Veanne Cox

Though she is best known to theatrical audiences for her work Off-Broadway in such plays as House/Garden, Freedomland, Labor Day, The Batting Cage and The Food Chain, actress Veanne Cox has delighted Broadway fans in the short-lived musical Smile and the Neil Simon comedy The Dinner Party. But it's her work in two high-profile musicals in which she has shone most brightly: in a comical, Tony-nominated turn as frenzied bride Amy in the 1995 revival of Stephen Sondheim's Company and, currently, in the emotionally charged Jeanine Tesori-Tony Kushner musical Caroline, or Change.

In the latter Cox tackles what may be the most difficult role of her career, a stepmother in 1960's Louisiana caught in the midst of two separate battles: one with her maid Caroline, who is battling for her own dignity and the welfare of her family; and a battle to win the love of her stepson and the support and attention of her new husband. Though a demanding part, Cox manages to bring much-needed humor to the musical as she imbues Rose Stopnick Gellman with just the right amounts of dignity and humanity. I recently had the chance to chat with the humorous actress, who candidly discussed her role in Caroline as well as her work as heckler Toby, who lost a toe on one of the greatest episodes of the Emmy-winning TV series "Seinfeld." That interview follows.

Q: Were you involved in the workshops of the musical?
VC: Yes, I was involved pretty much from the beginning. I think I missed the first workshop, but from then on I did all of the workshops over the last two or three years.

Q: How do you think your role or your performance or the show has changed since the Off-Broadway run?
VC: On a personal note, I think it's changed my performance immensely. Even now my performance is still morphing. When you play something that is so beautifully written, it's like living a real life on the stage. So, day to day things grow and change just like in real life. It's such a lovely thing — you don't have to work so hard to try and make it alive. This is where you have to rise up to the level of life that's actually there on the page. I also think the play itself expands with the space. It could play an enormous opera house of 15,000 [capacity], and it played beautifully down at the Public. I think its proportions expand with the space that it's in. I've seen plays ruined or made by the actual space that they're in, so I think that that is a real factor, but in this particular piece, I think it's better on Broadway. I think it's become bigger and more expansive in terms of its breadth and life, and that it fills the space beautifully and becomes more magical. . . . Down at the Public, that's a small, sort of cavernous or tunnel-like space, and that didn't lend itself quite as well to the piece.

Q: Do you find audience reaction different in the two venues?
VC: No, I think the audience — which goes back to what I said regarding the spatial relationship of the play, I think you get what you get — reaction was very supportive throughout. But there is something to be said [about being on Broadway]. God knows, I'm like Miss Off-Broadway [laughs] because I've basically dedicated my life to doing new works Off-Broadway. I love Off-Broadway, and I think it's so valuable and wonderful, but there is something magical, there's something special about Broadway — the audience's expectations and what they're given. You rise to the level of what's expected of you. . . . Personally, I think that [the move from Off Broadway to Broadway] had the same effect on me. Down at the Public, it was very difficult to go back to 1963 and play to an audience that exists in 2004 and do the things that I'm asked to do, which is to offer [Caroline] literally pennies. And it's embarrassing. One of my greatest achievements in the role is not [as] an actress, but just getting over my own reaction to the pettiness of the gesture in today's ideals. That was very big for me down at the Public, and I felt like I apologized a lot just for my existence. And for some reason on Broadway, because of the expanse, because of the more breadth, the more space, I feel like there's a little more life to be lived. The audience isn't so close saying, 'Oh dear God. What on earth does she think she's doing?'

Q: Was that difficult in rehearsals with the other actors — did your embarrassment for the character hinder your work with your co-stars?
VC: No, because [director] George [C. Wolfe] allowed every fiber that came up to be put under a microscope and magnified and understood. So we weren't allowed or expected to hide anything.

Q: Your character in the musical is in a very difficult position as a new wife and stepmother. Was there anyone you drew on for your performance?
VC: I don't have a connection to stepmothers in my life, but I do have a connection to loss because my brother died of leukemia when I was a child. My mother took on a maid for a brief period of time after that happened because there were three other kids to take care of, and it was overwhelming for her. So, she took on a maid for a very brief period of time, and the reason it was brief is she couldn't deal with the situation of not being able to have this maid become an equitable part of the family structure. So I totally relate to the character, not as a stepmother, but certainly in terms of the loss that's in the family and the family structure breakdown because of loss. And also the maid situation, I also had an experience with that.

