Interview: Julianne Hough Talks Taking Risks, Getting Vulnerable & Having Fun With New Solo Show at the Paradise Club

Julianne Hough first graced our television screens as an 18 year old pro on Dancing With the Stars, and has since gone on to become one of the brightest stars in the entertainment industry. Among her many accomplishments, Hough won Dancing With the Stars' coveted mirror ball trophy twice, went on to serve as a judge on the show, won an Emmy for choreography, has released multiple albums, starred in major films including Burlesque, Footloose, Rock of Ages, and more, served as a judge on America's Got Talent, and recently made her Broadway debut in the hit show POTUS!

Now, Julianne Hough is tackling a new kind of challenge - directing, producing, choreographing, and starring in a solo show at the Paradise Club in the Times Square EDITION Hotel. Hough is getting real, taking risks, and bringing her larger-than-life talent to the stage as she shares her story with audiences.

The show runs for two weekends, December 9-10th and 16-17th, just in time for the holidays!

BroadwayWorld spoke with Julianne Hough about how the idea for the show came to be, what audiences can expect to see and hear, and much more.

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You are going to be doing four performances at the Paradise Club in Times Square. How did the idea for this concert come about initially, and how did you develop the concept for it?

Well, like anything, it's all kind of based off of connection and friendships. I became friends with Tony Marion, and we just had dinner one night and he was like, "Hey, I'm doing this thing with TodayTix and we've got the Paradise Club, and you should do a show!" And at first, I was like, "I can't do a show right now, I don't have any original music, it's been so long since I've really performed live." I've done a lot of television, and pre-recorded things, and playing Dusty [In POTUS] was awesome, but it was a character singing one song. So, I was like, "I don't know if I'm in the right shape to be able to do my own show where I'm fully singing throughout the whole show, not just dancing... But maybe in the holidays, because that allows me to do some covers, it's a little bit more forgiving!" [laughs] So, I was like, "Okay, maybe I'll do that!" We were just floating around the idea.

And then I was like, 'You know what, it's been so many years since I've really put myself in a position where it feels really risky, and scary.' And the first time I did that was coming here to New York, when I put myself in a position to do Broadway for the first time. And I thought, 'This feels like a new season of life where I'm embracing my fears again in a new way.' I always say, if it scares me then I have to do it.

I was like, 'Julianne, you usually jump at this opportunity, come on!' So, I amped myself up and said, 'Okay, I really want to do this.' I usually do these kind of things with my brother [Derek Hough], and this is the first time I'm doing something on my own. And not only am I performing, I'm creating the show, and choreographing it, and directing it, and coming up with the concepts. And, of course, I have an incredible team around me who is helping me put everything together. So, I'm definitely relying on them as well. It's really given me an opportunity to get out of my own way and create something, and feel that wonder again.

What can people expect to see from you with this show?

I was expecting, 'Oh, I can really just do some covers of some Christmas songs, and that'll get me off the hook of feeling all this pressure to create my own vulnerability in my own show!' And, of course, the whole first act I've decided to share my story of where I came from, my life, and my career, and of fitting into society being a good girl and doing the right thing like a lot of women, I think, feel. And then deciding at a certain point to choose not to do what is expected. And unfortunately sometimes when you choose the thing that's right for you, you can lose a lot. And so, it's about my journey of loss and grief and finding myself in a pretty heavy, dark place, and having to find myself again, having to find the courage and the strength. And so, the whole first act is really being quite vulnerable and sharing some of my deepest fears as well as my deepest hopes.

And then, the second act it's like, 'Okay, we're going to get light again, we're going to have some fun and celebrate!' But that's what was so funny, once I started creating the show I was like, 'I want to keep going, I want to keep telling this story, there's so much more!' Sometimes you have to just jump in the fire and do it, and not think about what you're going to do before you start. You've got to just start to create that momentum, and then it starts flowing!

You really went from, 'I'm going to do what scares me,' to 'I'm going to do it all the way!'

And we have a couple of unbelievably talented singers and dancers in this show. This was supposed to be a cute little concert, four shows, I am so extra it's not even funny, of course I'm doing costume changes and we're dancing in the tiniest space known to man, we're in the audience, and getting them involved! What was going to be this cute, tiny, intimate show, is a full-blown production, and it's just so much fun. You can really see that not only am I diving deep more into the artistry of 'What is my voice?' 'What is the story that I want to tell and share?' and have it be a universal experience for others through my sharing, but also that I, without a doubt, am a performer. I just love to go big and have big numbers and high concepts and so, I'm excited to share all that too.

Are you allowed to tease any of the songs you'll be performing?

