June 10, 2007
WHO'S NEWS EXTRA
LAURA BELL BUNDY
At 26, Laura Bell Bundy's résumé is already full of highlights, from playing bratty Amber Von Tussle in "Hairspray" to performing the role of the good witch, Glinda, in "Wicked." But her biggest career highlight is going blond. As the star of "Legally Blonde: The Musical," Bundy has crossed the divide between semi-recognizable player to bona-fide Broadway star. The Kentucky native recently chatted with USA WEEKEND about dancing in heels, bonding with canine co-star Chico and her debut country album, complete with a dash of Billy Idol, minus the sneer, of course.
People recognize "Legally Blonde" because of the film. How did you meet the challenge to make Elle Woods your own and avoid doing what Reese Witherspoon had already done with the character?
Since I began working on the show in 2005, I hadn't seen the movie. I saw the movie back in the beginning when it first opened [in 2001] and when it came on video years ago. But I actually made a point not to study it because it would only put in my mind a possible mimicking or imitation instead of being truthful and honest in my performance. You keep the basic personality traits of the character, which is this enthusiasm for life and a little bit of naiveté and the blond, California kind of vibe. So there's that and then there's the way she sort of does things out of the box. But the writers have done such a good job of writing the character so that you understand the character within the writing in terms of the way she speaks.
It's probably good that you didn't think about it too much or you would have psyched yourself out of the character.
Yeah, and, you know, I could have psyched myself out of "Hairspray," and I could have psyched myself out of doing "Wicked," playing Glinda after Kristin Chenoweth a few years ago. I just think as an actor, how can you be present onstage and how can you be truthful?
Do you know if Reese has seen the show?
I don't think she has, but I would love for her to. I think everybody would love to have her, and, you know, her performance in the movie was sort of groundbreaking for her. It's sort of iconic, too, and it can't be forgotten, either, in the midst of us working on it.
One of the exciting things about live theater is the fact that anything can happen. Since the show's opening, have there been any humorous mishaps? I mean, after all, you are dancing in heels and working with a Chihuahua every night.
For the most part, things have gone smooth. But at almost every show there's something in the middle that goes on where somebody starts laughing; every show is different. There's been a couple of moments where the audience obviously knew there was a mishap, like half of the courtroom not coming in, or the set is slowly moving on in the middle of a scene. Also, there's this number that I sing called "So Much Better," and I'm wearing these 3 1/2-inch heels. I'm dancing in these heels, and I kick my foot up, and the line goes, "Cause I've not begun to fight," and I do sort of a karate-chop kick kind of thing. My shoe -- and this has happened twice, the first time in San Francisco -- flew off into the audience, and I thought, "Oh no, I've got one shoe on." So I took off the other shoe and threw it offstage and finished the end of the act in bare feet.
I hope it didn't put anyone's eye out.
No, but the second time, when it happened in New York, the shoe literally flew off almost to the back of the house [laughs]. It was so funny. But I love when stuff like that happens. Our bulldog also got a little stomach upset and puked onstage. Then Chico, who plays Bruiser the Chihuahua, was in a preview we did in San Francisco, and we came out onstage and I went, "Here we are, Bruiser, Harvard," and I'm coming to Harvard for the first time. There was somebody in the audience who I guess he had a bad vibe about and he just started barking at them, and I could not get him to stop; it's never happened before. So I just started making up lines like, "It's a little different than UCLA -- we didn't have our morning meditation." I was like, "I don't know what I am going to say right here." But it was really fun.
Since then, have you and Chico bonded pretty well?
Yes. It's been crazy busy lately, but normally we'll have sleepovers.
Sleepovers, really?
Oh yeah. When I first started bonding with him, he would come over to my house and sleep with me. He comes to know that I will protect him and he'll protect me. You know, there's a relationship there. I become familiar and safe for him. But he's very protective of me. When he's in my arms and someone he doesn't know, especially a male, comes in, he will bark, and it's really funny.
Is there any chance you might get to keep him when the show is finished?
[In a sad voice] No, that dog is worth more than me.
