By Andrew Gans
29 Apr 2005

Q: Did you base Margaret on anyone you know?
Clark: I was born and raised in Dallas, but both my grandmothers are from the middle South, not the Deep South. My father's mother spent her whole life in North Carolina, and my mom's mom was from Tennessee, which is not the same vocal dialect, but it's the same gracefulness — very much strong women, great senses of humor, survivors, children during the Depression with a million bible verses and little things coming out all the time: "waste not, want not," "pretty is as pretty does." I don't feel that Margaret is terribly religious, although she certainly has a spiritual epiphany by the end of the show. I wouldn't say she was particularly religious as both my grandmothers were, but [like them, Margaret has] that kind of wry sense of humor and audacious spirit and courageous heart and compassion and being a good mother. I have many aunts and my own mother and two fantastic grandmothers to draw from, so there's a little bit of everybody in there! [Laughs.] Some of my friends have a good time picking out what things come from which matriarch. I pay homage to everybody in one place or another. There's a little Aunt Barbara here, my Aunt Jane there, my grandmothers here, my mom there. They all get air time.

Q: Are any of those women around to see the show?
Clark: Well, my maternal grandmother passed away the third week of rehearsals unfortunately. She was 102, and I was very, very close to her, and my other grandmother passed away a long time ago. My mom certainly has seen it in every city and was here on opening night. And my Aunt Barbara will be able to come, so some of the aunts will be on hand.

Q: Since you do have a young child [Thomas Luke Guest, age 10], I was wondering how that affects your performance.
Clark: It's everything. Not to say that I couldn't do it if I had never had a child, but I really wouldn't know the first place to start. Actually, my whole career turned around when I had my son. I have no idea why it worked that way. You would think it would be the opposite. I was cast in How to Succeed right after he was born, so things didn't really even heat up for me until he was born. He's been my good luck charm from the very beginning. He's a real easygoing, fun kid, so he goes everywhere and meets everybody. He's studying cello with the first cello [player] of our orchestra. And, his cello teacher from school played in the orchestra yesterday because they added strings for the recording [session], so both of his cello teachers were in the recording studio today. [Laughs.] It's just really fun to be his mom, and I'm sure that really colors my performance in this piece or anytime I would play a mother. Because Margaret and Clara are so close, I know what that feels like, and I think that's easy to be convincing in that aspect.

Q: Have you ever been to Italy?
Clark: Yes, I went when I was in college. I studied abroad and I visited Florence and Venice when I was 19. And then I took a trip this past June and took my son and bunches of friends and my mom and stepdad and my brother, and we all rented a big villa outside of Florence with two cottages and a swimming pool, stayed in Florence for a few days and drove all around the Tuscan countryside and hiked around. The boys loved just playing soccer in the backyard and swimming and doing diving contests. But that was a key trip for me to get all of those sights and smells into my body again, and [I'm] really grateful that I had that opportunity.

Q: I think the score is beautiful, yet it seems like it's a demanding one vocally. How difficult is it to sing eight times a week?
Clark: Actually, the singing is not as difficult as the speaking. The singing is really psychological, so for me it's an extension of speech. I've learned it, I've gone over it, but [it's] unlike other music, which I drill into my brain and I'm in a musician's head when I do it. In this show I'm not, which is sort of a blessing and a curse. I never move into musician mode in this role at all. I stay completely in actor head. My friend Ted Sperling, who's conducting the show, sometimes he'll look at me and go, "Uh, that is not the rhythm at all." [Laughs.] I just look back at him like a four-year-old because I am not thinking in terms of how it's notated. I'm thinking in terms of how it would be spoken, the rhythm, if it were spoken. Even though I've done the part for a long time, I still have to be reminded from time to time that "this is the rhythm of this particular phrase or these are the pitches." Right now, they are so an extension of a psychological or an emotional moment. Adam and Ted have been very patient with me about working with me in that way. It's been worth it — it's taken a long time to bake, but it's been very freeing. I don't suddenly go from "Okay, now my scene's over, now I'm starting to sing." [Laughs.] It's not a big break for me going from scene into song. . . The music is a heightened gesture — the words that are harder to express or the words that are deeper. I think it's brilliantly constructed. It's such a fantastic challenge, and I'm thrilled to give it a go every night.

Q: You have such a versatile voice — when did you start singing?
Clark: The grandmother that I spoke about started me on music lessons when I was six. Her name was Agnes Howard [laughs]; she's giggling now wherever she is. So I started singing and taking piano lessons really early on. I pretty much studied something or other musical until sophomore year in college [when] I stopped singing and started to direct. And I directed for three years in college and performed every now and then but not a whole lot. I came to New York to direct . . . and was getting offers all over the place to start directing, mostly operas and educational pieces for young audiences. I became overwhelmed because I never really went to school for directing. I was just sort of an instinctive director, knowing what was right. Of course, I was really young, I was 21 years old. [Laughs.] "Hmm, you're very young to be directing. Who are you?" It was fine at Yale because everybody was young doing everything, but when I got out of school . . . I felt that maybe I needed more training, so I decided — with some advice from my family — to see if I could get my Equity card and maybe learn more about acting. So professional acting was just kind of a lark, just an experiment really. It was just crazy that one thing led to the next and the next. . . . I really do want to get back to directing. I did a little something this year at the 92nd Street Y for the "Lyrics and Lyricists" series, a Mack Gordon evening with Jason Graae and Christine Andreas.

