Laura Osnes
Laura Osnes is so bubbly and upbeat in her conversation, one can't help but feel uplifted after speaking to her. And, truthfully, why shouldn't she be so cheerful and enthusiastic? Within the past two years, the singing actress won a TV reality casting competition — the first of its kind on U.S. television — got married, made her Broadway debut as Sandy Dumbrowski in the Kathleen Marshall-directed and choreographed revival of Grease and, recently, landed her second leading Broadway role: Ensign Nellie Forbush in the Tony Award-winning revival of Richard Rodgers and Oscar Hammerstein II's South Pacific at the Vivian Beaumont Theater. Osnes is temporarily filling in for Tony nominee Kelli O'Hara, who created the role for the revival and is currently out of the show on maternity leave through early October. Last week I had the pleasure of chatting with the golden-voiced Osnes, who spoke about her final night in Grease, her auditions for South Pacific and how it feels to sing the classic Rodgers and Hammerstein score on the vast stage of Lincoln Center's Beaumont Theater eight times a week; that interview follows.

Question: When we last spoke, you had just gotten married and were in rehearsals for Grease. What was it like making your Broadway debut? How did the experience live up to what you thought it would be?
Laura Osnes: I seriously tell people that it was everything I ever hoped and dreamed it would be. I couldn't have planned it better, never guessed I would make it to Broadway this soon in my life and through a reality TV show! I was completely thrilled by the experience. The Broadway community was so welcoming and supportive and lovely. The whole experience of Grease — with the fans and [reality TV winner] Max [Crumm] and I getting to do it together — it was just such an amazing open door. My first Broadway experience was everything I hoped it would be.

Question: The night I went to Grease, it was like a rock concert, the way the audience responded to you and Max.
Osnes: That's very much what it was like. Just to have the support of friends and family and fans that watched us on TV, I couldn't have asked for more. It was really special.

Question: What was it like playing your final performance in Grease? Was it emotional?
Osnes: Definitely. I actually started getting emotional about three weeks before my final show. That's when I started comprehending that it was almost going to be over. It kind of helped that, by the last show, I had already been gearing myself up emotionally, mentally, physically, everything, to get to that last performance. It was so special, and I'm really glad that Max and I got to have our last show together. It was actually Matt Saldivar's last performance as well — he played Kenickie — so the three of us got to leave together. It was super special, taking that final bow and just really enjoying it and taking it in. It was amazing — exactly one year from the day that we started previews.

	Laura Osnes (with Max Crumm) in Grease
	photo by Joan Marcus

Question: You also had guest stars come in, so that probably helped too, I would think, to keep things fresh.
Osnes: Yeah, ["American Idol" winner] Taylor Hicks came in and brought a new rush of fans, which was great, a new excitement to the show.

Question: Are you still in touch with Max?
Osnes: Yes, we probably text every couple days, and we call at least once a month. . . . He moved back to L.A. ten days after we left [Grease] last summer. I know he's in a band with some of his friends over there. He did a play called Killing Diaz that I think he just finished. He's auditioning. He has since changed managers and is, I think, enjoying L.A. life. He liked New York, but I think he was definitely ready to get back to his L.A. life.

Question: Didn't you two have some sort of option with NBC?
Osnes: When we signed our Grease contracts, there was a separate contract that came with it that [said that] NBC owned us for the year after we finished Grease. But, to be honest, I never heard from NBC again. I think they did that for their safety in case there was something they wanted us for — they would have first priority for us, they would have first pick, but I never heard from them again. I think that was just a precaution for them if "Grease: You're the One That I Want" did a reunion show or something like that. [Laughs.] They would have first pick of us.

Question: You were also recently part of the Three Generations concerts at Kennedy Center. What was it like playing that theatre?
Osnes: Oh my gosh, that was fabulous! It was a short little one-month gig in DC, but it was during the early fall, so the weather was beautiful. There were still flowers blooming. It seemed so much warmer than New York. It was kind of fun to get out of the city for a short amount of time. The cast of that was phenomenal, probably the most star-studded cast I had been a part of up to that point. Lonny Price was the director, and he was simply fantastic. He's such an actor's director. He really is good at encouraging actors and lifting them up in the midst of giving them constructive criticism. I almost wish it could have lasted longer. We only did five performances. We had two weeks of rehearsal and put together this pretty amazing show in such a short time.

Question: You were in the Bye Bye Birdie section, right?
Osnes: Yes, I played Kim MacAfee in Bye Bye Birdie. Actually, there was a big tap number in Girl Crazy, and one of the girls had injured her ankle a week before we were supposed to start. The dance captain said, "Laura, you can tap, right?" And I was like, "Uh, yeah?" [Laughs.] So I learned her part, and they plugged me into the tap number. I learned it in a few days and went on. [Laughs.] So I got to be in that, too, which was fun.