The show is obviously doing well and receiving great reviews. Has all of this attention meant getting recognized a lot more when you go out in public now, or is life still pretty normal?
I don't really know what's normal right now anymore because I'm doing these shows, and I'm doing so much press that I haven't had really a schedule. In terms of me being out and about in the city, I have noticed that people recognize me. People who I don't know are saying things to me about the show, so there's that element. I also know there are people who probably recognize you but aren't ever going to say anything, so now I have to actually watch what I do and say, and that sucks.
So I guess that means your shoplifting days are over?
[Laughs] Yeah, well, that's been a problem. But there's not a lot of things that I do in my daily life that I'm not open about. But the problem is that when you're in the public eye, things can get misconstrued.
You just finished your debut album, "Longing for a Place Already Gone." Does the title refer to anything in particular?
The album is a bit of a throwback to Patsy Cline, Loretta Lynn, Elvis and Merle Haggard. I've always been one of those people obsessed with a time that has already past, whether it's the music or a period in our culture. The music I was attracted to when I was a kid was never popular at the time; it was always what I was listening to on CD that my parents had or my grandfather had. So there's that aspect, but when you're writing music, you're looking back on experiences that have happened and that inspire what you write about.
You wrote most of the songs on this album; it must have ended up being a pretty personal project.
My grandfather's voice on the song Between Me and You is actually radio clips of my grandfather from back in the '50s, and my mom is the little girl on it. She's 3 years old, and it's Father's Day. Then the song itself is actually about my parents and my parent's marriage and their split. So there really is that longing for that relationship that didn't work out or for the family that was abandoned. It's got all of that; sort of everything that's affected me from my past that has come together.
-- By Jon Tollestrup
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DEBRA MONK
Debra Monk is currently commanding the stage as Carmen Bernstein, a colorful stage producer with a personality the size of the Grand Canyon. But donning Bernstein's brassy hairdo in "Curtains," a murder-musical, is an affair, along with the rest of the production, that nearly didn't happen. Despite the passing of the show's creator, Peter Stone, and legendary lyricist Fred Ebb, "Curtains" landed safely on Broadway. Monk, 58, spoke with USA WEEKEND the morning she nabbed a Tony nomination for lead actress in a musical.
What has been the best congratulations you've received so far?
I have to say the first one because I was sleeping and my agent called me and woke me up to congratulate me. I was very surprised to be nominated because it's a very healthy category, the lead actress in a musical, this year. We have all of those wonderful, talented women, who are all my friends, by the way, and I just thought there are so many that I wouldn't be nominated. So I was pleasantly surprised when I was awakened [that] morning by my agent.
What's been the best part, so far, of playing Carmen Bernstein, this sort of tough-as-nails producer with a big, brassy personality? [Spoiler warning]
What's great about it is that you get to see [so much of] her from that scene at the end where you find out that she did all of this for her daughter. It would be one thing to have the show, with all the great numbers and all the great lines I get to say, but to actually have that [last scene] adds such a depth to this character. The show would be fine without it, but as an actress, and as a person in the show, it just gives me a chance to play a real gamut of things, which is always great to have many colors.
It sounds like the working situation has been pretty ideal, but have you ever worked with any producers that were similar to Carmen Bernstein?
I've never worked with anyone like her. This show has been around for 20 years. Peter [Stone] wrote this character in the late '80s, so this has nothing to do with any current producers or anything. I've worked with really smart, great producers for the most part. I can't think of anybody, producer-wise, who I've worked with who wasn't putting up [laughs] many millions of dollars trying to get the thing made. I've worked with really good people, and I've been very lucky.
You mentioned being with the show for quite a while. Have there been any highlights along the way that particularly stand out in your mind?
Since the beginning, one of the highlights was that first reading with Peter Stone, and Freddy and John [Kander] were all there. These are three magnificently talented, important people in this business who I got to work with. The first day was truly one of the most thrilling things; to be in the room with them and to be working on a new show. Nothing is more exciting than to be working on a new show with great, talented people, and that was that first day. I think the next highlight would be when the decision was made to move forward, after we lost Peter and Freddy. The first day of rehearsal last June, before we went to L.A., was exciting and also our first performance in L.A., because we didn't know for sure if the audience would laugh or if they would get it. We just didn't know. Then during those opening scenes when the audience started laughing, and again at the end when they stood up, we thought, "They get it!" So that was thrilling; that first performance was truly exciting.
