Interview: Cady Huffman on 'Life and Death'

Cady Huffman was nominated for a Tony for her first featured role, as Ziegfeld's Favorite in 1991's The Will Rogers Follies, and won in 2001 for playing Ulla in The Producers. She reteamed with Producers star Nathan Lane in The Nance, Douglas Carter Beane's play that ran on Broadway in 2013 and aired on Live From Lincoln Center last year. But more recently she's been working a lot off Broadway and on cabaret and concert stages. Starting tonight she'll be appearing in The Life and Death of Kenyon Phillips for its four performances at the Box on Chrystie St. on the Lower East Side, and on Monday she's performing in "54 Sings Irving Berlin" at 54 Below.

The Life and Death of Kenyon Phillips, subtitled "Sex, Circus, and Rock + Roll" and modeled after the Max Ophuls film Lola Montès and Fellini's 8½, is an autobiographical rock opera about downtown performance artist Phillips. Huffman is taking over a role played by Daphne Rubin-Vega and Rachel Ticotin in the show's previous productions at Joe's Pub. Broadway veteran Gabriel Barre has also joined the cast for its new incarnation at the Box, where it will be presented Feb. 20 and 28 and March 7 and 13.

Huffman spoke with BWW over lunch earlier this week in midtown about The Life and Death of Kenyon Phillips and her other recent projects.

How did you get involved in this show?
Kenyon and I were introduced via email by Carl Andress, who I was doing a series of concerts at the Y with. But I have no idea why Kenyon reached out to me. I read the script, it was strange, and I said, "Okay, let's do it." We both grew up in California and we have a couple of mutual friends. I contacted a few people and they said, "Yeah, this kid's the real deal. He's creative and out-there."

This has to be quite a shift from Irving Berlin...
The music is very pop, more emotion-driven than lyric-driven. It's more he's setting a tone for the story of his life.

What is the story of his life?
He grew up, in a kind of privileged way, as a fat kid. He got himself thin in not a very healthy way. He got hurt by people and acted out, reacted to that. It's a very human story. There's plenty of people who can related to being chubby children and doing anything you can to lose weight. Or having somebody break your heart so you start doing things with other people just to try to make yourself feel better. Some universal themes that he himself went to extremes with.

What else is in the show?
Michael Musto is out in the audience. He's like the old men of The Muppet Show, there to constantly remark on what's going on on stage. It's an odd piece of theater, which is what excited me. It's not a musical, I'll say that. It's a variety show, with jugglers and contortionists and trapeze artists and strippers. It is R-rated variety. The roots of it are very burlesque. I feel like I'm a comic who comes in and out an does sketches between the specialty acts. And it just happens to be all tied together by the story of his life. But it is definitely a downtown, R-rated, burlesque-inspired variety narrative. That's what it is, in my opinion anyway.

You play Kenyon's mother. Have you played other mothers?
Seems all I do now. In a lot of readings and original pieces I play the mom. At my age, most people assume I am a mom. Whether or not you are, it's just how the story goes. I'm mom age, and I have been for a while.

What kind of mother is she?
What I love about this show is that he brings people from his life into the story, but he doesn't stick to his own perspective, so the characters get to comment on how he is telling the story: "You're telling it all wrong, that's not what happened." I'd say I'm a verbally abusive mother. That's part of his recollection, and I get to argue with him about it. Everybody has problems with their parents, right? Everybody thinks their parents are the worst at times. He has a very passionate way of telling a story. I don't think I'm strictly written as his mother. I'm written as a sort of blown-up mother.

And how do the circus and burlesque performers fit into it?
They're actually acting. They represent... [for example] a juggler who juggles men, or a stripper is a one-night stand. There's all these different characters, and their specialties kind of illuminate how that person played a role in his life.

You hadn't worked with any of your Life and Death of Kenyon Phillips castmates before. Isn't that unusual at this point in your career?
There's always young people coming up. I know all the old people. These are a bunch of youngsters who are really excited to do something different. I don't do downtown theater all that much.

Is it out of your comfort zone?
I'm sort of comfortable everywhere. I've done so many different things. I do whatever comes along, I just try to say yes to anything.

What is there left for you to do?
I'm writing more. I have a pilot that I've written with a friend. A half-hour, single-camera multigenerational comedy. Hopefully someone will give it a serious look.

Do you still dance?
No. I'm too old and decrepit to do that [laughs]. I still move, and people still ask me to do things, so I do. I was a real dancer at the beginning, so it's always hard for me to say that I dance [now]. I'm definitely not doing what I did when I was dancing for Bob Fosse. I "move" real well. It's what happens to dancers. You can't keep doing it the way you've done it. You just have to move on eventually.

Do you go to dance class?
Nope. I do Pilates, Gyrotonic and yoga. Dance classes beat me down too much. It's silly for me to try to do it at a level that's going to injure me just because of my own ego. I'd get into a class and want to do more, and I'd just suffer the consequences.

You've been performing on Broadway since the days of the "old Times Square." What do you think of it today?
Hate it. I hate it! I like that they cordoned it off so you can walk around. I just don't like all those people in character outfits trying to make people give them five dollars to take pictures, and all the crazy retail stores. All of us who work on Broadway try to avoid Times Square and just get through, know your routes through buildings.

What else are you working on now?
I have a Cy Coleman night at 54 Below in May with Lilias White and Randy Graff, because we all originated roles in Cy Coleman shows. I'm doing a reading of a new musical. And I'm going down to Florida in April to do a concert with Karen Mason.

Cady will also cohost the Creative Alternatives of New York (CANY) annual gala with Ann Hampton Callaway on March 30. CANY provides and promotes drama-therapy services for children and adults who have suffered trauma. The gala will honor actors S. Epatha Merkerson and Suzzanne Douglas, among others.

Photo of Huffman by Leslie Hassler. Revolution in the Elbow... photo by Carol Rosegg.