WEBVTT - The Luminous Kelli O'Hara 0:00:03.080 --> 0:00:06.440 I'm Alec Baldwin and you're listening to Here's the thing. 0:00:07.400 --> 0:00:10.920 Here's how The New York Times has described My guest 0:00:11.039 --> 0:00:18.480 Today a full fledged Broadway star, Broadways reigning Ingenue, Broadways 0:00:18.720 --> 0:00:24.920 Golden Girl, and luminous three different times. Writers called her 0:00:25.040 --> 0:00:30.480 luminous three years in a row. It's hard to avoid 0:00:30.560 --> 0:00:34.000 repetition when it comes to My guest today, because Kelly 0:00:34.040 --> 0:00:38.480 O'Hara is luminous, as you can hear in this clip 0:00:38.520 --> 0:00:41.920 from South Pacific. She is one of the greatest, sweet 0:00:42.000 --> 0:00:47.720 voiced and infinitely bankable Broadway stars of her generation. I'm 0:00:47.800 --> 0:00:52.199 as corney as Kansas and high as a flag on 0:00:52.240 --> 0:00:57.080 the fourth of July. If you'll excuse an expression, irons, 0:00:57.320 --> 0:01:04.800 I'm in lull, I'm in love, I'm in law. She 0:01:04.959 --> 0:01:09.600 worked hard to get there. O'Hara grew up in rural Oklahoma. 0:01:10.360 --> 0:01:14.560 At eighteen, she convinced legendary voice teacher Florence Birdwell to 0:01:14.680 --> 0:01:18.240 take her on as a protegee, as Kristin Chenowith did 0:01:18.280 --> 0:01:22.080 before her. After graduation, she toiled in the trenches in 0:01:22.160 --> 0:01:26.399 Wichita and in New York as an understudy. She exudes 0:01:26.520 --> 0:01:32.520 gratitude for how far She's come. The thing is, though, 0:01:32.720 --> 0:01:36.720 despite the Tony, despite selling out Broadway and the West 0:01:36.840 --> 0:01:39.640 End in South Pacific, the King and I Kiss Me 0:01:39.760 --> 0:01:44.440 Kate and more, Kelly O'Hara gets tired of being luminous. 0:01:45.080 --> 0:01:48.840 I made choices to make a living. A commercial musical 0:01:48.960 --> 0:01:52.680 on Broadway is a financial living. That is um. There 0:01:52.720 --> 0:01:54.920 was more than I expected growing up on a farm 0:01:54.920 --> 0:01:58.160 in western Oklahoma. I didn't take the when I did 0:01:58.200 --> 0:02:02.920 the public it was a financial It was de financially difficult, okay, um. 0:02:02.960 --> 0:02:05.520 And so to go do the little not that I've 0:02:05.520 --> 0:02:08.240 been asked or even called in for an audition, but 0:02:08.320 --> 0:02:11.320 to do those little things or wait for the you know, 0:02:11.520 --> 0:02:14.519 the TV job, or do one day of a guest 0:02:14.639 --> 0:02:17.480 artist for nothing on a TV show, I've never been 0:02:17.520 --> 0:02:20.120 able to afford to do that. So I keep saying 0:02:20.240 --> 0:02:24.440 yes to the commercial Broadway musical. And the thing is is, um, 0:02:24.480 --> 0:02:27.440 if I have to make those choices, they have to 0:02:27.480 --> 0:02:31.440 be really really great for me. Believe me, if anyone 0:02:31.520 --> 0:02:34.040 had believed in me that I could play something that 0:02:34.120 --> 0:02:37.359 was a little bit more gritty than I'm in Love 0:02:37.360 --> 0:02:39.840 with a wonderful guy, I would have jumped at it 0:02:40.680 --> 0:02:43.359 any time in my past. I will never stop wanting 0:02:43.400 --> 0:02:45.560 to do a play or a theater theater. I should 0:02:45.560 --> 0:02:47.799 just say theater. I've always wanted to do a play. 0:02:47.840 --> 0:02:50.240 I've only been asked to do a play like once. 0:02:50.440 --> 0:02:53.120 You know, people say, why don't you want to, you know, 0:02:53.200 --> 0:02:58.560 do more things. I'm not a star. I'm not you know, 0:02:58.600 --> 0:03:00.920 maybe in musical theater whatever. You say that in a 0:03:00.960 --> 0:03:04.600 certain bubble, but not even outside of this range. Did 0:03:04.600 --> 0:03:07.320 you study acting as well? Was acting a big did you? 0:03:07.720 --> 0:03:10.200 It was musical theater you study? No? I got an 0:03:10.240 --> 0:03:13.919 opera degree because that's what my teacher went. Yes, Yes, 0:03:14.440 --> 0:03:18.400 with Florence Birdwell, the premier voice teacher there, and um, 0:03:18.520 --> 0:03:20.600 I wanted my whole life to study with her, So 0:03:20.720 --> 0:03:24.280 that's what I did. Did you break Florence Birdwell's heart 0:03:24.320 --> 0:03:26.720 when you moved from voice to the theater? You know, 0:03:27.160 --> 0:03:29.560 I was on a track to do opera, and I've 0:03:29.600 --> 0:03:32.560 since done some opera and just found very lovely people. 