Speaking of the audience, do you get to stick around after performances and mingle with the audience members, and what have been some of the more memorable things people have said?
We get to meet them afterward because, luckily, they stay after to get autographs, and, believe me, I've been in many shows where you come out of the stage door and nobody's there. So it's lovely to see this group, and there are a lot of young kids, by the way, which is really fun. But the comment we hear over and over again is, "It looks like you're having a great time." And that is such a great comment because we really are having a good time. There have been shows that I've been in where it looks like we're having a good time, but we're not. But this show really comes across to them that we're having so much fun, and that is a great thing to hear.
A lot of times, I've heard actors say they love the thrill of doing live theater because anything is possible. Have you had any funny mishaps so far in the show's run?
I don't know if it's a fun thing that happened, but in L.A., David's harness got stuck, and he was just hanging there in the air. It was a very scary moment. He was caught, and for a minute the audience thought it was part of the show, and they had to close the curtain and get him down. But it was very scary because we didn't know if he had been hurt, and luckily he wasn't. But this show is a very interesting show; it really has been working like clockwork. We haven't had any major things happen that have gone wrong.
Your résumé includes a lot of TV and film, but at the end of the day, do you feel like your home is in the theater?
I love the theater, but unfortunately, you can't really make a living in the theater, and that's the truth. So I have been very fortunate to be able to be subsidized by doing TV and movies. Luckily, I've been in very good pieces like "Grey's Anatomy" and "NYPD Blue." I have to say I approach movies and TV like I do theater; it's not any different in the way I approach my work. But I love living in New York, I love being here, and I love being in theater. I just wish we could all make a living in it.
Speaking of your TV work, awhile ago you guest-starred on "Frasier." Is that when you first got to know David Hyde Pierce?
I knew him from before that. Back in the '80s, he and I did a reading for a Christopher Durang piece called "For Whom the Southern Belle Tolls." We also knew each other in New York; this was before he went out for "Frasier." So we've known each other over the years, but we just loved each other the first time we met during that Christopher Durang thing.
I know you have a movie coming out called The Savages with Philip Seymour Hoffman and Laura Linney. Can you tell me about that experience and working with them?
That experience was a joy. I got to work with Phil during "The Seagull," with Meryl Streep, and so I got to know him then. We're so lucky to have him; he's a truly magnificent talent. But he's also a generous, kind and fun human being. The same thing goes for Laura Linney, who I'd never had a chance to work with, but I know and have got to see her work on the stage. It's just so great that these people are also great stage actors. Phil runs an incredible theater, so it was great to be with them. They do everything they can to make you feel welcome and comfortable. We had just this one little scene with them, but it was a very emotional scene. But I felt very comfortable there with them. It was brief, but it was very hot. We were in Phoenix in June and it was 120 degrees. But I was thrilled to be with them. I also did another movie when I was out in L.A. with John Malkovich called The Great Buck Howard, and that's another experience that was great.
So was John Malkovich different than what you had anticipated?
Yes, I was ready to be a little afraid of him because you never know what you're going to find on a set, and I've done enough movies that I don't have any expectations. I just go in, do my work, and I don't expect everybody to be friendly. But he was so friendly, so kind and so funny and generous, and so great in this part. I loved being with him; we would sit at lunch and he would tell stories. He loves to be with people, and he loves hanging out.
-- By Jon Tollestrup
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DAVID HYDE PIERCE
After being indelibly ingrained into the minds of America as the neurotic Niles Crane on "Frasier," David Hyde Pierce plays Lt. Frank Cioffi, a Beantown private eye with a penchant for Broadway musicals. In "Curtains," a murder-mystery valentine to the 1950s era of song and dance, Pierce simultaneously solves a backstage murder in a Broadway-bound musical and that show's artistic problems. Soon after hearing his named counted among this year's Tony Award nominees for lead actor in a musical, Pierce, 48, spoke with USA WEEKEND. He mused about ending up with the lead and how, one night in L.A., it was almost literally curtains for him.
