DIVA TALK: Chatting with The Ritz/In the Heights ' Andrea Burns Plus News of Testa and Marcovicci
By Andrew Gans
Andréa Burns
News, views and reviews about the multi-talented women of the musical theatre and the concert/cabaret stage.
ANDRÉA BURNS In the Heights, the acclaimed Off-Broadway musical that will begin previews at the Richard Rodgers Theatre Feb. 14, 2008. Not only has the Broadway belter just released her wonderful debut solo recording, "A Deeper Shade of Red" on the PS Classics label, but she is also currently the standby for Rosie Perez in the Roundabout Theatre Company's revival of The Ritz at Studio 54. Seth Rudetsky, who co-stars in The Ritz , arranged the purposefully tacky medley of show tunes that Googie Gomez (Perez/Burns) sings during the Act One finale of the Terrence McNally farce. Rudetsky told me earlier this week that "it's so fun to do understudy rehearsal with Andrea because she is so hilarious as Googie Gomez. She makes the medley at the end of the first act her own with amazing quarter-tone-flat singing and an interpolated Eydie Gormé high note at the end that's brilliant." On Nov. 8 I had the pleasure of chatting with Burns, whose New York theatre credits also include Songs for a New World and Broadway's The Full Monty and Beauty and the Beast . The charming actress spoke about her stage work, her new CD and motherhood; that interview follows.
Question: Before we get to the CD, let's talk about
The Ritz . How did the standby gig come about?
Andrea Burns: I knew that we were going to have a little time off before
In the Heights [moved to Broadway]. I'm actually a fan of the play. I had done one of the monologues from
The Ritz in college. A friend of mine had given it to me and said, "You know, you're Latin, and I think this would be a really funny audition monologue for you." I used to do it a lot, so I always just really liked it. I had no idea that the show would ever be revived and when that happened, I knew it was coming with Rosie [Perez], but I said, "Gee, I would just love to be a part of it." So I went in and read the role for [director] Joe Mantello, and I got it right there, which was really exciting.
Question: Is this the first time you've ever been a standby?Burns: Yes.
Question: What's the rehearsal process like for a standby in a play?Burns: It is so bizarre. [Laughs.] You sit in the audience or sit in rehearsal and watch the whole time. It's just so unusual to me. In musicals swings are often dancing to the side and rehearsing with the rest of the company. But in this particular situation, I pretty much sat and watched the entire time.
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Question: Once the show starts, do you have rehearsals of your own?
Burns: Understudy rehearsals happened the night after opening . . . . There was one point in the very beginning where Rosie was very exhausted from the preview process and wasn't sure if she was going to be able to go on. They were getting me costumes and emergency wigs. I hadn't set foot on the stage at all.
Question: Especially that stage, which is so intricate…Burns: It was pretty nerve-racking. I will say I was grateful I did not have to go on that first preview week because that would have been a test.
Question: I love the musical number that Seth [Rudetsky] has put together. Have you gotten to go through that? Burns: Absolutely. It is utter genius, isn't it? He's so outrageous. Seth and [choreographer] Chris Gattelli have done such an amazing job staging it. I get to do that in understudy rehearsal once a week, every Thursday. It is a joy. It's like a free pass to do everything you're never supposed to do. There is an unbelievable freedom in that.
Question: Would you like the chance to go on? Burns: I would absolutely love the chance. Are you kidding? [Laughs.] But [Rosie] is a very strong lady — I'm not sure that that's going to happen, but if it does, I'll be ready.
Andréa Burns' new CD, "A Deeper Shade of Red"
Question: Now getting to the CD: When did PS Classics first approach you about making a recording?
