, fifties rock-n-roll.
Q: Do you have a favorite Broadway memory?
Duncan: I think one of my favorite moments that I've had is when the wire — way back during Peter Pan — literally got hooked around a light, and they could not lift me into the air. So I stopped the show and said, "You all paid a lot of money to see this flying, so we're going to get it [done]." I had one of the stage guys come on, we got the wire unhooked, and by the time we got up in the air, the audience was just screaming and yelling all through the flight. It was just one of those moments that you couldn't duplicate anywhere, except in theatre. [There was] applauding and yelling the entire flight sequence. That was pretty thrilling.
Q: You also switch back and forth between stage and screen. Do you have a preference?
Duncan: I prefer the stage. Certainly work in television has subsidized my theatre career because it pays so much better than the theatre, but it's not really where my passion is.
Q: What do you like about the stage?
Duncan: That thing between the audience and you, which is very personal and very private. There are even songs that are hard for me to rehearse because they are so intimate and personal in a rehearsal room with the lights on and the people sitting around, I can't do them. And then when I get on the stage, you would think that would be more public, but it's not. . . . That "circle of truth," that secret place between audience and performer is what I love the most about it, and I think that's when the hold on you happens because it's almost an out-of-body experience when you're doing it right. It's kind of religious in feel.
Q: Are you interested in doing new works?
Duncan: Oh yes. I just did a new Lee Blessing play out at the Old Globe. It was called Body of Water. It was a three-character show, and it was kind of complex as a play, and I think he may have gone back to rework it. . . . It was very existential, and people either got on the ride or they didn't. If they were trying to take it literally, it was frustrating, but if you took it in the larger sense of life and existence, it was mind-blowing.
Q: Do you have any other projects in the works?
Duncan: I do concerts, again to subsidize theatre. My husband and I do concerts with symphonies and performing arts centers, and that sort of paves your way to taking things that don't always pay so great. I don't have a lot of ambition, to be honest with you. [Laughs.] I never have. I take things as they come along and present themselves. I don't have any game plan. . . . I just roll with the punches. . . . I've never really counted on [the business]. I have a life outside of it that's completely fulfilling, and I'm kinda lazy. I'm just happy sitting at home gardening! [Laughs.]
Q: Do you enjoy working onstage with your husband?
Duncan: I love it. He doesn't do much of it anymore because he got into real estate 15 or so years ago. But when we do these concerts, just to dance with him is amazing.
[Mame — with Sandy Duncan — is playing the Barrington Stage through Oct. 14. For ticket information call (413) 236-8888 or visit www.barringtonstageco.org.]
DIVA TIDBITS
Tony Award winner Betty Buckley — who will make a New York concert appearance Feb. 10 in the Allen Room at Frederick P. Rose Hall as part of Lincoln Center's American Songbook series — has four concerts scheduled for the month of October. On Oct. 7 the acclaimed singing actress will perform at Reinberger Chamber Hall in Cleveland, OH. Tickets for that engagement are available by calling (216) 231-1111. On Oct. 13 An Evening with Betty Buckley will be offered at the Hampton Arts in Hampton, VA; reservations can be made by visiting www.hamptonarts.net. Buckley will bring her eclectic repertoire to George Mason University in Fairfax, VA on Oct. 14 (visit www.gmu.edu), and she will perform the following evening, Oct. 15, at the Mahaffey Theater in St. Petersburg, FL; for tickets to the latter log on to www.mahaffeytheater.com. The end of 2006 will also include a Master Class and concert in Champagne Urbana, IL, at the Krannert Center (Nov. 10 and 11) and an evening at the State Theater in New Brunswick, NJ (Dec. 2). For more information visit www.bettybuckley.com.
The third annual Broadway Unplugged concert — featuring Broadway stars performing without microphones — will be presented Nov. 13 at Town Hall. Created and hosted by Scott Siegel, the evening will feature tunes from the American musical theatre. Nearly 20 stars will lend their unamplified voices to the one-night-only event. Those performers scheduled to participate include Tony Award winners Sutton Foster, John Lloyd Young, Beth Leavel and Chuck Cooper as well as Marc Kudisch, Euan Morton, Nancy Anderson, Sarah Uriarte Berry, Bill Daugherty, Jeffry Denman, Lisa Howard, Cheyenne Jackson, Douglas Ladnier, Norm Lewis, Liz McCartney, William Michals and Connie Pachl. Show time is 8 PM. Tickets for Broadway Unplugged, priced $25-$75, are currently on sale by calling (212) 307-4100 or by visiting www.ticketmaster.com. Tickets will also be available beginning Oct. 20 at the Town Hall box office.
Well, that's all for now. Happy diva-watching! E-mail questions or comments to agans@playbill.com.
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Sandy Duncan and Mark Jacoby in the Barrington Stage Company's production of Mame
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| photo by Kevin Sprague |
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