You must be on cloud nine, nabbing your first Tony Award nomination.
Yes, I'm extremely happy and so thrilled to be nominated. But also, I'm so happy that the show got so many nods. I think that is just thrilling.
Are you surprised by your nomination and that the show received eight nominations?
You never know the way these awards are going to go. I wouldn't say surprised, but I'm excited, especially for Deb Monk. The category of lead actress in a musical was so crowded this year with so many great performances, so that could have gone any way.
Who called and offered their congratulations?
I've heard from friends, and I got a couple of text messages from old "Spamalot" cast members, who must have been up really early. I accidentally woke up our director, not remembering that he's on the West Coast, to congratulate him, and he said something "you." I think it was "thank you," but I'm not sure. You know what's fun? I went down to the coffee shop in my building to have some breakfast, and I said to Joan, the waitress there, "The show got eight nominations." She said, "I didn't want to ask because I didn't know what happened." I thought, "I love New York in that the waitress in the coffee shop knows that the Tony nominations come out on Tuesday morning" [laughs].
Audiences are obviously used to you playing Niles Crane on "Frasier." Were they accepting right away as you playing a detective with a Boston accent?
I think they are. Every once in a while I make my first entrance, and usually, if there aren't boos, there's applause because people recognize me. Sometimes I'll notice there's a sort of stunned silence as I start talking, and you hear this Boston dialect coming out of me. But it doesn't take very long for people to become wrapped up in the show, in the writing and in the characters, and they go along for the ride.
Can you think back and remember how your audition for "Curtains" went, and, in retrospect, does it at all seem that much more amazing that you have ended up with a Tony nomination?
I did not audition for "Curtains," and I can guarantee you that had I auditioned, not only would I not have a Tony nomination, I probably wouldn't even be in the show because I had to learn to sing and dance to do this show. Also, if you look at my fellow nominees in this category, these guys have devoted a lot of time, energy, heart and soul into musical theater. So that's another reason why I'm mildly shocked but extremely grateful to be in their company, because the pursuit of doing a musical is serious, hard work, even if the musical itself isn't serious. Also, Scott Ellis, our director, brought this to me, but I would never in a million years have cast myself as the leading man in a musical. But Scott and the rest of the creative team really, I guess, saw something that I didn't see.
Well, you seem like a natural at it. Have you asked him what he saw in you that led him to cast you as the leading man in this musical?
I haven't asked him. I don't know. I'm afraid the answer will hurt my feelings. I guess it was the right combination of things, but he definitely saw something that I had never done before because, both in the character and in the demands of doing a musical, it's not like this was a part like Niles, so this wasn't an easy leap. But he made that leap, and the other people involved, Rob Ashford, our choreographer, made a huge leap because I have a fantastic dance to do in this show, and I'm not a Broadway dancer.
You mentioned earlier that doing a musical is hard work, and anyone who hasn't done musical theater might not appreciate just how demanding it is. How are you holding up under the physical demands of doing this show every day?
I'm doing pretty well. I'll tell you something, both vocally and dance-wise, I trained before I got the show because I knew it would be a lot of strain, and singing and dancing eight times a week is something you just don't do without preparing for it. So that was the first thing. Then, from all of the people I'm working with and, honestly, the people I worked with in "Spamalot," as well, I learned a lot about what you do to prepare and how to pace yourself [laughs] and what happens when you don't pace yourself, which can be fun, too. There's a line I have in the musical that my character says: "Putting on a musical has got to be the most fulfilling thing a person could ever hope to do." I think if you're outside the musical world and you hear that, you think, "Well, that's odd. What about brain surgery? What about Mother Theresa?" But I think in the end it has to do with the people. One of the things our show does is celebrate the particular kind of people who are drawn to musical theater. It celebrates them, warts and all. Maybe that's why I'm so happy about these nominations because, beyond everything else, it's the people I'm getting to work with and the experience of being onstage with them or out to dinner with them or whatever it is we're doing together.
