I was fortunate to play and sing the heck out of the character of Norma in Hands on a Hardbody. This time around, when ETC decided to remount, there really wasn’t a role for me 10 years later, and understudies weren’t cast. Unfortunately, Covid and all of the other horrible things that were cycling through took a few people out, and with a 3-hour rehearsal I stepped into the role of Janis for 13 performances. (Luckily, I had been on the truck before!) I wouldn’t have expected a better group of folks to shove me with love. It really is a terrific, HUMAN musical, and I was so grateful to be able to do it again, even from a different character perspective.
Pride Cabaret Pre-show
Before I was put in, I got to create and headline, alongside THEE Lady Phaedra and Ted Baldwin, a Pride Cabaret for the Theatre as a pre-show for the first preview. I sang such numbers as “Kissing a Fool”, “Here you Come Again” and “What Was I Made For”.
I was also able to give a shoutout to my old college and summer stock colleague, Nicole Scherzinger and honor her recent Olivier win and arrival to Broadway with “As If We Never Said Goodbye” from Sunset Blvd. That news cover pic is us as BABIES in Showboat! She played a beautiful Julie, and I was a strangely-cast Magnolia. (I never did find my way comfortable into ingenue-land.) Later that summer we did Grease and The King and I in summer stock. I truly was in awe of her clear Soprano range and haven’t heard Tuptim’s songs quite that beautifully since. Good on ya, Nicole! Proud of you!