By Andrew Gans
16 Mar 2007

Question: Now going back even a little further, where were you born and raised?
Ziemba: I was born in St. Joseph, Michigan, and I was raised there and outside of Detroit. That's where I learned to sing and dance. My grandmother sang for City Opera, so there was always music in my house.

Question: At what age would you say you started performing?
Ziemba: I'd say I was always performing for my own family [laughs], and my brothers had to play all of my supporting characters — whether they were women or not — so I put them in pigtails and dresses and all kinds of stuff. But I would probably say six — six was when the ballet lessons started.

Question: When do you think you knew that it would be your career?
Ziemba: I wanted to be a ballet dancer, and when I was in college and realized that that was not going to be my major thrust, I thought that's when I wanted to be a concert dancer. But I realized that it was much more of a single focus — you didn't get to sing or tell jokes or laugh or make noises, so I used my skills as a dancer to bring me to musical theatre.

Question: When did that happen?
Ziemba: That happened when I was in college. I danced with the Ohio Ballet, and then I did a couple local musicals, and then I realized that was where I belonged.

Question: You've been in so many shows. When you look back on in your career, is there anything that jumps out at you as your favorite?
Ziemba: Probably 110 in the Shade (at New York City Opera). That was magnificent.

Question: What about that was special for you?
Ziemba: Well, the play The Rainmaker that it was based on is such a fantastic play. The characters are so wonderful. Because I grew up in a family with brothers, I really related to this character. Doing it at City Opera with a full orchestra — the score with the orchestrations by Hershey Kay — it was just magnificent. It was really a beautiful production. And Richard Nash, the playwright, was still alive, and he was very much present during those rehearsals. We added some dialogue from the play into that production. I loved a passage in this one scene and [asked], "Could I please add this before I start?" to the rest of what Tom Jones had adapted from the play into the libretto. And [Nash] said, "Yeah, you can add that." It was this wonderful speech about Lizzie looking into the mirror and feeling that she wasn't pretty and that nobody would ever love her, and I just said, "I have to say that." It's just so descriptive. I loved it. And that was also Scott Ellis and Susan Stroman, with Paul Gemignani conducting, so it was like sort of my family again.

Question: Do you have any other projects in the works?
Ziemba: For the last couple of years or so, I've been slowly working on my own album with Jay Records out of London. I've done a lot of recordings for them. I did 110 in the Shade, I did Most Happy Fella and some other compilation albums of Kander & Ebb, Strauss, Andrew Lloyd Webber. We've slowly been putting together some material for my own [album], but it takes awhile! [Laughs.]

Question: What type of songs will be on the solo CD?
Ziemba: It's going to be Mary Martin songs — "Mary Martin's Broadway."

Question: Is there any release date yet?
Ziemba: No. We still have to put together orchestrations for some of the stuff from her obscure shows.

Question: Was Martin someone who influenced you growing up?
Ziemba: Yes, and I remember when I did 110 for Tom Jones and Harvey Schmidt, and they said that I reminded them a lot of Mary. When they cast me in I Do! I Do! — because she had originated that [role] — they said, "Yeah, she's girl to play this part!"

[Curtains plays the Al Hirschfeld Theatre, 302 West 45th Street; for tickets call (212) 239-6200 or visit www.telecharge.com.]

FOR THE RECORD
Masterworks Broadway will release digitally remastered versions of the original cast recordings of Into the Woods, Sweeney Todd, Sunday in the Park with George and Merrily We Roll Along. The four discs will all boast bonus tracks and will feature new liner notes penned by director Richard Jay-Alexander. The Sondheim recordings are set to arrive in stores March 20.

The Into the Woods recording — starring Bernadette Peters, Joanna Gleason and Chip Zien — will feature three bonus tracks: "Giants in the Sky" (performed by John Cameron Mitchell), "Back to the Palace" (Kim Crosby) and "Boom Crunch" (Maureen Moore). The suggested retail price is $13.98.