Q: Did you enjoy directing again?
Clark: I loved it. It was just fantastic — so much fun.

Q: One of my favorite musicals of the last decade or so is Titanic. What was your experience like with that show?
Clark: [Piazza] reminds me a lot of [Titanic] just in terms of the cycle of it. It was a new piece, a new score. People didn't really know too much about it. Hopefully Piazza has mostly positive buzz. With Titanic, people were laughing during the show. They just thought it was the most hilarious thing — everybody was just out for blood. All the way through previews we had this very embarrassing four-minute pause, which we called "The Pause," while we had to figure out the hydraulic system and how to get the sinking [of the ship] to happen. It took 'em a long time to solve that. [Laughs.] It was just one of those great things where Rosie O'Donnell came and believed in it and sent a bunch of people [to the show]. I'm hoping we'll have some champions of this piece, people who will come out and say [that Light in the Piazza] is a masterpiece and encourage people to come and see it . . . I really hope people can recognize Craig and Adam and Bart for what [they've created] and encourage everyone to come out and see it.

Q: Do you see any similarities between Margaret and Titanic's Alice Beane?
Clark: I think they're both charming — they're both charmers. I think they're both in struggling marriages. They're both at turning points in their lives wanting more and struggling with finding the courage to go after it.

Q: Do you think Margaret would have made it onto a lifeboat?
Clark: I don't know, I'm sure she would have made sure Clara got on. I would like to think that she would have gone after a young girl, someone younger than herself, and given her place up. I don't see her jumping on in lieu of a younger person. If anything, she would have tossed her shoes off and swum around! I think she would have jumped and just taken her chances.

Q: Since it was recently Stephen Sondheim's 75th birthday, I was wondering what your experience was like in this season's Sondheim revue Opening Doors.
Clark: Oh, [it was] fantastic, being around all that amazing music all night long [Sondheim] came in — he's always supportive. He loves actors; he's so genuine and funny and supportive and warm. Great people — Kate Baldwin and Jan Maxwell and Eric Jordan Young and Gregg Edelman — all people I'd never worked with but always admired.

Q: Do you have any other projects in the works?
Clark: I have some things I can't really talk about, but for right now I'm really focused on giving as much energy to every audience that comes [to The Light in the Piazza]. To do it well takes a lot of concentration and physical energy.

[The Light in the Piazza plays the Vivian Beaumont Theater at Lincoln Center; call (212) 239-6200 for tickets.]

DIVA TIDBITS

Annie Golden, most recently on Broadway in The Full Monty, will be part of the cast of the North Shore Music Theatre's upcoming mounting of Cinderella. Golden will play the Fairy Godmother in the Rodgers and Hammerstein musical, which will be presented at the Massachusetts theatre July 5-24. The North Shore is currently presenting Thoroughly Modern Millie through May 15. Fame: The Musical follows, May 31-June 19. Visit www.nsmt.org for more information.

Sandy Duncan and husband Don Correia will team for a weekend of concerts at the Kennedy Center for the Performing Arts next year. From Feb. 16-18, 2006, the singing actors-dancers will appear in A Celebration of Broadway's Best. Part of the National Symphony Orchestra Pops season, the evenings will also feature vocalist Guy Stroman and conductor Jack Lee. The show, according to production notes, is "loosely based on how the three performers (Duncan, Correia and Stroman) met and began working in the business" and features songs from such Broadway musicals as Peter Pan, Gypsy, The Pajama Game, The Music Man, Singin’ in the Rain, Guys and Dolls and Company. Visit www.kennedy-center.org for more information.

The late cabaret artist Nancy LaMott will be celebrated during two concerts to benefit The Storefront Theatre next month. On May 23 (at 7 PM) and May 24 (at 9 PM) stars from the worlds of cabaret and musical theatre will assemble at The Duplex Cabaret Theatre to honor the memory and talent of the late LaMott, who lost her battle with cancer in 1995 at the age of 44. The concerts, entitled We Miss Nancy: The Storefront Sings LaMott, will feature direction by Phil Geoffrey Bond and musical direction by Ray Fellman. Among the artists scheduled to interpret the songs recorded by LaMott are Scott Ailing, Lisa Asher, Bobby Belfry, Nick Cearley, Scott Coulter, Brandon Cutrell, Nikki Renee Daniels, Baby Jane Dexter, Suzanne Fiore, David Friedman, Maria Gentile, Sara Gettelfinger, David Gurland, Rick Jensen, Audrey Lavine, Karen Mack, Liz McCartney, Carolyn Montgomery, Phillip Officer, Kate Pazakis, Julie Reyburn, Ricky Ritzel, Marty Thomas and Shonn Wiley. The two evenings will feature a rotating cast; the schedule of performers will be announced shortly. The Duplex Cabaret Theatre is located at 61 Christopher Street. For reservations, call (212) 255-5438.

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

Victoria Clark and Kelli O'Hara in The Light in the Piazza
photo by Joan Marcus

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