Yeah, absolutely! The first number is a really fun medley mashup of some iconic big-band numbers like, 'I Got Rhythm' and 'It Don't Mean a Thing' and 'Hey Pachuco' and all the songs that I grew up dancing to, doing ballroom and Latin dancing as a young kid, competing around the world. That's sort of where my journey began. So that's a really fun opener. And then we're doing '(Everybody's Waitin' for) The Man with the Bag', some holiday stuff that's really fun. There's this new song by Jamie Cullum called 'Hang Your Lights', it's super festive, we're going to play with the audience during that number.

And then there are some different versions of iconic songs that we all know like 'Diamonds Are a Girl's Best Friend' that you think is going to go one way, but actually we've shifted the tone a little bit to have you really listen to the words and go, "Oh, woah, that hit different!" So, we're taking songs that I think people know, but trying to tonally shift what those lyrics could mean if you're in a different state of mind.

Like you mentioned earlier, you are not only performing, but you are directing, choreographing, and producing this concert. How has it been wearing so many creative hats for this project?

If you're a creator, you're a creator, and you always just tend to figure it out, or at least, that's been my experience. I think taking things into my own hands has been really fulfilling because, again, I've always had a partner with my brother, and we've worked so well together for so many years, and I was really curious to see how I could do this with it just being my own concept and ideas. And I'm not going to lie, that was really scary because we've relied so much on each other. And my brother has obviously done many things on his own, but it's definitely been a comfort zone to work with my brother, and an honor, because he's so brilliant. So, I think for me, it was nerve wracking and exciting at the same time.

And then also realizing that I have so many incredible friends. And that's what this whole project is, it's a project full of friends. Leah Hofmann is associate directing and choreographing with me, and she is this beautiful person I met on POTUS. And then Tony was a friend before we decided to do this together. My musical director was a friend before we ever worked together, David Korins is a friend, and last minute I was like, "Hey, what do you think of this set?" [laughs] and he just looked at it and was like, "Here, I can help you a little bit!" Favors galore, and obviously I want everybody to get the credit for the work that they're putting in. Costumes, I have two people helping me right now, one I did a film with, her name is Melissa Vargas, and she's like, "Yeah, I'll come and dress you!" And Sami Cline, who was a dresser on POTUS, she was like, "Yeah, I'll fix your costumes for you!" It's literally a show of friends helping each other out, and you can feel it.

Art and creativity, it's so much better when you get to share with the people that you love, and I just met Leanne [Antonio], and Megan [Elyse Fulmer], and Nathan [Lucrezio], who are backing me with vocals and dancing, and we're all already in love [laughs]. It's just so much fun. And Lilli Cooper is going to come and sing with me, and we have a couple other guests who are going to come up on stage and sing.

You just made your Broadway debut in POTUS, and now you've got this concert, and you said it's a dream to be in New York. Would you like to do more performances in New York? Do you see that in your future?

Oh my goodness, if I'm having this kind of fun and I can do this forever, this is what it's all about for me, I think it's the combination of artistry and performance. I think for a lot of years I've been a performer I've found moments of artistry, but there is just something about coming to New York. One of the big turning points for me, after I made some decisions to shift and change my trajectory, was looking out my bedroom window of the home I'd built eight years prior, where every morning I'd look at the Hollywood sign and go, "Wow, I've made it." And I looked out my window one day and I was like, "Wow, the Hollywood sign is actually on an angle, and I can see behind it, and it's covered in scaffolding, and there's not anything behind it. It's just this really beautiful veneer."

And when I came to New York, my first Broadway show that I got to do was at the Shubert Theatre, and the outside was covered in scaffolding! But the difference was it was the outside that was covered, and the inside was filled with magic, and talent, and artistry, and friendships, and people who just love what they do, and they're absolute professionals, and experts. And not to knock LA at all, because I've had the most amazing experiences there too, but it was just an interesting juxtaposition.

This has definitely been the greatest chapter, and season, of life right now, to be here in the city, and having these magical experiences with incredible people, as well as really working on my craft, and pushing myself to grow. A lot of artists I think have this journey where they work really hard, they train, they practice, they're working for the dream, they get the dream, and sometimes they can get a little bit, without doing it on purpose, stagnant. You know what's expected of you, people want the same from you, so you continue to do what people want from you, and it works. But there is a bit of a, "Hang on, there is something else inside of me, there is more." I've grown so much. You discovered me as an 18 year old dancer on Dancing With the Stars, but I'm a 34 year old woman who's had many life experiences. And I'm not letting go of that 18 year old, she still lives in me, but there is so much more to me to explore and discover, and I want to share that with you. So, I think that's what this next season is.

Do you have anything else you'd like to share?

I would just say, think of this night as a night where you can transport to another era, get dressed up, take the night off, come enjoy, be moved. And my hope is that people leave the show not only feeling uplifted and excited for the holidays, but that maybe something is ignited within themselves to be inspired to do whatever it is that they love, that they are passionate about, and to reinvigorate some sort of fire, or light that torch again. Because it's always there, that fire is always within us, it just sometimes needs to be reignited. So I hope that it leaves people feeling inspired.