0:03:32.600 --> 0:03:36.120 But in that moment, in my senior of college, doing 0:03:36.120 --> 0:03:42.120 the met audition circuit, I met ugly people. It was 0:03:42.200 --> 0:03:45.280 not for me. If I'm going to make art or 0:03:45.320 --> 0:03:47.120 if I'm going to make art, whatever that is if 0:03:47.120 --> 0:03:49.600 I'm going to do something that is expressive and communicative 0:03:49.920 --> 0:03:52.920 with my voice, I love to do it with people 0:03:53.360 --> 0:03:57.280 and feel things. And I just literally I remember saying, 0:03:57.560 --> 0:03:59.680 I want to be an actor. I don't want any 0:03:59.720 --> 0:04:03.160 part of that solo ego thing. That's not who I am. 0:04:03.200 --> 0:04:05.680 I want to go inside things and live in them. 0:04:06.040 --> 0:04:08.640 Pass the ball and if it gets passed back to me, 0:04:08.680 --> 0:04:10.760 I'm going to be paying attention and I'm gonna catch it, 0:04:11.000 --> 0:04:13.200 but I'm gonna pass it back off quickly. That is 0:04:13.240 --> 0:04:16.920 exciting to me. And I walked into her room one 0:04:16.960 --> 0:04:18.960 day and I said, I told her. I had told 0:04:19.000 --> 0:04:21.000 her I'm not going to go to grad school. I'm 0:04:21.000 --> 0:04:22.400 not going to go to grad school. We had filled 0:04:22.400 --> 0:04:25.400 out all the applications for American Volcal Academy and everything, 0:04:25.440 --> 0:04:27.520 and I said, I'm gonna move to New York. I'm 0:04:27.520 --> 0:04:28.960 gonna go to acting school and I'm gonna be a 0:04:29.000 --> 0:04:31.760 real actor. And I remember I walked in one day 0:04:31.839 --> 0:04:34.480 and she held up the application to a v A 0:04:34.560 --> 0:04:36.559 and she looked me in the eye and she ripped 0:04:36.600 --> 0:04:40.000 it into and she said, go live, Go do what 0:04:40.000 --> 0:04:43.600 you're gonna do. And honestly, she's more of that person too, 0:04:43.640 --> 0:04:45.600 So I didn't break her heart. I think I just 0:04:45.760 --> 0:04:50.479 surprised her um and she has supported me ever since. 0:04:50.720 --> 0:04:53.640 But I I went to Strasbourg for acting here in 0:04:53.680 --> 0:04:57.839 the city right when I moved, literally that fall, because 0:04:57.880 --> 0:05:01.640 I felt that insecurity, the idea that when you're an 0:05:01.640 --> 0:05:04.640 opera singer there is no acting ability in there. I 0:05:04.720 --> 0:05:07.239 wanted so badly to be an actor, and I still 0:05:07.480 --> 0:05:09.960 so badly want to be a better actor. But I 0:05:10.000 --> 0:05:13.480 went to Strasbourg because I needed to have that um 0:05:13.520 --> 0:05:16.080 for myself, you know what I mean. Even if I thought, 0:05:16.080 --> 0:05:19.800 oh I can get into musicals, maybe an act okay, 0:05:20.120 --> 0:05:24.400 I needed it. I needed that label. Honestly, what's the 0:05:24.440 --> 0:05:26.240 one you did with? There was some real acting you 0:05:26.320 --> 0:05:29.160 had to do in that piece. Um. You know. I 0:05:29.240 --> 0:05:31.559 must I must have thought everything was like a major 0:05:31.600 --> 0:05:34.560 acting I'll tell you what. I that the show that 0:05:34.640 --> 0:05:37.280 I didn't I feel like I knew what I was doing, 0:05:37.400 --> 0:05:39.440 or that I didn't speak up as an actor, which 0:05:39.440 --> 0:05:41.560 was sweet smell of success, which was my first big 0:05:41.680 --> 0:05:45.280 role with Let's Go and