By Andrew Gans
07 Mar 2008

Sherie Rene Scott

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

SHERIE RENE SCOTT
I have to admit that after watching a new musical I often think of various other casting choices: "Wouldn't Kristin Chenoweth have gotten more laughs in that part?" or "I would love to hear Betty Buckley sing that score" or "Ellen Greene would have really ripped your heart out in that role." But after enjoying Sherie Rene Scott's performance as the sinister Ursula in the new Disney musical The Little Mermaid, I couldn't think of anyone who would have been better suited to the role; Scott, I dare say, is flawless. Her dead-on comic timing and her fabulous, rangy and powerful belt are the perfect mix for the role in the new musical at the Lunt-Fontanne Theatre, Scott's sixth Broadway outing following performances in The Who's Tommy, Grease, Rent, Aida and Dirty Rotten Scoundrels. In the midst of performing eight shows a week, Scott is also at work on a "one-woman show" entitled You May Now Worship Me, which she will premiere March 31 at the Eugene O'Neill Theatre as a benefit for the Phyllis Newman Women's Health Initiative. Conceived and written by Scott and Tony nominee Dick Scanlan, the benefit evening will feature direction by Tony winner Michael Mayer and musical direction by Tom Kitt. Earlier this week I had the pleasure of chatting with the humorous Scott prior to a matinee of Mermaid; that brief interview follows.

Question: Tell me about the title of the one-woman show, You May Now Worship Me. How did that come about?
Sherie Rene Scott: That's how I was feeling. [Laughs.] I was walking down the street and realizing how distasteful and repellent it is to me to do a one-person show. I was thinking, "What is it all about?" Then I came up with the title You May Now Worship Me. Michael Mayer loved it also because it's a play on these shows that people do. I don't know what it is — we're still creating it, and I hate to categorize it, but it really is a slightly theatrical kind of performance piece. The character does go on a journey that is a spiritual journey that involves the idea of worship. Hopefully in people's minds, I know in mine, it has double meaning, but we'll see what other people think.

Question: When you say "character," are you playing someone or are you playing yourself?
Scott: Yes. [Laughs.] I'm playing someone, and I'm myself. I guess that's the best way to put it. It's something that Dick [Scanlan] and I have been writing and coming up with for a while. Because I'm doing it, I'm sure someone else could talk about it better. I can talk about what it's like to create it and to perform it, but I can't really say what the perception of it is.

Question: The show is being presented in lieu of the annual Nothing Like a Dame benefit. How did that come about to do Worship Me as a benefit for the Phyllis Newman Women's Health Initiative?
Scott: Dick and I did a presentation last May to find a director and producers. [Broadway Cares/Equity Fights AIDS executive director] Tom Viola loved it and [asked], "Would you please do the piece for the Women's Health Initiative?" I'm a woman, and the piece has something to do with women, and he thought it would be a really exciting event, and it would be a way of getting my piece out there in a more open way. Now that Michael Mayer is attached, it gives us an opportunity to get it up on its feet with him directing, and also do it for an organization that myself and our record label, Sh-K-Boom/Ghostlight Records, has always been highly supportive of.

Question: Do you see it as a piece that you would like to do elsewhere?
Scott: Yeah, [although] all I'm thinking about is this night and wanting to make it as great as it can be for this night. I think it will be different than anything Broadway Cares has ever done for a benefit. I think that's good. As far as it goes beyond that, I've loved writing it and working on it — something I've always wanted to do is be more involved on the creative end of things. This is kind of a first foray into that, and if there's interest in it beyond this night, then that's great.

Question: What are some of the songs that you'll be performing?
Scott: I should say that the songs are kind of secondary to the writing of the piece. Every song that's chosen really has to do with [the storytelling]. I have to say it's not like, "I like this song, therefore I want to sing it." It's really about the songs that help move the story along and help tell the story. We open with a Sharon Jones and The Dap-Kings song. There's U2, there are Judy Garland songs, there's Harry Nilsson, there's George Harrison, David Burns, a cross-section of things, maybe some familiar favorites.

