Interview: KINKY BOOTS' Ellyn Marie Marsh Discusses 'Inappropriate' Encore at 54 Below
By: Matt Tamanini Jan. 20, 2015
Do you love musical theatre? Of course you do. Do you love ridiculously talented musical theatre professionals delivering insanely funny versions of classic songs? That goes without saying, right? Well in that case, you must get to 54 Below on January 31st at 11:30pm for the encore presentation of Ellyn Marie Marsh's solo show "Inappropriate."
Recently, I spoke to Marsh, who is an original and current cast member of the Tony-winning KINKY BOOTS, about the inspiration for her first solo show, and in the first installment of the interview, she told me about how she came up with some of the signature moments in the show. To get tickets to the show, visit the 54 Below website.
Check back next Monday for the more "inappropriate"part of our conversation:
BWW: Earlier this month, you debuted your solo show "Inappropriate" at 54 Below, how did you feel it went?
Marsh: It was beyond expectations. It was sold out, which I was really, really floored by. I had this idea in my head that if I could get a hundred tickets sold, I would be happy (laughs), and it sold out. They even squeezed it past capacity a little bit for a couple people.
So, it was great; it was my first time doing solo at 54 Below. I had done several concerts, with different composers or compilation concerts, but this was the first time that anyone was there just to see me. So, I was delightfully terrified.
That's got to be nerve-wracking to know that the success of this entire evening is riding on your name being able to get people to shell out a decent amount of money to come and see you up on stage.
Exactly. I was pretty open about the fact that I was going to poop my pants at any moment. I was very honest with my nerves, but people actually think that I am a really overly confident person, but I get really, really nervous in situations that, and everyone keeps saying, "These people are here for you."
Somehow that made it worse; I was terrified. So, I tried to control my bowels, but it was all really exciting too. But it's kind of like an audition; you get that one laugh and you think, "Ok, they're on my side."
I've seen you doing videos at all types of showcases and cabarets, I love the "Parts I'll Never Play" medley, but I couldn't find any information on you having done a complete solo show on your own before. Was this the first time?
Yea, it was. It was the first time in any capacity. I've always kind of ignored it. I've had a couple of people suggest it, or ask me to do it, but I've always thought, in a non-self-deprecating way, that I can't fill that much amount of time. And I never really loved the genre of cabaret. I thought it could border on boring and... I can't think of another word other than masturbatory.
I was going to go self-indulgent, but that works too.
Self-indulgent, that's a better word than "masturbatory." But you know, a couple years back, I saw Leslie Kritzer's show at Joe's Pub, and I've told her this, I realized, "Oh, it doesn't have to be (masturbatory). It can be whatever you want it to be."
I've told her that she really inspired me to make something that was truly me. I'm not a Kelli O'Hara who's going to sing the score to A LIGHT IN THE PIAZZA and make you ooze in your seat.
We were texting about a year back, and (Kritzer) said, "You have your voice, and you know what you want to say, so just do it."
And I thought, "Ooooookay!" I really admire her, because she is the person that made me think that I could do it.
So, Leslie Kritzer bestows upon you the confidence to do a solo show your own way, so how did you go about making something that was unique to who you are?
I designed it to sort of be kind of like a variety show; there's some singing, there's some standup, and some skits, because that's kind of what I like to see. I'm not really the kind of person that wants to sing you song after song after song after song. So, I tried to break it up, like an old-school variety show.
Working with my director Andrew Briedis and my musical director Drew Wutke, we all share a similar sense of humor. I generally turn to them and say, "Here are my funny ideas, would you tell me which ones are the funniest?"
I thought of songs or medleys that I've been mulling about in my head; for example I did a mash-up of Miley Cyrus' "Wrecking Ball" with "Good Morning, Baltimore." One day, I was in my dressing room, and I can't singing, "I came in like a wrecking ball... Good morning, Baltimore."
Enter my amazing music director Drew Wutke that took my ideas and made them really work as a song. So, we called it "Wrecking Baltimore." Most of the show is something I once thought was funny, wrote in the notes section of my phone and somehow made it entertaining. Well, I hope it's entertaining.
Well, you know that I love one of the songs you did, the rap version of "Meadowlark."
Back in the fall Jen Tepper (54 Below's Director of Programming) tweeted this tally sheet of every time someone at 54 Below sang "Meadowlark." And, I saw that and thought, "That's funny. Someone needs to mess with that, because every big beltress wants to sing that big six-minute song," and you hear the intro and you think, "Oh god, I'm going to be here for six-minutes."
So, I decided that I wanted to do a Lin-Manuel style rap. I went to my Music Director at KINKY BOOTS, Brian Usifer, and I told him my idea; and he's a very tough nut to crack, so I knew if he thought it was funny it would be funny.
So, we have all of your bits and song ideas, but part of what makes a concert a cabaret is the personal side of things.
I wanted to do something for my husband, who is not only not in the business, he doesn't know Ronald McDonald from Audra McDonald. He knows the shows I've been in, that's pretty much all he knows. So, I wanted to have a section in the show where I talk about that and I wanted to sing at least one song that he would recognize. So, I sang a mash-up of Coldplay's "Yellow," which was our wedding song and Oasis' "Wonderwall," which was from his favorite album growing up.
If you are going to include a section about your husband, I suppose that could venture into inappropriateness, but why did you decide to make that the name, and theme, of your show?