Brandosha James and stuff. And 0:05:45.320 --> 0:05:47.280 I look back at that as the time when I 0:05:47.320 --> 0:05:50.600 said either ship or get off the pot, like do it, 0:05:50.920 --> 0:05:53.520 speak out for yourself or stop this business. I was 0:05:54.160 --> 0:05:56.320 trying to lean on my singing and kind of felt 0:05:56.320 --> 0:05:57.800 like I was in a straight jacket and didn't make 0:05:57.800 --> 0:06:01.120 any choices. It wasn't until things like you know, the 0:06:02.120 --> 0:06:04.400 Bridges of Madison County might have asked for me to 0:06:04.440 --> 0:06:07.240 be the most unlike myself. That was way late in 0:06:07.240 --> 0:06:10.000 the game. I had already done South Pacific and other things, 0:06:10.040 --> 0:06:12.000 but um, that was the one where I felt like, 0:06:12.279 --> 0:06:14.200 I've been here for a while, I've learned a few things. 0:06:14.200 --> 0:06:19.160 I'm gonna trust myself. It's interesting how for myself included 0:06:19.680 --> 0:06:23.240 when I got into the business and nowhere was this 0:06:23.400 --> 0:06:26.760 more uh laid there than when I would do plays. 0:06:27.400 --> 0:06:29.200 Was how much I wanted to please people, and there 0:06:29.200 --> 0:06:31.200 if I didn't want to impose my ideas and say, 0:06:31.240 --> 0:06:33.240 well I want to do this, I want to do this. 0:06:33.720 --> 0:06:35.479 I walked in there going what do you want me 0:06:35.520 --> 0:06:38.039 to do? And I wanted everybody to direct me, and 0:06:38.080 --> 0:06:40.800 I was I was afraid. And then when I got 0:06:40.839 --> 0:06:44.320 into the world, even in small roles, supporting roles in 0:06:44.360 --> 0:06:48.120 films with legendary directors like Mike Nichols, you realize that 0:06:48.160 --> 0:06:50.920 on this mount Olympus. It was the opposite. They were 0:06:50.960 --> 0:06:52.800 looking at you like, well, what do you got? What 0:06:52.839 --> 0:06:54.200 do you want to do? That's why you're here. I 0:06:54.279 --> 0:06:56.960 hired you because of your instincts, and do you find 0:06:56.960 --> 0:06:58.400 there was a bit of that of view that one 0:06:58.520 --> 0:07:01.200 point does Kelly O would turn around and I got this, 0:07:01.320 --> 0:07:04.000 I know what I want to do, absolutely show. I 0:07:04.040 --> 0:07:06.719 really think that It was the Bridges Masson County where 0:07:06.760 --> 0:07:09.440 I said, I'm going to speak up for myself. I'm 0:07:09.440 --> 0:07:12.679 going to try to find my way in, and any 0:07:12.720 --> 0:07:17.840 smart director, anyone who's confident enough in their abilities, will say, yes, 0:07:17.960 --> 0:07:19.920 it's going to be only better if if it's more 0:07:20.000 --> 0:07:22.600 natural from you, if it's coming from you, use your voice. 0:07:22.680 --> 0:07:24.760 You know, I'm going to listen. As opposed to being 0:07:24.760 --> 0:07:28.360 threatened by that um that first job that I mentioned 0:07:28.400 --> 0:07:31.240 sweet film success, the girl before me had been fired 0:07:31.320 --> 0:07:35.600 in the workshops. So I walked in so fearful it 0:07:35.680 --> 0:07:38.560 was my first role on Broadway that I would be fired, 0:07:39.000 --> 0:07:41.280 and I also felt like I would be people have 0:07:41.320 --> 0:07:45.040 already got it wrong once, you know. And I was 0:07:45.080 --> 0:07:48.080 walking in and it was that atmosphere too. It felt 0:07:48.120 --> 0:07:53.560 very much like nobody quite had control and Um, I 0:07:53.640 --> 0:07:57.480 learned Nick Kitner, and it was a bad time. It 0:07:57.560 --> 0:08:02.200 was after night, right after anyway, UM, I promised myself 0:08:02.200 --> 0:08:05.600 I would never do that again. I remember actually having 0:08:05.600 --> 0:08:08.360 a conversation in a rehearsal where I was starting to 0:08:09.200 --> 0:08:13.960 feel that where there was a sexual scene between the 0:08:14.120 --> 0:08:17.440 my leading man and we were doing something and