Question: What's it been like working with Michael Mayer as a director?
Scott: It's been really fantastic. I'm doing the eight shows a week [of Little Mermaid] and rehearsing and rewriting. It's really helped to have someone who is so enthusiastic about the piece, and it's helped the piece to have someone who is so brilliant and highly respected associated with it. He's just invaluable. We're having a blast. My only regret is that I have to conserve my energy a lot to be able to give my usual 45 percent. [Laughs.] So that's kind of keeping myself on the number two button, not amping myself up to 11. It's kind of difficult, but other than that it's been a godsend.

Question: I know you did a one-woman show at the Zipper Factory. How do you find performing on a stage by yourself versus being in a musical or play? What is that experience like for you?
Scott: That was kind of a workshop of this piece. That was exciting and fun. I don't like it a lot — I don't like being onstage alone. I barely like being onstage at all. [Laughs.] So there's a lot of inner-difficulties I have regarding that. I have no other inner-difficulties other than that. [Laughs.] There is obviously some sort of need I have to do it, otherwise I wouldn't do it. There's some sort of need I have to express myself creatively. Sometimes it's really annoying and I wish it weren't there, but it's a great balance to doing eight shows a week and being with a cast that I really adore, and then going and working on this project that I obviously have to do for some reason. I think we're incorporating ways of making it not feel so lonely for me up there. Tyler Maynard said, "Well, if you're feeling lonely, you could just drink before you go onstage!" [Laughs.] I'm trying not to resort to that. I'm trying to find ways of being a creative person and also being comfortable with expressing that. I know that sounds really weird, but that's the truth.

	Sherie Rene Scott in Little Mermaid
	photo by Joan Marcus

Question: Getting to Little Mermaid: In preparing for the show and your role, did you watch the film much? How did you go about creating the character?
Scott: I did not watch the film. Alan Menken sang it for me, and that gave me a lot of information.… I made a kind of montage for how I saw Ursula. I felt that she sees herself as this screen siren, like Gloria Swanson or Bette Davis or Marlene Dietrich. The opposite of most villains or villainesses, she does not loathe herself. She actually completely loves herself. She can't get enough of herself. She thinks she's the sexiest, most amazing thing. In terms of creating the character — with that screen-siren thing, she thinks she's Dame Judi Dench. When she turns it on, she really turns it on and becomes your favorite Auntie Mame with a leather whip. I think there's that side underneath her that's having fun watching all of these people and incorporating all of these people that Ursula feels she is — Rosalind Russell and Mae West and Judi Dench in the Scottish play or Divine, Iggy Pop. There are all of these people in her, and it's kind of the sexiest character I've ever played. . . . I really sunk my teeth into it and just went with Doug Wright, who was adapting it, and who we wanted her to be for this incarnation. The stage is a hard place to hide, so we wanted to make her as real and as vibrant as possible for what this creation was.

Question: Tell me about working with director Francesca Zambello.
Scott: It's great to have somebody that has so much experience creating new work. It's hard to even find people in musical theatre that have done 30 new musicals. She has done over 30 new operas, let alone all of the other operas that she's created. She really understands the grandness, and she understands the work involved. She wants to be a part of creating new work that is for the public. She's very big on that: to not be elitist and to create work that is going to bring people into the theatre — that will get people's interest sparked in the theatre from a young age, and she realizes the value of that and that that's invaluable to our future in the theatre. Her passion about that makes you understand why she's doing it and why we're all here and who we're here for. And then telling the story, I think she has a lot of heart, and I think our story — even more so than the film from what I remember; I haven't seen it since I was in my twenties — has so much heart. Also it's important to me and [Zambello] and Doug Wright that the ending be rectified from the film — that Ariel make a strong stance and that it be a powerful woman with another powerful woman and a standoff where Ariel really has to make a choice and make a tough decision about what kind of woman she wants to be, what kind of person she wants to be. I love that we're sending that message out there every night. Continued...

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