By Andrew Gans
16 Jul 2010

	Brian d'Arcy James,
	photo by Joan Marcus

Although her last performance on Broadway is upon her, Ripley will not be leaving the demanding role for too long; in fact, the Tony winner will head the cast of the musical's national tour, which launches Nov. 23 in Los Angeles. Ripley says she has only toured one other time when she played the ill-fated Fantine in the epic Les Miserables. "I was understudying Marcia Mitzman in Tommy on Broadway, and she was out a lot and I was going on for her, and I [knew I would not be asked to take over the role because] I was too young. So when I was offered the role of Fantine on the road in Les Miz, I took it, and I left the Tommy company early, which is crazy. That's what I'm doing now, and that's kind of how it ties in. What I'm doing now is leaving a Broadway company that's running, which is insane! I mean, that's crazy," Ripley laughs. "It's a successful show, and you're an actor that's always wanting to be in a successful show, and you're leaving it voluntarily. That's what I did with Tommy to go do Fantine in Les Miz on the road, because I wanted to play Fantine so badly. I wanted to play a role because I was understudying at the time. It was only like half a year — it wasn't that long. We hit some major cities, but it was mostly one-weekers. Our tour for Next to Normal, we have some cities that we stay in a little bit longer, so that's good."

Ripley says the idea of touring with Normal was actually not her idea. "In all honesty," she explains, "it was suggested to me that I stay until this weekend and take a break and then go out and do the tour. And I thought it was a great suggestion. I was like, 'Hmm. Sounds good!'

"There's a limited amount of time that I can play Diana," she adds. "It might not be as limited as some other roles, and maybe it's not limited at all, but from where I see it, at least from a physical stamina point, I have to take breaks. So it's good that there will be other people playing her, and then when the tour was offered to me, I thought it made sense because I want to continue to play Diana, and I'm honored to be the one that takes her out to the United States . . . because I've had my personal perspective of the show for so long. It's been marinating so long, and I hope it's going to be interesting to people. . . . I don't think being on the road is going to be easy, but I think it will be worth the work, because every night, the audience shows me appreciation for the work that we've done, and I can't imagine that it would be different. The show appeals to the heart of the audience member, and everybody has one."

Ripley will be accompanied on the tour by her husband, musician Shannon Ford, who is the musical's drummer. "When we're at work, we try to keep things separate," Ripley says. "It's a challenge. I mean, even when it comes down to talking about him in an interview, I wouldn't bring him up if you didn't. Again, with this role, that is so all over the place emotionally, I feel like I have to be really business-like with my business so that I know there's at least a line there," she laughs, "because the rest of it is all, anything goes!"

Prior to the show's national tour, Ripley has a few other engagements on her calendar. She will perform two concerts at BACKSTAGE dopo teatro in Manhattan (July 31 and Aug. 28 at 9:30 PM), and she will be among the guest teaching artists when the Broadway Dreams Foundation offers its Summer Performing Arts Intensive Aug. 2-8 at the Kimmel Center for the Performing Arts in Philadelphia.

About the former Ripley says, "I'm so excited about these concerts. It's only an hour, and I'm calling it My Daily Practice . . . . and it's literally what I do every day as far as the practice that I do as a musician, but also I think I might be reading a little bit or I'm thinking about doing a monologue from a show that strikes me. This is what I do every day when I wake up. I have this time where I practice. I'm either playing an instrument or I'm singing or I'm reading a play out loud, if not a monologue, or doing some kind of physical work. With [playing] Diana the night before, I do a little physical work the next morning to get back to a level playing field. You know, stretching and breathing and steaming with a hot towel and hot showers and icing the face and whatever I can do to feel normal again. I won't be doing that in the gig, though," she laughs. "I'll be playing instruments and I might do a monologue. I might talk to the audience and ask them what they might want me to do. It's like a play time for me, so it's me saying, 'Here I am in my daily practice. Do you want to come and watch?' . . . . And I want the audience to give me feedback, so I'm going to hand out surveys to the audience members and ask them to tell me what they liked and what they didn't like and what I should practice."

Ripley says her teaching opportunities have arisen "because the people that I went to school with are now heads of departments at colleges and universities. So they bring me in for a weekend and they're like, 'Why don't you do this?' I started out not really knowing what I was doing, of course, but . . . . I've been doing it for a while. I have developed a set of guidelines, I guess, that apply to living life as an artist and doing it with joy. I'll talk about that, basically, and then sometimes the students will get up and sing for me, either with or without a piano. I guess what I'm doing is coaching them on whatever it looks like they might want to be coached on. I always get a lot out of it. I really enjoy being around a student of any age that's interested in musical theatre [because he or she] is most likely to be very excited about that. And, that's intoxicating to be around. I like being around that. It's nice to remember that that's in me, too. . . . So that's probably why I keep going back and saying yes to this teaching opportunity because I love being around that energy."

[For more information about Ripley's concerts, click here. For more information about The Broadway Dreams Foundation, click here. Next to Normal currently plays the Booth Theatre. Visit NexttoNormal.]

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