I've 0:08:17.440 --> 0:08:19.760 really never told the story. Uh, and we're just going 0:08:19.800 --> 0:08:23.480 to start with it. And Nick said, you know, stop, stop, 0:08:23.600 --> 0:08:26.920 you look like you're mothering him. And I knew that 0:08:27.040 --> 0:08:29.920 wasn't me. And I said, I know how to touch 0:08:29.960 --> 0:08:32.880 a man. I know what I'm doing. And I stood 0:08:32.920 --> 0:08:35.079 up for myself for the first, like literally the first time, 0:08:35.080 --> 0:08:37.559 and it had to do with just being a human 0:08:37.559 --> 0:08:41.560 being a woman and I and I felt that in 0:08:41.640 --> 0:08:45.199 my core. I felt like, no, I there is something 0:08:45.240 --> 0:08:47.440 I can bring here. I might not be what you 0:08:47.480 --> 0:08:51.719 want or what other people expect or envision, but if 0:08:51.800 --> 0:08:56.040 you if you have any sense of your own humanity 0:08:56.120 --> 0:08:59.200 or self, that's what you bring, you know, if you 0:08:59.240 --> 0:09:03.200 can access it. I literally have to take most of 0:09:03.200 --> 0:09:05.480 my questions down and throw them in the garbage because 0:09:05.800 --> 0:09:09.680 I was expecting a kind of Julie Andrews and you 0:09:09.760 --> 0:09:11.719 sent ship and going off the pod you said, I 0:09:11.800 --> 0:09:13.959 know how to touch a man. My interview with Kelly O. 0:09:14.000 --> 0:09:16.120 Harris going we're we're very often and we're off roading 0:09:16.120 --> 0:09:18.800 here completely. We're going up into territory. I was unprepared 0:09:18.840 --> 0:09:21.120 to go for it. So I'm ready though, I'm ready. Um, 0:09:21.320 --> 0:09:23.480 But here's what's interesting to me is that we'll just 0:09:23.520 --> 0:09:25.840 get this out of the way, which is in the 0:09:25.920 --> 0:09:28.800 world that you typically inhabit. You're out there and it's 0:09:28.840 --> 0:09:31.320 a fantasy and they want it to be beautiful and 0:09:31.320 --> 0:09:32.880 they want to be And then then now you come 0:09:32.960 --> 0:09:36.000 this famous award winning singer in the theater and when 0:09:36.000 --> 0:09:38.400 you come out there, do you feel like that's the obligation? 0:09:38.520 --> 0:09:40.160 Is like you're hosting an event and you've got to 0:09:40.160 --> 0:09:42.880 give these people this magical evening. I know what you're 0:09:42.880 --> 0:09:46.240 talking about. There is an obligation. This is what we do, 0:09:46.360 --> 0:09:49.560 and you do in order to just you know, get 0:09:49.640 --> 0:09:51.640 up and do it every night for hows a week 0:09:51.679 --> 0:09:54.960 for twenty years. You have to tell yourself. I heard 0:09:55.000 --> 0:09:58.520 once someone say it's either someone's first time seeing this 0:09:58.760 --> 0:10:01.800 theater at all, or it's someone's last time, and so 0:10:01.880 --> 0:10:05.199 it gives you this kind of reason to be, I guess, 0:10:05.200 --> 0:10:08.800 because otherwise you're literally thinking of the grocery list. Sometimes 0:10:09.040 --> 0:10:11.840 when you've sung a song a hundred and seventy five times, 0:10:12.360 --> 0:10:14.080 you know, and you have to kind of find a 0:10:14.120 --> 0:10:17.080 way to connect. I think that I do this for 0:10:17.240 --> 0:10:19.600 very personal reasons. I don't know why it bit me 0:10:19.679 --> 0:10:21.760 a long time ago, because I wasn't raised around any 0:10:21.760 --> 0:10:25.359 of it. Um So sometimes I think about that obligation, 0:10:25.440 --> 0:10:29.280 and sometimes I I lose myself in it in a 0:10:29.320 --> 0:10:32.280 weird way, like I've actually tried to have, you know, 0:10:32.320 --> 0:10:35.000 I try to dig deep and say, what does this 0:10:35.120 --> 0:10:37.400 do to you? That's different, I think sometimes in what 0:10:37.440 --> 0:10:40.760 other it does to other people. I guess I learned 0:10:40.800 --> 0:10:44.560 from it. I kind of fall into it. Even even 0:10:44.640 --> 0:10:46.880 after eight shows a week, I find myself kind of 0:10:47.320 --> 0:10:51.160 dealing with all of this, all of my innards out there. 