A LONG WAY FOR SALONGA
“I’d Give My Life For You” means a lot more now to Lea Salonga than it did when she sang it in Miss Saigon way back in 1989. “I was 19 then and so clueless about love,” the Tony-winning star tells me. “I was just going by what everybody else told me about it. And when it came to the bedroom stuff, Nick Hytner [the show’s director] had to literally demonstrate what I was supposed to do with my scene partner. Now, I could show him a thing or two! Let me tell you, I’ve come a long way from when Cameron Macintosh got me a cake on my 20th birthday that said, ‘Now your teens have passed their test, so give your virgin act a rest.’ ”
Broadway, jazz, and pop songs — including “Orange Colored Sky,” “Someone Else’s Story,” and “On My Own” — make up much of the repertoire for Salonga’s current U.S. concert tour, with stops on February 12 at the Nob Hill Masonic Center in San Francisco, February 19 at Boardwalk Hall in Atlantic City, and February 26 at the Arie Crown Theater in Chicago. The tour will conclude on March 5 at the Universal Amphitheater in the star’s hometown of Los Angeles, where she lives with her husband of one year, businessman Robert Chien. “It’s lovely being married, even more than I ever anticipated,” she says. “It’s great not having to think about dating and not having to always put your best foot forward. I can have acne cream on my face and his hair can look like Alfalfa from the Little Rascals; it’s okay!”
Chien, a native Angeleno, is so supportive of his wife that he’s even willing to brave the New York winters if she lands another Broadway role. (She’s been absent from the Great White Way for almost two years, since Flower Drum Song closed.) To double her chances, Salonga has even been taking acting lessons, so she’ll be better prepared for a dramatic part if one comes along. She actually tackled Proof in Manila a couple of years ago, an experience she now calls “a game experiment.”
But Salonga, whose magnificent voice can be heard in the just-released straight-to-video film Mulan II, happily admits that her heart still lies in musical theater. “I’d really love to do Elphaba in Wicked,” she confides. “I know it’s the kind of part where everyone who does it will be compared to Idina Menzel, the same way everyone who followed me in Saigon was probably compared to me. But I went through that when I played Eponine in Les Misérables; a lot of people still had Frances Ruffelle in their mind. I learned that you just have to do what you can do.”
CURTIN UP!
What’s a nice Irish girl like Catherine Curtin doing playing Sandy, whom she laughingly describes as “the neurotic, passive-aggressive, liposuction-getting, crazy Jewish daughter,” in Bye Mom! Or, How Not to Bury Your Mother? “I have played so many Jewish women in my career,” says Curtin, who’s best known as one of the two performers who played Janis Joplin in the original cast of Love, Janis. (Curtin was the non-singer of the pair.) “In one show for the Jewish Theater for the New York,” she notes, “I played six Jewish men, and the director told me that I had a Jewish soul. I think it’s because I’m a native New Yorker. We’re all kind of ethnic mutts.”
Being the youngest of five children, Curtin can relate to the characters and situations in playwright Susan Austin Roth‘s dark comedy. “Sandy has finally understood that she didn’t get the right parenting and now, in her late 30s, she’s trying to figure how to re-parent herself,” says Curtin, whose father died when she was just 17. “The thing about family relationships is that they’re hysterically funny if you can view them from a distance, even though they may not be funny when you’re yelling at each other in the kitchen. In this play, the characters really wail on each other, and to be able to do that as an actor is deeply satisfying; in real life, if you ever said what you truly felt about your family, you’d be scared of what would happen.”
MR. WONDER-FUL
There are few better singers working today than Darius de Haas — and if you don’t believe me, you can see and hear him for yourself over the next few weeks. He will be presenting his extraordinary concert The Songs of Stevie Wonder as part of Lincoln Center’s American Songbook series on February 4 and then will participate in their special Black History Month concert, At Harlem’s Height, on February 23. And on February 17, de Haas will be one of many stars — including Nancy Anderson, Bryan Batt, and Tom Hewitt — who’ll lend their talents to the second annual Embrace! benefit for the Matthew Shepard Foundation.
