BWW Interviews: Terrence Mann and Charlotte d’Amboise Make MY FAIR LADY a Family Affair at CRT

They arrive at Chang's Garden across from the University of Connecticut campus in their rehearsal togs and clearly exhausted after a grueling day working through Connecticut Repertory Theatre's upcoming production of My Fair Lady.  Terrence Mann, the leonine star of Cats, Les Miserables and The Addams Family, will be taking on the Herculean task of playing Henry Higgins for the first time.  His wife Charlotte d'Amboise, the triple-threat star of Jerome Robbins Broadway, A Chorus Line and Damn Yankees, is choreographing the show's dance sequences.  In less than two weeks, they will rehearse, choreograph and open Lerner & