Interview: KATE BALDWIN on Her New Concert Series with Friends

Audiences at Kate Baldwin's upcoming NYC concerts "can look forward to a very fun, informal, relaxed evening highlighting some great music," the musical star says. "That's my aim for the evening--make it fun and happy and uplifting."

What else would you expect from an evening with friends? "Welcome to My Party: Kate Baldwin and Friends Sing Michael John LaChiusa" will take place this Sunday, February 28, at the Sheen Center for Thought & Culture in the East Village. It's the first of three "Kate Baldwin and Friends" concerts planned for the venue this year; "The Girl Who Stayed: Kate Baldwin & Friends Sing the Songs of Will Van Dyke" follows next month.

Baldwin spoke with BroadwayWorld about helping create the new concert series that she headlines. One of musical theater's loveliest voices, Baldwin recently appeared in the country musical Songbird off-Broadway and received a Drama Desk nomination (her third) last year for the Keen Company revival of Andrew Lippa's John & Jen. Next up for her besides the Sheen Center performances is playing Anna in The King and I at Lyric Opera of Chicago, April 29-May 22, opposite Paolo Montalban. This summer she will costar with her husband, Graham Rowat, in the romantic two-hander Constellations at Berkshire Theatre Group in Massachusetts; they've previously shared the stage there in Bells Are Ringing and A Little Night Music.

You and Graham have a 4-year-old son. Does he go to your performances?
No, he doesn't like music and he doesn't like theater. We took him to something over Christmastime at New Victory Theater--they have wonderful performances for young audiences. It was a kind of Cirque du Soleil really cool acrobatic show geared toward kids, and he wanted to leave at intermission. It's absolutely no comment on the performance, because my husband and I thought it was great. We were really enjoying it, so we were astonished he wanted to leave. He's just not into it. Hey, he's allowed to be his own person and do what he likes to do. He's really good at math and he loves science, and he loves sports--basketball. It's a new world for me, but one I'm happy to explore.

How'd you get involved in curating these concerts for the Sheen Center?
Well, I would call it not curating but more like a residency. Andrew Levine, who is the managing director, called me out of the blue in the summer to offer a series of concerts. He kind of gave me carte blanche. I guess the Sheen Center had primarily been used as a rental space, and he is part of a new initiative to produce their own shows. He called and said, "You want to do three concerts? It can be anything you want." I took a tour of the beautiful proscenium theater. It's about 275 seats, I think, but it feels much smaller. I thought, This would be a great place to do theater music, so I've chosen three theater composers to highlight. The first one is Michael John LaChiusa. That's going to be this Sunday night at 7:30. My friends who are joining me are Allison Blackwell, Alexander Gemignani and Katie Thompson--who I know from doing Giant, Michael John's piece, at the Public a couple of years ago. My music director for the show is Mary-Mitchell Campbell. She works all over the place; right now she's music [supervisor for] Tuck Everlasting. And my director is Erin Ortman.
The next one is going to be on March 21, and it's going to feature the music of a young composer named Will Van Dyke. The third concert will feature the music and lyrics of Georgia Stitt, who's a longtime friend and collaborator of mine. We have yet to pick a date, so it's TBD--hopefully September or October. I intend to invite at least two people to sing with me on that one as well.

Why did you choose these three songwriters?
First of all, I chose them because they're good. I also wanted to choose writers who I felt were underrepresented or unrepresented up to this point on Broadway. I like to champion people who are think are worthy who maybe audiences don't really know about. The characteristics of Michael John's music that excite me are its complexity, its sort of dark underbelly, and also its yearning, longing, hopefulness. I think all of those things come through in every single one of his songs. In terms of Will's music, I like how it blends the best of what theater songs can do--i.e., tell a story--and a pop sensibility, a modern popular-music groove. I find all of his songs really infectious; you want to snap your fingers, you want to sing along and harmonize, they're really fun. And Georgia's music has been so much a part of what I consider my growing up in New York, coming here when I was 24 and discovering who I am. So many of her songs are about self-discovery, and that is always appealing to me because I feel like we're always changing and becoming the person that we are. And her talent for writing melody is fabulous, she's a beautiful writer, and I love singing her stuff. It was kind of a no-brainer to choose her: I've sung on her albums, she's my music director when I do 54 Below shows, and she's one of my best friends.