Looking ahead to March, the divine Darius will be heard on two new recordings: The Actor’s Fund benefit concert of Hair (in which he gorgeously sang “What a Piece of Work is Man” with Paul Castree) and I Was Looking at the Ceiling and Then I Saw The Sky by famed composer John Adams.
Bill Clinton (right), with daughter Chelsea (center)
(Photo © Jonathan Barth)
AS THEY LIKED IT
Sir Peter Hall‘s production of As You Like It at BAM turned out to be an even bigger event than anticipated. Among the celebrities who trucked out to Brooklyn were John Lithgow, Julianna Margulies, and David Rasche. Then, in a true “save the best for last” moment, former President Bill Clinton, Senator Hillary Rodham Clinton, and their daughter Chelsea attended the show’s final performance on January 30 and went backstage to meet the cast.
JOY TO THE WORLD
With the pop opera Bare “indefinitely postponed,” its talented cast members have moved on to other things. Michael Arden is currently playing the title role in Pippin for L.A.’s Reprise! series, while Kaitlin Hopkins — his mom in Bare — is heading the touring cast of Disney’s On The Record. Now, another of the show’s standout performers, Natalie Joy Johnson, has resurfaced in New York: She’s co-starring in Joy, a comedy about gay life in 1990s San Francisco at the Producers Club. The ensemble cast includes such other up-and-comers as Becca Ayers, Harris Doran, Gavin Esham, and Ben Curtis, best known to TV viewers as the Dell Dude.
SEVENTH HEAVEN
Mayor Bloomberg should officially declare February 7 “Diva Day” in the City of New York. Here’s why. Zoe Caldwell, Kitty Carlisle Hart, Marian Seldes, and Elaine Stritch are among the scheduled participants in Theater for the New City’s Love ‘N Courage benefit honoring Caldwell’s late husband, producer Robert Whitehead. Superstars Audra McDonald and Betty Buckley are set to appear in Lincoln Center Theater’s 20th Anniversary gala. Karen Ziemba and the hilarious Ana Gasteyer, two of my favorite gals, will lend their talents to the Play Company’s annual Cabaret Gourmet benefit at the Canal Room.
But wait, there’s more! Two-time Tony nominee Laura Benanti will make her solo cabaret debut at Feinstein’s at the Regency, kicking off this season’s “Broadway’s Brightest Lights” series; the fabulous Sally Mayes, another two-time Tony nominee, will offer selections from her just-released CD Valentine at the Duplex as part of the club’s “Broadway Downtown” series; the glorious-voiced Julia Murney, soon to make her Broadway debut in Lennon, will be holding forth at Birdland; and the wonderful Judy McLane (on her night off from Mamma Mia!) and the delicious Kate Baldwin will be front and center at Symphony Space as part of the New Voices Collective’s My Funny Valentine concert.
As if all of that weren’t enough excitement for one day, there’ll be diva power to the nth degree at The Town Hall as the ABC soap opera All My Children celebrates its 35th anniversary with a sold-out benefit concert for Broadway Cares/Equity Fights AIDS. Among the show’s cast members set to appear are Susan Lucci, Kelly Ripa, Tonya Pinkins, Eden Riegel, Eva La Rue, Bobbie Eakes (whose new CD, Something Beautiful, is being released this month), and former guest star and mega-fan Rosie O’Donnell. Oh, yeah — there’ll also be a bunch of the soap’s hunky male stars on hand.
No matter which event you decide to attend, head to Jim Caruso’s Cast Party at Birdland afterwards to help celebrate the publication of The TheaterMania Guide to Musical Theater Recordings. There will plenty of divas there as well, from Rita Gardner to Stephanie D’Abruzzo to Christine Pedi.
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[To contact Brian Scott Lipton directly, e-mail him at BSL@theatermania.com.]
