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DIVA TALK: Chatting with Cry-Baby's Lacey Kohl Plus Mason and Ebersole on CD and "Idol" Thoughts
By Andrew Gans
11 Apr 2008
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Lacey Kohl
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News, views and reviews about the multi-talented women of the musical theatre and the concert/cabaret stage.
LACEY KOHL
Lacey Kohl, who made her Broadway debut at the age of 15 in the Lincoln Center Theater revival of Rodgers and Hammerstein's Carousel and subsequently appeared in Grease and The Who's Tommy, is back on The Great White Way in the new musical Cry-Baby. Kohl portrays Wanda in the Mark O'Donnell-Thomas Meehan-David Javerbaum-Adam Schlesinger musical, which is based on John Waters' Universal Pictures film and will officially open at the Marquis Theatre April 24. "It's actually a 'six degrees' story," Kohl recently told me about her casting as Wanda, the role created on screen by Tracy Lords, in the Mark Brokaw-directed production.
"I went to the Tony [Awards] Ball and ran into Larry O'Keefe," Kohl explains. "He's the composer of Legally Blonde, but we met years ago when I moved to Los Angeles to play Janet in Rocky Horror Show — he was the music director. Larry asked if I would audition for a replacement in his show, and during the audition, the casting director, Bernie Telsey, left the room. I thought, 'Uh-oh,' but it turns out he left to book me into an audition for Cry-Baby. [And, Cry-Baby] producer Adam Epstein saw me play Sandy in Grease when he was just out of NYU. Two auditions and a grueling dance call later, I was cast as Wanda!"
Cry-Baby is set in 1950s Baltimore and tells the story of good-girl Allison (one of the clean-cut Squares played by Elizabeth Stanley), who falls for bad-boy Cry-Baby (the leader of the misfit Drapes played by James Snyder). Kohl thinks Wanda's parents were probably "Squares, but she's a free spirit. I actually based her on a girl I went to school with. No names — she knows who she is," Kohl laughs. "She was the sexpot all the boys wanted, and she made everyone's life a living hell. She threatened to beat me up because she thought I was making a move on her best friend's boyfriend. That's Wanda — wrong side of the tracks, tough, but loyal to her friends."
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Lacey Kohl with Elizabeth Stanley in Cry-Baby.
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| photo by Kevin Berne |
Cry-Baby began its journey to Broadway this past fall with an out-of-town tryout at the La Jolla Playhouse. Kohl says that "a lot of the score and much of the dialogue is unchanged [since La Jolla]. The work you do out-of-town and in previews involves enriching the characters — giving each of them more layers. Initially a lot of the humor comes from jokes in the dialogue and the lyrics, but ultimately the tone of the show evolves from letting the audience know as much about the characters as possible." An as example, Kohl says that the three Drapes — Wanda, Mona (Courtney Balan) and Pepper (Carly Jibson) — initially performed a song entitled "Class Dismissed," in which they instructed good-girl Allison how to be bad. "It worked well enough," Kohl says, "but it's been replaced by 'A Whole Lot Worse,' in which we tell Allison how we became 'bad girls.' It serves the same dramatic purpose, while giving the audience a whole lot more information about the Drapes. It's that kind of thing that makes a preview period so valuable."
It's been over a decade since Kohl — whose screen credits include "Law & Order," "Ally McBeal," "ER" and "Strong Medicine — made her Broadway bow in the aforementioned Carousel, which she says "didn't seem like a job — it was more fun than school. And talk about luck, working with the cream of the crop my first time on Broadway: Nick Hytner, Lincoln Center Theater, Cameron Mackintosh. Best of all, my first boyfriend was Taye Diggs — but alas, only in the show." As for her Broadway return, Kohl says she is most enjoying "the paycheck [laughs] and being part of a very special community. In L.A. everyone is in cars. Here in the Broadway district, I keep running into people I worked with in shows who haven't seen me since I was a teenager — actors, stagehands, doormen."
As for future roles, Kohl has her eye on the upcoming revival of Brigadoon. "I played Fiona for Rob Ashford in his recent workshop of Brigadoon," Kohl says. "It's the hardest dancing I've done in years, but the choreography is amazing. Rob's a great director/choreographer, and I'd sure like a shot at doing this show on Broadway." But for now, she's busy playing Wanda in Cry-Baby, decorating her new apartment and giving "some mommy time" to her dog Tico.
[Cry-Baby plays the Marquis Theatre, 1535 Broadway; for tickets call (212) 307-4100 or visit www.ticketmaster.com. Go to crybabyonbroadway.com for more information.]
FOR THE RECORD
Karen Mason—"Right Here/Right Now"
It's certainly a busy time for Broadway favorite Karen Mason, one of the original stars of Mamma Mia! who was also acclaimed for her work as the standby-to-the-stars in the original Los Angeles and Broadway productions of Andrew Lloyd Webber's Sunset Boulevard. Not only is Mason back on Broadway as the conniving Velma von Tussle in the Tony Award-winning musical Hairspray, but she is also in the midst of a limited run at the Metropolitan Room in Manhattan celebrating her latest solo recording, "Right Here/Right Now," which is available on the Zevely Records label.
Mason, who boasts a rangy, powerful Broadway belt, is in great voice on the 12-track recording, which features a mix of Broadway favorites ("All That Jazz," "Diamonds Are a Girl's Best Friend"), American songbook classics ("Secret Love," "Get Happy") and new tunes penned by her husband, producer-composer Paul Rolnick, including the title track (co-written with Jim Papoulis).
There is plenty of no-holds-barred belting (a medley of Lennon and McCartney's "Help" and Sondheim's "Being Alive" is particularly powerful as is Harold Arlen and Ted Koehler "Get Happy"), but Mason also shines in the disc's quieter moments. Her rendition of Sammy Fain and Paul Frances Webster's "Secret Love" is simply lovely, and Rolnick's "Like the Heavens Hold the Stars," written with William Soden Jr., also charms with the touching refrain, "Hold me in your arms like the heavens hold the stars." It's also a treat to have preserved Mason's terrific rendition of "As If We Never Said Goodbye" from the aforementioned Sunset Boulevard. Other highlights include a joyous "Hurry! It's Lovely Up Here," a moving "Make Someone Happy" and a toe-tapping "Everything Old Is New Again."
The disc concludes with Jerome Kern and B.G. DeSylva's "Look for the Silver Lining." No need for too much looking—just listen to Mason's new recording.
Christine Ebersole and Billy Stritch: "Sunday in New York"
Continued...
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