How'd you discover Will Van Dyke, who has not yet had the career that Michael John LaChiusa or Georgia Stitt has?
I know him through a mutual friend. My friend Jeff Talbott is a recent collaborator with Will; he and Will have been writing musicals together for the past two years, but Jeff and I have been friends ever since I moved here, about 17 years ago. He's an actor and a playwright. He and Will invited me to sing on an EP that they released last fall called A View of the River. I loved the song that they assigned me, and I loved all the songs on the EP. I would find myself going through my day--hopping on the subway and running around the city--and I would always gravitate toward listening to those songs. They have sort of a pop influence but still are really good storytelling songs.

Did you have a history with Michael John LaChiusa prior to being in Giant?
The first musical I ever heard by him is Hello Again. I remember sitting in my sorority room and listening to the CD and realizing that musical theater could be like that. Exciting and edgy and dark and interesting and serious. When I first moved to the city I saw both Marie Christine, which played at Lincoln Center with Audra McDonald, and The Wild Party, which played on Broadway in 2000, and was blown away by both of those productions. So I guess you could say I was a fan first. I remember those shows so vividly--oh, and also his off-Broadway show called Little Fish, which was in 2003. So I'm drawing from those shows that I love and always wanted to sing from, plus another show that I never got to see, See What I Wanna See, which was also off-Broadway, at the Public [in 2005]. And we're doing, I think, four songs from Giant.

Have you ever created a concert before?
Not outside of my show at 54 Below. I've also done performances at Birdland and at Feinstein's when it existed. And I've done two albums, one based on the work of Burton Lane and Yip Harburg and another based on the work of Sheldon Harnick, so I've had some experience putting together work highlighting a composer or lyricist.

You've formed quite a partnership with Mr. Harnick. How did that come about?
I'll go back to the first time I met him: I was in college, at Northwestern University, which is also where he went to school, and we were doing a production of his musical A Wonderful Life. I had a minor role and was in the ensemble, and he came to school and talked about the show. So I got a little glimpse into how kind he was, how funny and generous. Here was this man who had written the shows that I so admired, like She Loves Me--which made a huge impression on me as a kid and is enjoying what I hear is a fabulous revival right now. And then I got to do a concert at the New-York Historical Society of Fiorello; strangely, I got to play both female roles, Thea and Marie. There he was again being funny and kind and generous. And then I got to do a concert of his in Washington, D.C., and it put the idea in my head to do an evening of his work. My manager at the time and I approached Sheldon and said, "How about we put on a show of your work at Feinstein's, and would you be willing to participate?" And of course he's game for anything. He sings like a dream and he's so happy to be there and was a delight to share the stage with. That's how it went.

You're also a prime interpreter of the music of Burton Lane. Did that begin with your (Tony-nominated) role in the Finian's Rainbow revival?
Prior to Broadway revival in 2009, I had done Finian's Rainbow twice before, so I was very familiar with that show and that role and that music. I had also done a Burton Lane concert, and I fell in love with the rest of his work. I guess the theme is, I just hear composers that I really, really like and decide to create an evening or an album around them. It's fun for me because I get to learn about who they are and why they did it and what the circumstances were.

You've done a lot of old musicals as well as many new ones. Some performers get typed for--or choose to do--only contemporary or only classic work. How have you managed to straddle both worlds?
I like to do it all. There's no conscious choice of going after one or the other. The first reaction I have is always to the story and to the character. The difference between doing a revival and a new piece is that there are so many ways to screw up a new piece. For a musical to work, it has to work 99 percent of the time. There's just so little room for a false step, and that's a real challenge when you're putting together a new show. Every idea has to work as a whole. It's easier with revivals because all of that structure and creation has already been done. You have a blueprint to work off of, as opposed to creating something from scratch where you have to really dig deep and use your imagination. There are many more avenues that are open to explore, but it's harder because you have to narrow it down and pick what appears to be the best option. There's no way of predicting what the best option will be.

Have you seen--or avoided--the current Broadway production of The King and I in anticipation of your doing the show in Chicago this spring?
No. I have a little boy and I don't get out to see much, although I did get to see Fun Home the other night, which was remarkable. I can't decide if I'm going to see it yet. It's not about anything other than I want to approach it with my own point of view and collaborate with my director.

You played Irene Molloy regionally in Hello, Dolly! Are your sights set on the upcoming Broadway revival with Bette Midler?
I love Hello, Dolly! and I love that role. Sure, I'd love to do it.

Click here for tickets to Kate's February 28 concert and here for the March 21 concert at the Sheen Center.