Interviews

Mary Testa on the Dramatic Aspects of Musical Theater in Oklahoma! and First Daughter Suite

As it turns out, you can’t become Broadway’s favorite comic actress without being a “great tragedian,” as well.

Over the course of her nearly four-decade career, Mary Testa has made Broadway audiences fall down in hysterics through her performances in shows like Xanadu and Guys and Dolls, and her Tony-nominated turns in 42nd Street and On the Town. But anyone who has seen Testa in her non-Broadway shows, like Queen of the Mist and See What I Wanna See, knows that she's got dramatic chops to rival the best of them.

In fact, Testa gravitates towards roles where she gets to display more than a knack for a punchline. And in the latter half of 2015, she'll have two great opportunities to do so. One of them is the Public Theater production of First Daughter Suite, written by her frequent collaborator Michael John LaChiusa. But first is Daniel Fish's radically-scaled-down revival of Rodgers and Hammerstein's Oklahoma! at Bard SummerScape, in which she plays Aunt Eller.

With a folk band of six instead of a full orchestra, an environmental staging, and a small company of principals instead of the traditionally large ensemble, this is Oklahoma! like we've never seen it, and Testa thinks its right up her alley. In a recent interview with TheaterMania, she described how different this version actually is, how much she enjoys working with LaChiusa, and how her interests in musical theater are typically "left of center."

Tony nominee Mary Testa brings her comic and dramatic chops to Rodgers and Hammerstein's Oklahoma! and Michael John LaChiusa's First Daughter Suite.
Tony nominee Mary Testa brings her comic and dramatic chops to Rodgers and Hammerstein's Oklahoma! and Michael John LaChiusa's First Daughter Suite.
(© David Gordon)

Is this your first Oklahoma! experience?
Yes, it is. Sad to say, I didn't even really know the show. I don't know a lot of established musicals. I work so much in new musicals, and I didn't really have a musical-theater background. I never intended to be in musical theater, so I'm learning, after all these years.

How did you come to be involved with this production?
I got a call from New York Theatre Workshop that [director] Daniel [Fish] wanted me to do a workshop that we did several months ago, where we just sat around a table for a week and read it. They wanted to do it so minimally, without a chorus, in a more honest and simple kind of way. They wanted to figure out who would do what line [in group scenes] and wanted to present a script for [the] Rodgers and Hammerstein [Organization] to approve.

Can you describe the aesthetic of this Oklahoma!?
It's as if you're walking into a VFW Hall; that's the way I'm gonna put it. The most important thing about this production is the idea of community, and that everyone shares the experience. It's all about what's happening in the room right now. The audience is very much a part of that. We don't talk to them — we don't break the fourth wall — but they're sitting among us. And there's going to be chili [shared with the audience]. At one point, I make cornbread. I'm not sure how all that's going to come together, but that's the basis for this Oklahoma!: the idea of community and that it's all happening right now.

Damon Daunno as Curly and Mary Testa as Aunt Eller in Daniel Fish's revival of Rodgers and Hammerstein's Oklahoma! at Bard SummerScape.
Damon Daunno as Curly and Mary Testa as Aunt Eller in Daniel Fish's revival of Rodgers and Hammerstein's Oklahoma! at Bard SummerScape.
(© Cory Weaver)

What is this production like musically, given that it's a six-piece Americana folk band?
It's really wonderful. That sound, with banjo and accordion, and steel guitar, which has become my favorite thing in the world to hear, works perfectly with this. Perfectly. It really goes hand in hand.

And Aunt Eller is a great part, though she doesn't sing much, like the other matriarchal women in the Rodgers and Hammerstein canon.
I was actually talking to [Rodgers and Hammerstein Organization President] Ted Chapin and I said, 'You know, it's interesting that Aunt Eller doesn't have a song.' And he said she had a song at one point called "She Likes You Quite a Lot" but it was kind of a dumb song so they got rid of it. She has the most gorgeous speech at the end…It's exquisite, and it's the theme of the whole show: Sh*t happens and you gotta move forward. It would make a beautiful eleven-o'clock number, and then they could sing "Oklahoma!," and then everybody could have gone home. You know what I mean? I'm really curious as to why they didn't think to musicalize that.

Given that this is a radical new take on Oklahoma!, what is the rehearsal process like, compared to more traditional productions of musicals?
[It's] very comfortable, although I get impatient. Daniel likes to try things six million ways, and while it's wonderful, it's frustrating sometimes for an actor. But I really think he's just so interesting, and his outlook is so interesting, that I enjoy the process so much. I like a different experience. Even though I've done my fair share of hand-on-your-hip/hand-on-your-leg musical theater, I'm much more into the artistic, left-of-center realm of musical theater. That speaks to me. I work with Michael John LaChiusa a lot, and that speaks to me.

Damon Daunno as Curly, Mary Testa as Aunt Eller, Allison Strong as Ado Annie, and Amber Grey as Laurey in a promotional image for Daniel Fish's Oklahoma! at Bard SummerScape.
Damon Daunno as Curly, Mary Testa as Aunt Eller, Allison Strong as Ado Annie, and Amber Grey as Laurey in a promotional image for Daniel Fish's Oklahoma! at Bard SummerScape.
(© Julieta Cervantes)

You've got another LaChiusa show coming up soon, First Daughter Suite, at the Public Theater. What can you tell us about that?
Oh my god, I'm so looking forward to it. It's so beautiful. Michael John is kind of obsessed with the presidential wives and daughters. According to himself, he couldn't let it go [after his original musical First Lady Suite]. There was more he needed to say about it. I'm not sure who the full cast is. It's four pieces: two pieces in the first act, two pieces in the second act. I'm wildly excited about it. I've worked on it a few times, and I couldn't do it last summer when they went up to Martha's Vineyard [to workshop it]. They wouldn't let me out of Wicked, and I thought Darn it, now I'm not gonna get to do it, but Michael John is a very loyal person, so…

Who are you playing?
Barbara Bush. It's a really gorgeous piece. Everybody…A lot of people, not everybody, look at me to do comic stuff, and I love the dramatic. I think you can't be a good comedian unless you're a great tragedian. It's very moving, this piece. So that's where I hang my hat, in that land. That's where I love to be. So this Oklahoma! is very much like that.

Julia Murney as aviator Amelia Earhart and Mary Testa as journalist Lorena Hickock in the 2004 Transport Group revival of Michael John LaChiusa's First Lady Suite.
Julia Murney as aviator Amelia Earhart and Mary Testa as journalist Lorena Hickock in the 2004 Transport Group revival of Michael John LaChiusa's First Lady Suite.
(© Joan Marcus)

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Oklahoma!

Closed: July 19, 2015