ANNALEIGH ASHFORD
Annaleigh Ashford, who let her soprano soar as Glinda in the hit Stephen Schwartz-Winnie Holzman musical Wicked, is currently belting her heart out eight times a week as performance artist Maureen, the part created on Broadway by Tony winner Idina Menzel, in the freshly conceived production of the late Jonathan Larson's Pulitzer Prize and Tony-winning musical Rent at Off-Broadway's New World Stages. Ashford, who has also been seen on Broadway in Legally Blonde, draws the biggest laughs of the evening when she presents her performance piece, "Over the Moon." In fact, the New York Times said the singing actress added "a revitalizing grit to her role. She is more precise and funnier than was Ms. Menzel (whose strengths were of a different stripe) in evoking the particular world of downtown performance that's being satirized here." Last week I had the pleasure of chatting with Ashford about her role in Rent, the rock musical about a group of friends, lovers and artists seeking to express themselves in the age of AIDS; that interview follows.

Question: Since we haven't spoken before, tell me where you were born and raised.
Annaleigh Ashford: I was born and raised in Denver, CO.

Question: When did you start performing?
Ashford: I started performing from the womb. [Laughs.] Just kidding! I started performing non-professionally at birthday parties and family gatherings doing "Saturday Night Live" impressions at four. Then I started for real at seven.

Question: When you were growing up, were there any actors or singers that you particularly admired?
Ashford: Early on, I was already a huge fan of Judy Garland, Barbra Streisand, Ethel Merman, Bette Midler. I loved Cher already — basically, I was a young gay man — I also loved Liza, and I had a weird karaoke background tape of Liza Minnelli's greatest hits, and I would put on my fishnet tights and my black leotard and false eyelashes at eight-years-old, and I would sing "City Lights" and "Maybe This Time." "Maybe This Time" was very inappropriate. [Laughs.]

Question: When did performing change for you from being a hobby to when you knew it was going to be your career — or, maybe you always knew?
Ashford: You know, it's so funny you ask me that because my little brother is 18 and is choosing what he wants to do for college, and I had this moment where I realized that I always knew. I never didn't know. It was always something I had to do, and I'm so grateful that my mom, who is actually an elementary school gym teacher, never pushed me. She was never a Mama Rose, but she always wanted to give me the best opportunity. It was me dragging her to auditions. When I did Ruthless! The Musical, with all of these wonderful Denver actors, I knew — at least I hoped — that I would have a life as an actor.