	Laura Osnes in South Pacific
	photo by Joan Marcus

Question: Getting to South Pacific, how did this role come about?
Osnes: Oh my goodness. My husband just did South Pacific at a theatre on Hilton Head Island in South Carolina over Thanksgiving and Christmas, so I was down there watching him do the show. We went on vacation in January to Florida, and I got the call while I was in Florida. My agent [said], "Laura, Kelli O'Hara is pregnant, and they are interested in seeing you for the role of Nellie in South Pacific." And I [thought], "Oh my gosh, how ironic." . . . . That was [also] the first time I had heard [that Kelli was pregnant] . . . . It was pretty exciting, so I came back and I had my audition. I think it was either end of January or early February. It went well, but I literally was ten years younger than a lot of the girls there. I was kind of like, "Well that's nice of Telsey to bring me in," but I didn't go into it thinking I had a chance . . . [and] I was shocked to hear that I got a callback.

I went in for the callback and Bartlett Sher, the director, really worked with me for 45 minutes at my callback. It felt like a rehearsal and a work session. That was really nice, because I thought, "Great, they're kind of giving me a chance. They're letting me work, they're giving me notes. It's really nice." [The callback] was three songs from the show and two big scenes. We worked on that at my callback, and then I got another call saying they wanted me to come back and sing for the Rodgers and Hammerstein estate, which is basically the daughters of Rodgers and Hammerstein, Alice and Mary. . . . they have to approve whoever is cast. By that point I had heard it was down to three girls. So I was like, "Wow, they're really considering me for this! Okay!" [Laughs.] I was all excited, of course, but it was nerve-wracking, so I went in and sang for them. That was my second callback then. By that point it was almost two weeks later, from my initial audition, and I was [thinking], "Okay, I hope this is over!" [Laughs.] And I got a call that night from my agent, saying, "Laura they want you to go through one more round. They want to do a chemistry test with [co-star] Paulo [Szot]." So that was my final callback. A couple days later Paulo came in, and we read two of the scenes together. The director had called after my Rodgers and Hammerstein audition and said, "Laura, we want you to go through one more round. We're going to bring you in with Paulo. We didn't think we would go with someone this young, and we just want to make sure that this is going to work." So I was honored [and thought], "Wow, that basically means that if all goes well with Paulo, this role gets to be mine!" [Laughs.] Everything went great with Paulo. It was so great to meet him, and he was incredibly gracious and friendly and wonderful and easy to work with even though it was new and awkward for me. And then I got the call that afternoon from my agent. He said, "How would you like to wash your hair eight times a week?" And I just about died!

Question: So it was a pretty lengthy audition process, although I guess not as long as it was on TV for Grease.
Osnes: Right. It was spread over two weeks, but it was my initial audition and then three callbacks. It was a lot but not quite as extensive as the reality show.

Question: I would think, after the Grease casting show, no audition really stresses you that much.
Osnes: That's true! [Laughs.] I've probably survived through the worst of it.

Question: I know when an actor replaces in a role, there often isn't that much rehearsal time. What was the rehearsal experience like for this?
Osnes: I got three weeks, which was really nice. It was mostly with the stage manager Mike [Brunner] and the dance captain Wendi [Bergamini, who also plays one of the nurses in South Pacific]. I was learning all what I had to do, and then a week-and-a-half in, I got a rehearsal with the understudies. The understudies came in, and we kind of did a stumble through, which was incredibly helpful. And then David Pittsinger, who is playing my Emile for my first month — Paulo is out on an opera gig until April 12 — so I'm going on with David. David and I started last Wednesday together, so we had about a week before I started performances, which was very helpful as well. I got a few days to work with him and work out our little moments and figure out what we wanted to do. Bartlett came in one or two times for rehearsal the week before to kind of polish things up and continue adding layers, and then I had my put-in on Friday [March 6] and then I went on on Tuesday [March 10].

Question: What was the first performance like onstage?
Osnes: Oh my gosh, it was unreal. My heart was definitely fluttering the whole time, but I eased into it. As the show kept going, every scene got a little easier and a little easier. My first performance felt very safe. I just felt, "I'm gonna do what I need to do and go where I need to go and make sure that I get everything done that I need to get done." Even by Wednesday, I felt much more relaxed and much more at ease and was able to enjoy it a lot more.

Question: Did you get to talk to Kelli O'Hara at all? Did she have any advice about the role?
Osnes: I did trail her a week before I went on, which was really great. She was so cute and so funny. She was like, "All of this will be different for you because I'm pregnant and you're not, and we've had to change a lot of things." [Laughs.] She was so cute and so nice and friendly and wonderful. It was really great to get to meet her and work with her a little bit. There wasn't really advice she was passing off, but I remember at her closing party I gave her a hug goodbye and she said, "Knock 'em dead!" And I was like, "I will! I'll do it justice." So that was really sweet. She was wonderful.

Question: How is it like playing that vast stage?
Osnes: Oh my gosh, the stage is enormous! I feel like it's a mile from one end to the other. [Laughs.] The theatre is 1,047 seats or something like that, which is slightly smaller than the Brooks Atkinson where Grease was. So the house is about the same size or slightly smaller, but the stage is massive. It's incredible. It's really cool to play on the thrust stage. It really affects the staging. We play a lot on diagonals, and the audience is right there. The front row is right there. There's the temptation to make it really intimate, but you also have to remember that there's a balcony of people that are like two stories above you, and you have to remember to play to them, too. But it's a beautiful house, and I think the set is so well-designed that it really brings you into that world without really trying. And that sand dune up in the back into the beach… it's gorgeous. It's really, really fun.  Continued...