Burns: I had worked on a couple of recordings with PS Classics, so I had a relationship with [producers] Tommy Krasker and Philip Chaffin. They've always been extremely supportive of me, so I invited them to my [cabaret act]. I was doing a show at the Metropolitan Room last year. It was the first time I had ever put an act together. I just wanted to see what that would be like, and I had a lot of stuff that I had wanted to do. They came to the show and were so supportive, and then afterwards they said, "We really feel like you have something to say, and we really like that. Would you like to do your album with us?" And I said, "Are you kidding? I'd be thrilled." So, we started to do work on that in October of last year, and then Tommy Krasker had some health issues, [and] he had to sort of lay low for awhile. I went into rehearsals for
In the Heights , which [had] an incredibly demanding previews process. I was kind of in no shape with the five-show weekends to be recording on my days off. So I said, "Let's just put the whole thing on hold for awhile." This summer, when
In the Heights was wrapping up and Tommy was doing much better, he called and said, "What do you say we finish it up on this break before
In the Heights moves to Broadway? Let's do it, and see if we can get it out by November." So, we did it. It was actually pretty quick. We did half of it last year, and then half of it this year.
Question: You mentioned doing your first cabaret evening. What was that like for you — not performing in character but performing as yourself? Burns: I find that I really enjoy it. I'm the kind of person that tells a lot of stories in my living room and at dinner parties. [Laughs.] I'm a talker, so I feel really at ease in that environment. It's a joy to just be hanging out onstage. It's like standup with songs, which is just so much fun, especially when you have so many friends in the room, so many people you shared a history with. I was so lucky — so many people came out last year, and then [also recently] at Joe's Pub we were [also] sold out. It was just a joyous event. It's just fun. To me, it's very low-key. I feel almost like in one way the pressure is on more because it is just you, but in some ways the pressure's not on at all because you're not required to honor the story [or] the vision of the director. It's really just you having a great time. My husband, Peter Flynn, who is the director, makes it just an effortless, really fun [experience]. He knows how to put together a show where I can just be myself, and yet it's so well structured that people feel like they've seen a show.
Question: How did you go about choosing songs for the recording? Burns: I basically thought of everything that I really love or that has moved me in my life. I found that I had this strange love of two different things: musical theatre and 1970's singer-songwriters — "chick singers" of the seventies. I think that what they have in common is story songs. There's a lot of storytelling, and I really enjoy that. There's a song on the album called "Through the Eyes of Grace" that was written by Melissa Manchester. It's on her greatest hits album, and a lot of people have asked me, "What show is that from?" It just tells a very specific story in a way that a lot of pop music doesn't really do anymore. . . . It's more of a tradition in country songs, but that particular music hasn't been what really moved me. I was really more into the pop and, particularly, the seventies kind of pop.
Question: Tell me about the title of the CD.Burns: Well, there is a lyric in this Melissa Manchester song, "Women don't get older, just a deeper shade of red." . . . I've done a lot of cast recordings, but people mostly know me from the original cast recording of Songs for a New World . That was something that was such an important show in my life, especially because I was just right at the gate. I was about 22 years old when I did it. It was the first thing I did in New York that sort of put me on the map, and I was at such a time in my life and just starting out. . . . I thought for a long time about doing a solo album, and it's like 11 years later. Now I'm married, I have a child, and I thought, "My gosh, this record is not going to be this exact person from Songs for a New World ." There are many other layers now, and I just loved that image about being a deeper shade of red.
Question: Did you enjoy the recording process? Burns: I love it. I mean, you're in a room with the most talented people. You're just making music, and you get paid! [Laughs.] There's nothing better.
Question: How does it feel that the CD is finally out? Burns: It feels amazing and surreal. It's a great relief because it's finished, and at the same time I feel like the way I felt after the birth of my son. "My gosh, this thing is actually out in the world. It happened and it has its own life, and I have to let it go and let it be what it is." It's exciting and surreal. I got a letter from somebody who had bought an advance copy, who lives in Duluth. [Laughs.] They wrote this lovely letter back, and I just thought, "I can't even believe this. I feel like we were just here, listening to it in my house, deciding, 'Is this gonna be good enough? Is this the order we want?'" It just felt like I blinked, and now it's out there. Continued...