0:10:51.880 --> 0:10:54.400 And I think maybe it's because overwhelmed when singing a song, 0:10:54.440 --> 0:10:57.360 you almost broke down crying. That's I do. I do 0:10:57.480 --> 0:10:59.320 all the time, and it's so and it can be 0:10:59.320 --> 0:11:01.720 a song of song thousand times and something will just 0:11:01.840 --> 0:11:05.800 a It's how I filter, it's how I process, I think, 0:11:06.000 --> 0:11:09.240 and it's why I'm not quite tired of it. It's 0:11:09.240 --> 0:11:12.880 why I'm not quite jaded by it. Sometimes I am, 0:11:12.960 --> 0:11:16.880 but for the most part I find that I go 0:11:17.000 --> 0:11:21.480 inside it, maybe as opposed to just dealing with it 0:11:21.520 --> 0:11:23.360 all out here. You said that you didn't grow up 0:11:23.400 --> 0:11:27.480 around this. What did your dad do? It's a farmer? Literally? 0:11:27.520 --> 0:11:32.400 Did you just laugh just that you are this queen 0:11:32.440 --> 0:11:34.240 of Broadway? And I found was a farmer. What did 0:11:34.240 --> 0:11:37.200 he farm? We farmed wheat, cattle, and cotton. It was 0:11:37.240 --> 0:11:39.320 in western Oklahoma, very small town that he grew up 0:11:39.400 --> 0:11:42.280 and my mother they met in the eighth grade. My 0:11:42.400 --> 0:11:44.960 dad went back to school when he was forty. He 0:11:45.000 --> 0:11:47.400 went to law school. It was his dream and he 0:11:47.480 --> 0:11:51.280 changed our lives. I was sixteen when he graduated law school, 0:11:51.640 --> 0:11:54.040 and so my last two years of high school we 0:11:54.080 --> 0:11:56.839 had moved to the big city of Oklahoma City, and 0:11:56.880 --> 0:12:01.200 then I was off to college. His mother continues to 0:12:01.240 --> 0:12:03.600 be there. He's my dad's still kept. Yes, and my 0:12:03.679 --> 0:12:05.760 dad and my brothers still run cattle and they're still 0:12:06.400 --> 0:12:08.600 practice what kind of law they He and my brother 0:12:08.640 --> 0:12:12.000 practiced together. They practice a state tax, oil and gas law. 0:12:12.679 --> 0:12:14.600 Because he was a farmer. My dad's first big case 0:12:14.760 --> 0:12:19.280 was fighting like Phillips. Their land had been kind of 0:12:19.600 --> 0:12:22.440 ruined by the oil drilling and stuff. And my dad 0:12:22.520 --> 0:12:27.440 represented he is a dooder and your mom school teacher 0:12:27.880 --> 0:12:31.640 what subject, uh, social studies? It was my dad, my 0:12:31.720 --> 0:12:34.520 dad to social studies. A dear friend of mine, Jeff Ambrassini, 0:12:34.520 --> 0:12:36.120 who I went to high school when I grew up 0:12:36.160 --> 0:12:39.800 with him. He and his wife were in the world 0:12:39.880 --> 0:12:44.720 you're in, you know, striving and then uh he was. 0:12:44.800 --> 0:12:47.800 She was from Norman and they upped and left and 0:12:47.840 --> 0:12:50.280 moved to Oklahoma, and not only for her to be 0:12:50.320 --> 0:12:53.560 near her mother, but they got more work in that 0:12:53.679 --> 0:12:56.560 area than they did in New York. Um. I have 0:12:56.600 --> 0:12:58.520 a really good friend that's back there teaching voice and 0:12:58.559 --> 0:13:01.200 she does cabaret. She performed in the shows when they're there, 0:13:01.200 --> 0:13:04.880 And Um, New York was like air for me, Like 0:13:05.000 --> 0:13:08.200 the first time I breathed. I remember running down I 0:13:08.280 --> 0:13:10.880 was twenty one, and I remember running down Fifth Avenue, 0:13:12.080 --> 0:13:14.360 darting in between people with my backpack on like I 0:13:14.400 --> 0:13:16.160 was in a car, like I was in rush hour. 0:13:16.840 --> 0:13:19.120 I was alive. I was alive for the first time, 0:13:19.679 --> 0:13:22.640 and I don't really believe that I knew it. What 0:13:22.679 --> 0:13:24.520 was it? About you that felt that way, this is 0:13:24.640 --> 0:13:27.559 the mountain you wanted to climb. Yes, And because I 0:13:27.640 --> 0:13:33.000 loved the vast number of people, different types of people, 0:13:33.720 --> 0:13:37.160 I somehow didn't even matter. Who cares what I did. 0:13:37.360 --> 0:13:39.880 When you grew up in a small town, I was, 0:13:40.120 --> 0:13:44.040 you know, riddled by um. I had really good upbringing. 