By Andrew Gans
04 Feb 2005

Q: Tell me about the character you play on the show.
Prince: Well, she came from working at a Best Buy. Now, we're not talking about a 20-year-old. She sells Oliver Platt [who plays Russell] a plasma TV and one of those Blackberry phones, and he says he'll buy it if she and other people will come to his house and set it up. She comes to his house, and then he breaks out the drugs and alcohol. He's a lawyer, but he's definitely got a problem. They all do the drugs and the drinking. She's not the brightest bulb in the box, but goes with it. I don't think she's ever done any drugs. She likes to drink, but can't — one drink puts her under. They all get into this incredible party, and it ends up that they have these chicken fights, and they destroy the TV and the house. She comes back on, and we learned last week that she's pregnant. Where their relationship goes is so unique. . .

Q: Have you signed on for more episodes?
Prince: Yes, they've asked me back for next season.

Q: Getting to some of your musicals. One of my favorite shows that you've done is Falsettoland. What was it like revisiting it not too long ago at Playwrights Horizons?
Prince: I loved it. I loved being back with those people. I adore Bill Finn. Lonny Price directed that particular one, but it just brought back very loving memories. It was truly a special experience. Every once in awhile you hit those casts where the people just connect in such a deep way, and you want to savor those moments.

Q: I know Bells Are Ringing was a show you had wanted to do for a long time. I know it probably didn't run as long as you would have liked, but were you able to enjoy the experience?
Prince: I definitely enjoyed working with [director] Tina [Landau] and the cast. That was an incredible experience. The producing of that show was tricky, so that wasn't my favorite. I think, honestly, in my life, I just take the good and go on. That's just my theory, and everything's grist for the mill.

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Q: Do you have any other projects in the works?
Prince: We're booking [engagements for] this album that I'm doing. And then I'll be doing "Huff." I also have a movie coming out, "Our Very Own," that I was in with Allison Janney and Cheryl Hines. We made it last summer in Tennessee. It's a personal story — Cameron Watson directed and wrote it. He's a longtime friend of Allison Janney, and she's the one that got me involved with it. It was so fun because it was Southern, and I am Southern, but people think I'm a Jewish gal from New York [laughs], and it was just so funny to finally play a Southern woman, and I just fused all the women I grew up with in Lynchburg. This character was the president of the women's club, so I had a field day with this character. So, I've really done some interesting stuff this year — I had a guest spot on "House" with Brian Singer. That was the only episode he was directing. He's executive producer of it, but he happened to direct this episode, so that was a very unique experience. Then I did [an episode of] "Monk." It's been an eclectic year, but it's what I wanted. I really wanted to swing left and try some other things. I feel sort of enlightened by the whole thing, and they've asked me to come back a couple times to do certain [Broadway] shows, but I just feel it's not the right one yet.

Q: And do you feel — being in L.A. — that you've had more time for your family?
Prince: Totally, and I'm [also] rested to be able to think of what I want to do next. I think for so many years I would just go, "Oh sure, I'll do that role. Absolutely." I think you don't even realize how tired you are. I think I needed a switch — just to think about what do I want to do and what do I want to create, and that's how this album came out of wanting to do something very specific.

Q: Last question. When people hear the name Faith Prince, what would you like them to think?
Prince: [Long laugh.] A multi-faceted talent.

The remaining tour dates for Over the Rainbow: A Concert Celebrating a Century of Harold Arlen — with Faith Prince and Tom Wopat — follow:
February 4 at the Grand Opera in Wilmington, DE
February 5 at the Staller Center for the Arts in Stony Brook, NY
February 6 at Purchase College in Purchase, NY
February 8 at the Maine Center for the Arts at the University of Maine in Orono, ME
February 10 at Proctors in Schenectady, NY
February 11 at the Hershey Theatre in Hershey, PA
February 12 at the Tilles Center of North Fork Hall in Greenvale, NY
February 13 at the State Theatre in New Brunswick, NJ
February 15 at Strathmore in Rockville, MD
February 18 at UA Centennial Hall in Tucson, AZ
February 19 at Yavapai College in Prescott, AZ
February 20 at the McCallum Theatre in Palm Desert, CA

DIVA TIDBITS

Olivier Award winner Maria Friedman and Tony Award winner Daisy Eagan will head the cast of a production of Gypsy this summer in Odessa, Texas. Friedman, who is currently starring in the London production of The Woman in White, will play that stage mother of stage mothers, Momma Rose, and Eagan will portray her daughter-turned stripper Louise in the limited engagement at the Ector Theatre. Directed by Tony Georges, Gypsy will play Aug. 11-28. "Both [Friedman and Eagan] are extraordinary. And, the roles [in Gypsy] are so well written that everyone wants to do them," director Georges told me earlier this week. Gypsy will be the final production in a three-musical season at the Ector that will also include Beauty and the Beast and Little Shop of Horrors. Georges will direct all three musicals; ticket information will be announced shortly.

Kate Shindle, recently seen in the all-star benefit concert of Pippin, has been cast in the new musical Himself and Nora. Shindle will play Nora Barnacle opposite Matt Bogart's James Joyce in the world premiere of the new musical at San Diego's Old Globe Theatre. Himself and Nora, which is set to run March 16-April 4, features music by Jonathan Brielle, a book by Sheila Walsh and lyrics by Brielle and Walsh. Joseph Hardy will direct. Visit www.theoldglobe.org for more information.

Four-time Tony Award winner Audra McDonald will be among the Broadway stars gracing the stage of Carnegie Hall during the 2005-2006 season. McDonald, who recently opened Lincoln Center's American Songbook season, will return to Carnegie Hall's Isaac Stern Auditorium April 29, 2006. And, the New York Pops season at Carnegie — under the direction of founder and musical director Skitch Henderson — will present "Broadway: The 20th Century" on Friday, Oct. 21, 2005, at 8 PM. The concert will feature the talents of Jekyll & Hyde's Christiane Noll, Jerome Robbins' Broadway's Debbie Gravitte and The Phantom of the Opera's Jan Horvath. For more information about the upcoming Carnegie Hall season, visit www.carnegiehall.org.

After an eight-year wait, the "new" Nancy LaMott recording — taped live at Tavern on the Green just weeks before her untimely death — arrived in stores earlier this week. The superb "Nancy LaMott—Live at Tavern on the Green" is now available in record stores around the country. To read my earlier review of the CD, visit Click Here. Would love to hear your thoughts about this beautiful disc, which features LaMott's renditions of "The People That You Never Get to Love," "Waters of March," "The Promise," "Sailin' On," "Listen to My Heart" and more.

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

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