By Andrew Gans
06 May 2005

Q: Do you have a favorite role?
Boone: So far, the best role for me was here on the West Coast doing The King and I. I only got to do that for about five or six weeks, and that wasn't enough. . . It's such a well-written show. There are so many dimensions to [Anna's] character, and for me, I think one of the reasons I really loved it is that every other show that I've done I've been playing so young, and so [there was the] depth of being able to really hit the stage as a woman instead of [as] Maria or Rizzo.

Q: I also wanted to discuss "You Light Up My Life." I remember I was a kid when that song came out. Looking back at that phenomenon, how do you remember it?
Boone: You know, it was Mr. Toad's Wild Ride! It really was. [Laughs.] I was asked to do the song, and I flew to New York so excited, thinking, "This is the beginning of the long, hard climb. I'm finally doing, literally, my first solo recording." I didn't have any idea, not an inkling, that it would be successful. I just liked it, went into the studio, did my best and walked out really not expecting much. I knew it was from a movie, so I figured at least people will hear it as they advertise the movie. But I just had no idea. I was out on the road with my family — doing the "Pat Boone Family Show" — and ["You Light Up My Life"] hit the charts, and it started ascending quickly. We put it in the show, and every week it got more and more exciting. And, suddenly, it's number one, and then it's number one for ten weeks, and I'm pinching myself going, "Is this true? Am I dreaming? Am I going to wake up from this?" For two years I felt like that because it was just a whirlwind of this variety show and that guest appearance and Academy Awards and Grammys, and I'd only ever had the experience of singing with my three sisters! So, it was scary and exciting and wonderful. It was just an amazing experience.

Q: I was trying to think this morning whether that kind of hit is possible today, where every person in the country heard and knew the song. That kind of hit doesn't happen so much anymore.
Boone: It doesn't seem to, and this was really one of those phenomenons, which, as I said, was Mr. Toad's Wild Ride. On the way down, it was pretty frightening, too. "Hold your breath, here we go." You're going to go long and hard down because there's no way to recover from something like that. Anything you put out after that cannot be as good, so you're already losing ground — and rapidly. [Laughs.] So that was an adjustment because you think when it's that successful that your next thing is going to be successful. And my next many things were not successful. It was a rough adjustment, but then, when it got quiet again, I was able to get the kind of experience I needed. I started my career feeling secretly apologetic, "Are they going to figure out I have no earthly idea what I'm doing here?" And that, I think, is what makes right now so exciting, that I don't have that feeling anymore. I've had so much work. Even though I'm raising my four kids, and I haven't had the kind of career some career strategist [might suggest], I've done theatre, I've written books, I've done some acting in film and TV and traveled all over with theatre and concerts, recorded a lot of albums, worked with Rosemary for many years, so now I have weight to what I do. It's grounding me. I'm not feeling like I'm dangling on the edge of a cliff.

Q: Do you have any other projects in the works?
Boone: Well, we're building on this [CD and show]. I'm so excited to be doing something that I have never done, which is cabaret. I think that I'm going to be crazy about this much more up-close-and-personal way to sing my songs, not up on a big stage where I don't see anybody but right in the middle of people singing these kinds of songs. So I want to do that a lot more, and I am hoping and believing this album will lead to the next album.

Q: One last question: What do you think Rosemary Clooney would have thought about this show?
Boone: It's always awkward to put words in somebody else's mouth, so I won't put words in her mouth, but I know that she would be incredibly moved at the depth of this. . . This is so personally directed toward letting people know what an incredible woman, what an incredible singer and incredible mother-in-law and grandmother Rosemary was and how grateful we all are [to her], and that is in every song that I sing on that CD. I think she'd be very, very moved, and I know she'd be proud of the musicianship of it, what John [Oddo] and the guys did. The tracks are phenomenal, and I think she'd be really proud of what I did, too.

[Debby Boone plays Feinstein's at the Regency (540 Park Avenue) May 10 21. Show times are Tuesdays-Saturdays at 8:30 PM with late shows Friday and Saturday evenings at 11 PM. All shows have a $60 cover charge and a $40 minimum; call (212) 339-4095 for reservations.]

DIVA TIDBITS
As plans continue for the upcoming Broadway revival of Sweeney Todd, another production of the Stephen Sondheim musical has been announced with an equally high-profile cast. Tony Award winners Betty Buckley and Shuler Hensley will play, respectively, the pie-baking Mrs. Lovett and the knife-wielding Sweeney Todd in a production of the award-winning musical in Odessa, TX. Jonathan Tunick will conduct the orchestra for the July Sweeney Todd engagement at the Ector Theater; Tony Georges directs. Sweeney Todd replaces the previously announced Little Shop of Horrors and will play the Ector July 7-24. The Ector season also features Beauty and the Beast (June 2-19), Bernadette Peters in concert (Aug. 5) and Gypsy (Aug. 11-28). The latter will star Olivier Award winner Maria Friedman as Momma Rose. For tickets or more information call (432) 337-9595.

Original Little Shop of Horrors star Ellen Greene will make her eagerly awaited London concert debut next month. Greene and Christian Klikovits will present a week of Torch! songs at London's New Players Theatre, June 18-27. Greene will offer preview performances June 18 at 9:45 PM and June 19 at 8 PM before her official opening 8 PM on June 20. She and musical director/pianist/arranger Klikovits will then play June 22-25 at 9:45 PM and June 26 and 27 at 8 PM. Concertgoers can expect to hear tunes from Greene's critically acclaimed debut solo recording, "In His Eyes," which features such songs as "Pretty Pretty," "Winter," "When Love Is Gone" and "Throwing Stones." The actress- singer — backed by piano, bass and cello — will also perform her signature tunes from Little Shop of Horrors, "Suddenly Seymour" and "Somewhere That's Green." The New Players Theatre is located in London at the Arches, Villiers Street. Reservations can be made by calling 0870 033 2626.

Stephanie D'Abruzzo, the Tony-nominated star of Avenue Q, will cross Eighth Avenue to make her solo cabaret debut May 23 at Birdland. Part of Jim Caruso's "New Season," D'Abruzzo will present her program at 7 PM. Alan Muraoko is set to direct the evening, which will feature musical direction by Altar Boyz co-composer Michael Patrick Walker. Cabaretgoers can expect to hear tunes by Cy Coleman, Burt Bacharach, Neil Sedaka, Phoebe Kreutz, Gary Adler and Michael Patrick Walker. Birdland is located in Manhattan at 315 West 44th Street, between Eighth and Ninth Avenues. There is a $25 cover charge and a $10 food/drink minimum; call (212) 581-3080 for reservations or visit www.instantseats.com/birdland.

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