0:13:44.080 --> 0:13:46.360 I mean I did it was a safe but I 0:13:46.400 --> 0:13:49.040 was kind of riddled by the feeling of being different 0:13:49.080 --> 0:13:51.480 a little bit. It was a chubby kid or whatever, 0:13:51.600 --> 0:13:53.560 and and there was really I was I was a 0:13:53.600 --> 0:13:56.080 chubby kid, and there was this kind of feeling of 0:13:56.120 --> 0:13:59.120 but I still did gymnastics, and I still did flips, 0:13:59.160 --> 0:14:01.040 and I still sang, and there was this feeling of 0:14:01.320 --> 0:14:04.880 you can't do that, you know, or I just felt 0:14:04.880 --> 0:14:07.280 like there was this kind of cap you know, of 0:14:07.600 --> 0:14:10.840 don't try to do anything special or and I it 0:14:10.960 --> 0:14:12.800 wasn't so much like I'll show you. It's more just 0:14:12.880 --> 0:14:16.040 like I need I need the quiet. I need that 0:14:16.160 --> 0:14:18.240 all that to be quiet. And you just come up 0:14:18.280 --> 0:14:21.240 here and whether you make it or not, no one's 0:14:21.280 --> 0:14:24.160 really on your back about it. You're just doing it, 0:14:24.280 --> 0:14:27.560 you know. I've always loved the acceptance, you know, like 0:14:27.600 --> 0:14:31.920 whatever you're into people like, wow, you know whatever your 0:14:31.920 --> 0:14:34.640 thing is now, Scott ellis so I family with I 0:14:34.680 --> 0:14:36.520 went to go visit me to rehearsal, and I was, 0:14:36.560 --> 0:14:38.760 I don't want to say appalled, but I was mildly 0:14:38.920 --> 0:14:43.320 shocked by the mechanics of the rehearsal of the Broadway music. 0:14:43.680 --> 0:14:46.160 I couldn't believe. It was like I was at Boeing 0:14:46.920 --> 0:14:49.520 and they were putting a jet plane together, how technical 0:14:49.560 --> 0:14:51.920 it was, and people were they were like okay again 0:14:51.960 --> 0:14:54.280 and they're like bot of the botto the pop pop 0:14:54.360 --> 0:14:57.680 up stop, and it was start start. I mean I 0:14:57.720 --> 0:15:00.880 got a headache watching this and how hard they were 0:15:01.080 --> 0:15:03.920 and how precise they were, and how they made them 0:15:03.920 --> 0:15:05.720 do it again and again. I mean I thought they 0:15:05.760 --> 0:15:09.440 were all getting paid just for the insanity inducing repetition 0:15:09.520 --> 0:15:12.000 of it. Well you know what you're when you describe 0:15:12.040 --> 0:15:16.160 the musical theater rehearsal, My my heart kind of pounds 0:15:16.280 --> 0:15:19.400 with that. Yes, you know, you say it's like nauseating, 0:15:19.400 --> 0:15:22.760 but that data data stop. But that's not really me. 0:15:23.280 --> 0:15:27.440 I'm not a dancer. I'm not a timed performer. Um, 0:15:27.480 --> 0:15:30.600 which I love. I love that because I'm better at 0:15:30.680 --> 0:15:32.760 They do all do that until you come out and 0:15:32.800 --> 0:15:38.920 then it's a play. Um, when you're rehearsing a musical, 0:15:39.000 --> 0:15:42.120 a big musical, the kind you would do, what does 0:15:42.160 --> 0:15:44.520 a director offer you at this point in your career. 0:15:45.200 --> 0:15:47.880 Any good director is never going to tell you where 0:15:47.920 --> 0:15:51.040 to go, how to stand, where to move. What do 0:15:51.120 --> 0:15:54.960 they tell you? Go, Let's go, let's read the scene, 0:15:55.240 --> 0:15:58.480 Let's see what happens, and then so you get it, 0:15:58.520 --> 0:16:01.200 you get something going on with with the person you're 0:16:01.200 --> 0:16:03.880 working with. Whatever the scene is just like a play, 0:16:03.920 --> 0:16:07.040 and then they might have some suggestions about if you 0:16:07.280 --> 0:16:09.720 entered here, you know, because we've got exiting here. I 0:16:09.760 --> 0:16:12.119 think in a way, musical theater can be more cinematic 0:16:12.120 --> 0:16:15.400 because it's transitions. It's like what comes in between each scene. 