This show has been running for a little while now, and one of the great things about live theater is that you just never know what's going to happen. I'm curious: Have there been any memorable mishaps so far, or has everything gone pretty smoothly?
We had one where I got caught hanging 30 feet above the stage in a piece of scenery. This was in Los Angeles, and it happened to be the night that Nancy Reagan and her secret service detail were all in the audience [laughs]. So suddenly the show stopped and the cast fell silent; they brought in the curtain, and I'm sure the secret service people were a little bit concerned. I remember the artistic director of the theater, Michael Ritchie, lept out of his seat and came running down the aisle, and one of our crew people was standing backstage, and he happened to be standing next to a secret service guy, and Michael came running past him to see what had gone on. And the crew guy said, "You know, I don't want to alarm anybody, but I've never seen that guy in my life," because Michael hadn't been backstage that much at that point. But everything turned out fine, and we all survived. But that was the biggest, most spectacular thing that stopped the show.
These days it seems like your professional life is pretty occupied by "Curtains." Will audiences see you back on TV or in a movie again anytime soon?
Not anytime soon, I don't think, because I'm going to be in this show at least until next February, if not longer. I've learned that in just doing small things, like benefits and stuff like that, and then doing this show eight times a week is where my health starts to go, as I try to do anything outside the show. So any other projects will have to be put on hold until I leave "Curtains," whenever that will be.
Well, that's too bad because I would think now that you've got street credibility as a dancer and a singer, producers would be calling you to tear it up on Dancing with the Stars or American Idol.
I would rather be eaten by wild dogs.
-- By Jon Tollestrup
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VANESSA REDGRAVE
At an age when many people begin to tap the breaks, Vanessa Redgrave, 70, appears to have her foot on the gas. This month, she tackles the triple crown of acting, sashaying from stage to TV to film, all the while making it look so easy. On Broadway, she holds the stage with poise and dignity in the one-woman play "The Year of Magical Thinking," based on Joan Didion's memoir of coping with her husband's death. Then she heads to HBO for the political drama "The Fever" (June 13), where she plays a character simply called the "Woman," who discovers the discrepancies between her pampered life and the poverty plaguing so many others. Finally, she'll be on the silver screen in the ensemble drama "Evening" (June 29), featuring the best female cast since Steel Magnolias. Redgrave recently talked to USA WEEKEND about all three emotionally charged projects and why she doesn't see a comedy in her near future.
Joan Didion had you in mind from the beginning as being the most capable actress for the part in "The Year of Magical Thinking." Did you share in her confidence, or did you feel some trepidation at the thought of being onstage by yourself for 90 minutes?
[Laughs] Oh yeah, plenty of trepidation, and there still is. It's like doing a very high, fast, complicated piece every night.
How have you managed to reach and maintain the level of energy necessary to juggle all of the emotions that this character experiences?
That's what we did in rehearsals. David Hare [the director] and Joan were there all through rehearsals. So we were working in a threesome, and David built and plotted this very meticulously in such a brilliant, clear way that we could get all the moves, as they were, in the spirit, not necessarily the physical moves. But that wasn't quite the point as charting everything that was going on in the soul of this lady. Her mind is trying not to remember things that would just make her crazy with grief, and she had to save her daughter, and she's terrified that she can't without her husband.
How invaluable was it to have Joan around in trying to work out the emotions?
Oh, totally wonderful. She's got her own very special, remarkable mind, and she's a woman of few words, and in a few words, it is very clear. David and she were absolutely in sync so that she trusted him, he trusted her, and I trusted both of them, and that total trust is something very precious.
Did it surprise you to learn that Joan was a person of few words, given that words are an essential part of her career?
[Laughs] No, it didn't surprise me at all. Just recently, she was given a Matrix Award for communications, and she was very surprised to be given an award for communications when she said she had never communicated with anybody [laughs]. That's the kind of smart, funny lady of few words that she is.
Do you feel like you've discovered anything new about yourself as a result doing this play?
