Interview: Ashely Brown on DISNEY BROADWAY HITS FEAT. ALAN MENKEN TALKS HER CAREER

Ashley Brown originated the title role in “Mary Poppins” on Broadway for which she received Outer Critics, Drama League and Drama Desk nominations for Best Actress. Ms. Brown’s other Broadway credits include Belle in "The Beauty and The Beast”. She flew to Japan for her concert, “Disney Broadway Hits feat. Alan Menken”(Click here to see Reivew: DISNEY BROADWAY HITS FEAT. Alan Menken) which was held on August 16th to 18th.

How did you feel when you were told that you are joining to this concert?

I love Tokyo. This is actually my third time here, but when we were putting this concerts together with all mostly Broadway originals from New York, and being able to share it with other parts of the world has just been such a dream. And I love how much the Tokyo audiences love Disney and love our show and just really respect what we're doing and know the music… I’ve met so many people that come to New York to see our shows, but to be able to bring it here has been so eye-opening and it's been really exciting to see how it's been received.

How do you feel now being here in Japan?

Actually I have to admit that this is first time that I made myself to get out and explore Tokyo. Because being a singer, with the travel, and the jet lag, and sometimes I get rid of a bad habit; getting to the hotel, waking up going to the gym, and coming to rehearsal, and then going back to the hotel. You are not in “work mode” and it smells like, “I'm going to actually see Japan this time. I'm going to go and do a bunch of things.” And so I feel like this time, I've gotten out every single day, and explore this beautiful town, and beautiful city. And I cannot believe, because living in New York City. But I cannot believe how big it is. We've all felt so welcomed and it's such a warm place to live and so clean! I wish New York City or the United States would treasure the cleanness as much as Tokyo.

I used to live in New York City, I love it and miss it so much, but I understand when you say “cleanness”.

It doesn't even compare. Seeing here, so many people to big busy city and the capability of just the cleanliness. We can’t get over it!

Has your image of Japan been changed?

I think honestly, how accepting and we know how sometimes as a tourist could be  like “Are they happy over here?”, when you visit different countries, and I do feel that,　we come in really wanting to embrace the culture and we have so much respect for it, and I love how warm everybody's been to us to, inviting us in. All the different experiences that we have done since we've been here. I would say, I just feel very welcomed. Because sometimes I feel Americans, we have a bad reputation. lol

No!!

Some people are like, “They are so loud, rude”, and not all Americans are like that. So I feel honestly because sometimes I feel that's our reputation in a way that “Not all of us are like that! We’ll be very respectful.”, like you have to prove it. lol

I think it could be anyone. Japanese people could be rude, too. I also think we are too quiet and tend to conceal our feelings.

Yeah I can see how that could be a little. Different for sure. But I also feel the audience that something we've noticed that the audience is so engaged, and normally when you're looking at five thousand people, if you were in America, you would see heads moving, and things people smacking, and doing all kinds of things. In here, you just sit down and just watching the show. It's very refreshing.

Does it make you nervous?

No, it's just sometimes I just have to get used to the quiet. 

What was the hardest part playing Belle from “Beauty and the Beast” compare to other roles you’ve played?

Honestly, I think “Beauty and the Beast”, when I went as Belle, it was my Broadway debut so it was my very first show I’ve ever done in New York. I think probably the hardest part was that because I was replacing someone. I wasn't the first the first person playing Bell that I only have three weeks of rehearsal, and the cast has been going for years at this point. So they all know each other. They're comfortable. They been doing the show eight times a week for years and years and years by the time I join. So it's honestly just such a little rehearsal, and I have very little experience because it was my first Broadway show. So going into something like that being so not having a lot of experience was very nerve-wracking, to say the least. And just going into a cast of people who are already close, and have friendships, and playing the lead, and I was kind of coming out of nowhere, so people were like, “Who's this girl?”, so it's kind of the fear of having to prove myself and learning a show in three weeks. But at the same time, opening night was… it was my dream. That's what I like when I was born. I don't even remember a day when I wanted to do this so I just tried to put all the focus on that, like, “I'll never have my Broadway debut ever again.” And like, “I worked my whole life for this.”  And so that was my fear around the show, but then all the hard work and I was really young at that time. So fortunate to have that big break at such a young age, but it was just so worth it that night. Because sometimes when big moments happen, they're kind of out-of-body. I just remember this because this is what it's all about. That was My biggest fear. 

How about the original cast of Mary Poppins?

With Mary Poppins, the fears were endless. it’s such a beloved character and I love Julie Andrews, who doesn’t. So just filling her shoes, but knowing that I had to do it my way, not her way, because she's already done it so perfectly that I think I had to bring myself to the role. Because I didn't want to be “Julie Andrews being Mary Poppins”. “I” have to be Mary Poppins or then it just would have been phony. Because she just is her. Only she can do it her way. So I kind of had to have a build the confidence to kind of make it my own, as much as possible. And I always say, my biggest job with Mary Poppins is everyone came in loving her and my job was to make sure they left feeling the same way. Because people came to like, “I love Mary Poppins”. And you just want to hope to leave two and a half hours later, being like, “I still love love her”.

When you having such a hard time, how do you manage it?

Within the career that I’ve chose, honestly as I've gotten older, they're still hard times. There’s a lot of upstairs, downstairs. A lot of rejections. No matter how many shows you've done, there still times when it ebbs and flows your career. I'm not always successful at it, but I think having work life balance is… I have a family now, I have two daughters and a husband, and able to focus on that, they’re such a priority as well. I kind of enjoying the different seasons of life. Where it's like there's sometimes your career is going to be booming, and there's sometimes I'm growing my family, and then I'm just learning to take it all in and not try to plan the future because nobody can.

Do you have any message to Japanese fans?

I adore you guys. And in the success of this concert when we sold out 3(shows of) 5,000-seat-theatre, and just how much joy it brings us to be able to be here, and that we have been. So well-received because we care about the show so much. We have put so much work into it, and we enjoy coming here, and because of the reception that we've got, hopefully we can come back and, we can keep sharing these nights together in this music, and to keep these the orchestrations with big orchestra. It's just something really, really special. And It's nice that WOWOW, the producers and the Disney theatricals in New York are working together. I probably don't even know the half of it what it takes to get us all here. Schedules, the flights, the logistics and everything, and so to know that all of that hard work, and years of meetings and emails, that we are here. it’s happening. And then everybody’s been so supportive and so excited. Like, we are stopped on the street sometimes and “We love the show!”, “We can’t wait!” It’s very very very sweet. We love Tokyo. We love being here in Japan.

Photo Credit: [Jenny Anderson]

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