0:16:15.440 --> 0:16:17.360 So we need this kind of thing filtering on while 0:16:17.360 --> 0:16:20.440 you're filtering off. So then you have these suggestions of 0:16:20.560 --> 0:16:23.640 how we're going to stage this as far as transitions, 0:16:23.680 --> 0:16:26.880 but within the moment. I think, especially with Bart Sheer, 0:16:26.920 --> 0:16:29.480 who I've done a lot of shows with, we spend 0:16:29.520 --> 0:16:32.160 a lot of time at the table before, you know, 0:16:32.320 --> 0:16:36.560 or in school studying World War two or clown classes 0:16:36.720 --> 0:16:38.600 or whatever it is, that then we're going to put 0:16:38.640 --> 0:16:41.080 into it and then we only spend a few a 0:16:41.120 --> 0:16:44.560 couple of days just moseying around, you know, trying to 0:16:44.600 --> 0:16:47.600 make a scene, and that that's it, that's set. And 0:16:47.640 --> 0:16:51.080 then once we start previewing or whatever, then he might 0:16:51.160 --> 0:16:54.000 say this, this and this, And then once in a while, 0:16:54.240 --> 0:16:56.040 when you're talking about kind of real, you know, the 0:16:56.080 --> 0:16:59.200 acting part of it, again comes to your room and says, 0:16:59.240 --> 0:17:02.080 you know, let's talk about if this is a deeper moment, 0:17:02.200 --> 0:17:04.240 you know, how do you feel about this or and 0:17:04.280 --> 0:17:06.360 then we can get deeper. And but there's a lot 0:17:06.359 --> 0:17:08.800 of allowance if it's a good director, if they can 0:17:08.840 --> 0:17:11.000 trust you and you can trust them and believe me, 0:17:11.040 --> 0:17:12.200 there are times when I said, I don't know what 0:17:12.280 --> 0:17:14.280 the hell I'm doing here? You know, can you talk 0:17:14.320 --> 0:17:16.680 to me? But I mean, I think that you are 0:17:16.720 --> 0:17:19.560 ready to ask those questions and admit those things when 0:17:19.600 --> 0:17:21.480 you have the director who let you try first, and 0:17:21.520 --> 0:17:24.000 then if you need something you ask does the director 0:17:24.960 --> 0:17:28.040 is embedded in his role? Is the vocal direction or 0:17:28.040 --> 0:17:30.320 is there somebody separate who handles you when you're singing? 0:17:30.400 --> 0:17:33.359 Oh yeah, I mean Bart bart Sheer wouldn't know what 0:17:33.400 --> 0:17:37.440 to say about. There's the musical director. Ted Spurling and Paul, 0:17:37.480 --> 0:17:39.439 Jim and Janni one of the greatest, and what I 0:17:39.480 --> 0:17:42.280 love about him again is just his absolute confidence in 0:17:42.320 --> 0:17:47.040 everyone else's ability. He doesn't control, he doesn't obsess. He 0:17:47.200 --> 0:17:50.320 just he sits there and moves his hand like an 0:17:50.320 --> 0:17:53.880 inch high and inch low and just controls it. There's 0:17:53.920 --> 0:17:55.439 a lot of time where you're at a piano with 0:17:55.480 --> 0:17:58.560 someone like Jim and and they're talking about how you're 0:17:58.560 --> 0:18:00.520 gonna play the song. Yeah, you're to do it, and 0:18:00.560 --> 0:18:02.880 then we're gonna talk to Yeah, we're gonna I'm gonna 0:18:02.880 --> 0:18:05.200 bring my way, and then listen. We're gonna all listen 0:18:05.240 --> 0:18:06.679 to each other and kind of figure it out. We're 0:18:06.680 --> 0:18:09.159 gonna talk about Tempe and whatever. Um. But yeah, the 0:18:09.240 --> 0:18:11.440 music director in a musical is right up there with 0:18:11.480 --> 0:18:13.840 the director and the choreographer or the stager. You kind 0:18:13.840 --> 0:18:16.159 of have a three part team where you have to 0:18:16.400 --> 0:18:18.800 all of those things have to fall in place. Tempo, 0:18:19.040 --> 0:18:20.960 how you transition from scene to scene, which is the 0:18:21.040 --> 0:18:25.440 director's choice, has to also be supported by musical interludes 0:18:25.520 --> 0:18:28.920 that time just right. So it's a it's a big team. 0:18:28.920 --> 0:18:33.879 It's not just doesn't sit still, it continually moves Broadway 0:18:33.960 --> 0:18:39.560 star Kelly O'Hara. Another great Broadway leading lady is Patti Lapone. 