Oh, that's an interesting question. Well, her play does trigger a lot of questions for me and for everybody. I don't know if I've discovered anything new in myself except that David and the play have brought out from me a performance that I'm quite surprised to find myself giving.
So if somebody had described this to you maybe 10 years ago, do you feel like you would have looked at them like, "No, I don't think that's going to happen"?
I wouldn't have done that because I've done Samuel Beckett, and I've done Wallace Shawn's "The Fever" [originally a monologue], again only twice in one day. It's very different from doing eight performances a week, of course. So I'd had the experience. When I did "The Fever" at the Chelsea Center for the Arts in a marvelous, tiny little theatre, it was part of a series of Sunday solo performance plays that my brother organized, and I chose to do "The Fever," which I was crazy about. But it was very interesting and remarkable because one could see, then, all the possibilities for a play that has only character in it.
The film version of "The Fever" is directed by Carlo Nero, your son. I know he is grown up now, but as a mother, was it a little surreal to have your "baby" directing you in a film?
[Laughs] Well, I wasn't being directed by my "baby," I was being directed by a director who is very remarkable and who I trust, and who I admire and feel confident with. At the same time, I'm tested by him because he, too, is a rigorous mind.
Is this your first collaboration together, or had you worked together before?
I had done one scene in an earlier feature, his first feature film that he shot in America. I did a scene as a schoolteacher, which I enjoyed very much.
So how was the experience the second time around?
Well, I think back to the days when I was very young and my favorite type of cinema was the biblical epic. I was always struck by the brochures that proclaimed, "This film was 11 years in the making." That always sounded like, "Wow, that really is a film!" [Laughs] It wasn't until we got to make "The Fever" that we realized, "This film is seven years in the making!" That actually meant years of hard work and waiting in lobbies to see people and trying to interest them in putting money out. It was a long and, in retrospect, exciting process, but at the time, it was agonizingly difficult to get people to read the script. Then, a wonderful friend of mine, a producer who knew and was interested in what we were trying to get done, suggested, "Well, you know what, if you could get the money together to make an eight-minute video that would show the story and the elements of how you are going to approach it cinematically, then that will gain attention." So I did a lot of mortgaging, and we all tightened our belts. We did shoot some scenes, and we called in favors or appealed for favors. But everyone got paid the absolute minimum scale because they knew we had put up every bean that we've got.
Let me switch gears and ask you about your other film "Evening," which has a pretty stellar cast, including the always amazing Meryl Streep, who plays your friend. Can you tell me of any highlights you shared working with Meryl?
Well, we only worked one day together and did our scenes in one day. But it was just heaven.
Another one of your co-stars is your daughter Natasha. Did the two of you audition together, or was it sort of serendipitous that you both ended up in the same film?
[Laughs] I guess you can call it serendipitous, and it really was. I was thrilled to be working with Tasha, who I adore. But I admire my daughters to pieces, just talking professionally, not as a mother. It is wonderful if you get to work together; it's a very special feeling. But "Evening" is one of the few films you love making, where you love all the work and you're excited to work every day.
"The Year of Magical Thinking," "The Fever" and "Evening" add up to a lot of drama. Do you feel ready, or a need, to tackle a comedy or do a Broadway musical now?
I've always wanted to do a Broadway musical, but the answer would be no. What's interesting is that life at its grimmest has moments of hilarity and humor. For the lesser writers it's all drama with a big "D." It's the ordinary moments when the ground falls away from under the feet that it's also extremely funny how it happens and how the human being copes with it. People laughed all evening when they watched "The Year of Magical Thinking," until the moments when they get to thinking about their own lives. I got a card from a lady who said she hadn't read more than half of Joan's book because she was grieving terribly about a member of her family who had died. But then she did come see the play, and she thought would cry an awful lot. But she thought she must see it and said, "Instead I found myself laughing and crying, but at the end, at peace with myself." So it isn't that strict division between, well, how about a bit of comedy and then how about a bit of drama. Life itself isn't like that, and it's shocking in its diversity of what happens and how it happens.
-- By Jon Tollestrup
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