Tony Nominee Q&A with Debra Monk
By: BWW Jun. 02, 2007
Nominated as Best Leading Actress in a Musical for Curtains, Debra Monk's previous Broadway credits include Chicago, Reckless, Thou Shalt Not, Ah, Wilderness!, Steel Pier (Tony nomination), Company, Picnic (Tony nomination), Redwood Curtain (Tony Award), Nick & Nora, Prelude to a Kiss, Pump Boys and Dinettes (Co-Author, Tony nomination). Off-Broadway: Show People, The Seagull, The Time of the Cuckoo (Obie), Death Defying Acts, Three Hotels, Assassins, Oil City Symphony (Co-author, Drama Desk Award). Regional: Three Hotels (Helen Hayes Award, Kennedy Center), Seattle Rep, Old Globe, Yale Rep, Bay Street, ATL, Williamstown. Film: The Savages, The Producers, Palindromes, Milwaukee, Minnesota, Center Stage, Devil's Advocate, In & Out, Substance of Fire, Extreme Measures, Bridges of Madison County, Jeffrey, Fearless, Prelude to a Kiss, Reckless, Mrs. Winterbourne, Bed of Roses. Television: "Frasier," "The Music Man," "Eloise," "Law & Order," "Ellen Foster," "Redwood Curtain," "Nero Wolfe," "NYPD Blue" (Katie Sipowicz, Emmy Award).
Congratulations, how great are you feeling at the moment with your nominations at 8 for the show overall?
It's wonderful, it's thrilling. We're so happy just that our show has a theatre, and is on Broadway and is selling out and anything else with awards or recognition is just icing on the cake.
The company seems so together and looks like they're having the time of their lives up on stage…
We have the best company in the world. I look at the stage, and all the amazing performers on it, and I'm just agape. It's just a great company and there's a joy of being up there together.
What has made the mood of the cast so great?
It's all because of Scott Ellis and Rob Ashford who cast these people. Scott has done that with all of his shows, and if you talk to people that have been in any of his casts, they all come away saying how much they love each other. It's not just putting together a show, you're also living together for a year. Other directors cast for a lot of different reasons, but Scott has this knack for putting together people that all love each other too. It makes the show fun to do every night.
How long ago did your journey with the show begin?
I've been working on the show for 6 years, and it's been around for 20 years. Scott Ellis who did And the World Goes Round has been working on it and got the whole project moving. The music has been sitting around in a drawer for 14 years, and Scott Ellis 6 years ago put together a reading and I was in it, and it proceeded ahead. Then we lost Peter Stone, which was so tragic that it brought everything to a standstill. Then we moved along there, and then we lost Freddie which was so devastating because aside from the show, he was a great friend of ours, and he was also one of the greats in this business as a whole.
And then the show got moving again…
Yes, thankfully… I wasn't sure if John was going to because John's 80 years old and had been working with Freddie and he decided only in the way that he could that he wanted to go forward and to finish off these 4 shows that he and Freddie had started together. He said that he could write the lyrics too and then we were back on and moving forward. So he wrote two new songs, and that's what happened, the show rolled forwarded.
How hands on was he in developing the show?
Frankly, it all came from him and his spirit and his love for the theatre generates what you see on the stage. Everyone loves him because he's a smart, brilliant talent but he's also one of the kindest, dearest, gentlest spirits and one of the most amazing men that I've ever known. That's inspiring and even the young kids who had never met him, they view him, and they've never been around him before, but they all become inspired by him. He's a lovely, lovely dear.
How did you get the news about the nomination?
Yesterday morning I was asleep and my agent called me and woke me up. I didn't get up, because I was so tired, and it's hard to get up in the morning. I'm so happy for our show, and for our director Scott Ellis because it wouldn't have happened without him.
It's lovely, and usually you say that it's an honor to be nominated, but in this case, it's really so much more true and especially at this time on Broadway with so many great shows and performances that were left out, I really, really mean it when I say that it's an honor to be nominated.
Photo of Debra Monk by Walter McBride/Retna Ltd.
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