0:18:40.320 --> 0:18:44.119 Her breakthrough role was as Eva Perone in A Vida, 0:18:44.880 --> 0:18:47.399 but on opening night in New York, she didn't know 0:18:47.520 --> 0:18:51.600 how legendary her performance would become. I threw up in 0:18:51.920 --> 0:18:55.719 the sink before I sank. Don't cry from Argentina. I 0:18:55.760 --> 0:18:59.640 got extremely bad notices opening in l A and extremely 0:18:59.720 --> 0:19:02.479 bad this is opening in San Francisco. There was an 0:19:02.520 --> 0:19:05.240 article coming out in Susie Nicko Parker's column the next 0:19:05.280 --> 0:19:07.400 day that I was going to be fired and that 0:19:07.800 --> 0:19:10.440 actor's Equity was waiting to clear Elaine Page to take 0:19:10.480 --> 0:19:13.439 my place. I'm dealing with all of this press of 0:19:13.480 --> 0:19:16.040 me being fired and me not being able to sing 0:19:16.080 --> 0:19:18.399 the part, and still going on from my throwing the 0:19:18.440 --> 0:19:20.919 s and al came to me and said, we're going 0:19:20.960 --> 0:19:24.240 to laugh about this in twenty years, Patty. The rest 0:19:24.280 --> 0:19:28.520 of my interview with Patty Lapone is in our archives 0:19:28.840 --> 0:19:33.520 at Here's the Thing Dot Org. Kelly O'Hara returns after 0:19:33.560 --> 0:19:45.960 the break. This is Alec Baldwin and you're listening to 0:19:46.119 --> 0:19:49.680 Here's the Thing. Kelly O'Hara has been at the top 0:19:49.680 --> 0:19:54.040 of the Broadway game for almost twenty years. Some things 0:19:54.080 --> 0:19:58.919 have stayed the same, while others are unrecognizable. Yeah, you know, 0:19:59.040 --> 0:20:00.720 I think one of the biggest ones isn't even a 0:20:00.760 --> 0:20:03.399 stage thing. I remember I was doing South Pacific, I 0:20:03.440 --> 0:20:05.760 got pregnant with my first child. I left to have him, 0:20:05.760 --> 0:20:07.879 and I came back to do my next Broadway show. 0:20:08.359 --> 0:20:10.760 I remember that I'm having a meeting and rehearsal about 0:20:10.880 --> 0:20:13.800 social media, about filming, what you could and couldn't film, 0:20:13.800 --> 0:20:17.399 what you couldn't couldn't post, and literally the show before 0:20:17.480 --> 0:20:20.920 that show the idea of having anyone come inside your 0:20:20.920 --> 0:20:25.000 rehearsal room and sharing it with anybody but your team, 0:20:25.119 --> 0:20:29.400 your family. I I thought they were joking, Like I 0:20:29.440 --> 0:20:32.040 literally thought I was being you know, maybe candid camera 0:20:32.119 --> 0:20:36.320 or being punked. I was kind of horrified. Now I 0:20:36.359 --> 0:20:38.280 can be old fashioned. I'm made fun of by all 0:20:38.320 --> 0:20:41.159 my friends because I I still kind of live in 0:20:41.160 --> 0:20:44.439 that place of how dare you, how dare you share 0:20:45.440 --> 0:20:48.040 this problem with the world so that they can be 0:20:48.040 --> 0:20:52.120 a part of our that because what we bring to me, well, 0:20:52.119 --> 0:20:53.760 that's is that what we're leaning on or were we 0:20:53.840 --> 0:20:56.080 going to lean on? This craft? So that I had 0:20:56.119 --> 0:20:59.320 to really get used to, because then everyone started filming 0:20:59.359 --> 0:21:01.000 all of the rehear souls and they said, oh, this 0:21:01.080 --> 0:21:04.480 is only to teach the choreography or whatever b s. 0:21:05.080 --> 0:21:07.080 You know, that's going to be somewhere, and then there's 0:21:07.119 --> 0:21:09.199