Sweeney Todd — which boasts Tony winners Len Cariou and Angela Lansbury — will feature three additional tracks: "Symphonic Sondheim: Sweeney Todd" (from Sondheim: A Celebration at Carnegie Hall with Eugene Perry, Henry Perry, Jerry Hadley and the American Theatre Orchestra conducted by Paul Gemignani), "Green Finch and Linnet Bird" (Harolyn Blackwell, also from Sondheim: A Celebration at Carnegie Hall) and "Sweet Polly Plunkett" (Julie Andrews, from Putting It Together). The suggested retail price is $24.98.

Sunday in the Park with George — co-starring Bernadette Peters and Mandy Patinkin — will offer bonus tracks of "Putting It Together" (from Putting It Together, with Julie Andrews, Stephen Collins, Rachel York, Michael Rupert and Christopher Durang) and "Sunday" (from Sondheim: A Celebration at Carnegie Hall, with the Chorus and the American Theatre Orchestra). The suggested retail price is $13.98.

"It's a Hit" (demo from Sondheim's personal archives) and "Not a Day Goes By" (performed by Bernadette Peters at Sondheim: A Celebration at Carnegie Hall) will be the bonus tracks for Merrily We Roll Along, the short-lived musical that featured Liz Callaway, Lonny Price, Ann Morrison and Jim Walton. The suggested retail price is $13.98.

For more information visit www.sonybmgmasterworks.com.

DIVA TIDBITS
Tony Award winner Victoria Clark, All Shook Up's Cheyenne Jackson and singer-songwriter Jane Kelly Williams will host Songs for Darfur: The Water Project. The March 26 benefit concert will be held at the Church of St. Paul & St. Andrew in Manhattan. In addition to Clark, Jackson and Williams, the 7 PM performance will also feature the talents of Maureen McGovern, Kelli O'Hara, Everett Bradley, Malcolm Gets, Elizabeth Stanley, Marilyn Torres and opera singer Marvis Martin. Musicians Ted Sperling and Dave Richards will also perform. Proceeds from the concert will benefit The United Methodist Committee on Relief and The Darfur People's Association of New York. Tickets, priced $40 (adults) and $20 (students, seniors and individuals with limited income) are available by calling (212) 362-3179. They will also be available at the door the night of the performance (cash only). Patron tickets, priced $100, include a pre-concert reception with the performers and reserved seating. For more information visit www.songsfordarfur.com. The Church of St. Paul & St. Andrew is located in Manhattan at 263 West 86th Street at West End Avenue.

Scott Siegel's acclaimed Broadway By the Year series will continue March 26 with The Broadway Musicals of 1938. Tony nominee Emily Skinner will direct the evening, which will include songs from musicals that debuted on The Great White Way in 1938. The starry cast for the 8 PM concert will comprise Andy Blankenbuehler, Sarah Uriarte Berry, Aaron Lazar, Shannon Lewis, Ray McLeod, Christiane Noll, Connie Pachl, Hugh Panaro, Martin Vidnovic and Barbara Walsh. Tickets, priced $40 and $45, are available by calling (212) 307-4100 or by visiting Ticketmaster.com. Town Hall is located in Manhattan at 123 West 43rd Street.

Gay Marshall, who recently ended a year-long run in the acclaimed revival of Jacques Brel Is Alive and Well and Living in Paris, will return to the Zipper Theatre March 22 for a solo concert. Entitled Gay Marshall Is Alive and Well . . . and Singing at the Zipper, the evening will feature the actress performing an array of material, including songs by Brel and those associated with Edith Piaf. Marshall, according to press notes, will describe "the pros and cons of living on both sides of the ocean and the challenge of trying to fit in with the French in excerpts from her one-woman show If I Were Me." Marshall will be accompanied by a trio of musicians; show time is 8 PM. The Zipper Theatre is located in Manhattan at 336 West 37th Street, between Eighth and Ninth Avenues. Tickets, priced at $25, are available by calling (212) 352-3101 or by visiting www.zippertheatre.com.

Well, that's all for now. Happy diva-watching! E-mail questions or comments to agans@playbill.com.