Q: Because it's such a difficult role, I was wondering if you have any nightly rituals or preparations before you go onstage. How do you get ready for a show?
VC: Oh, my God. That's so personal! [Laughs.] Well, I do . . . I always do a vocal and a physical warm-up. Vocally it's based on Kristen Linkletter; physically it's based on yoga and Suzuki. On top of the Suzuki, which is basically stomping, I do physical punching into the air to get rid of all the fear and the loathing of having to walk out onstage and deal with the anger and resentment that's thrown at me each night [by the other characters in the musical].

Q: Is that difficult to deal with?
VC: Oh my God. [Laughs.] There are times when I just want to throw up my hands and say, 'Forget it. I'm out of [this house].' Or, I want to fire the maid. [Laughs.] There are times when I just want to look at [Caroline] and say, 'Okay, you're fired. Get out.' But I can't do that. [Laughs.] Or I just want to leave the household. I just want to say, 'Well, forget it. I am giving my life to you.' I have offered my life to this man to save his family and to become the mother of this child that hates me and a man that is completely shut off from my love and affection and [my] desire to achieve a successful family structure. She has done it for love, and she's giving 100 percent, and she's getting absolutely nothing back. She's getting more than nothing back — she's getting negative energy thrust at her constantly. [Laughs.] And, so every night before I go on, I literally punch until I'm out of breath because I have to be really, really strong in order to survive it.

Q: How long are you contracted with the show?
VC: Nine months. [Laughs.] I don't know how long I'll hold up . . . . because the audience initially responds to her with negative energy as well — like, 'Oh my God, who does this woman think she is?' And then musically — I'm not the world's gift to musical theatre, [laughs] but musically I'm thrust what I've been told is an incredibly difficult role. I just did it because it was my job. . . [Some nights I feel like] I pull notes out of thin air. Truly, I believe that it's divine intervention, and sometimes it escapes [laughs], sometimes I pull them out of the air wrong. For the most part those notes come somehow, from somewhere. I truly think the whole show has some divine energy behind it.

Q: Caroline definitely touches people in a place that many shows don't.
VC: Not that many shows even try to — they don't make an effort to go to those places.

Q: You were also on one of my favorite 'Seinfeld' episodes. What was that experience like?
VC: [Laughs.] It was fabulous . . . Several people have told me over the years that it's their favorite episode because it's a really funny episode, and I got to be really funny. And that's what I brought out most from the experience. It was terrifying to go into this fabric of people that was just perfect. The good thing about it was that Jerry Seinfeld — and not everybody is like this — he wants people to be as funny as they can be. He does not get in their way. He does not say, 'Oh no, I'm the funny one.' He says, 'Carte blanche. Go for it. Be funny. Do your thing.' He was the most magnanimous, generous comic person that I've ever worked with on television.

Q: It was smart of him because he wanted to have the best show he could.
VC: Exactly! And that's how you get the best show is by telling everybody, 'Be funny.' It was a tremendous experience, and his generosity was wonderful.

Q: I would think that you probably get recognized a lot from that performance.
VC: I do. You know what, I get people recognizing me from behind my back. People come around because they hear my voice or they hear me laugh. I guess I have a distinct voice. I don't know whether that's good or bad — whether it's irritatingly distinctive [laughs] or just distinctive. People recognize me just from my voice. People say that coming to the theatre. They'll say, 'I knew I knew you from somewhere, and then I heard you speak, and I was like, "Oh my God. That's that girl from 'Seinfeld.'"'

Q: Are you involved in any other projects at the moment?
VC: Because my family was in town for only three days, I actually turned down a reading of a new Chris Durang play, but I loved it so much. I want to do it so badly. That's the one that really intrigued me, and I think he's written a beautiful play. I'd love to be part of it. I have to contact him and tell him why I said no. It certainly wasn't because of the material — I just loved it.

Q: And, last question, when people hear your name, what would you like them to think?
VC: You know, all I've ever wanted was to be a great lady of the theatre. At this point, I wouldn't call myself a great lady of the theatre, [but] I'd call myself a lady of the theatre because it is my great passion. It is the only thing I'm passionate about — I don't even own a television!

[Caroline, or Change plays the Eugene O'Neill Theatre, 230 West 49th Street; call (212) 239-6200 or visit www.telecharge.com for tickets.]

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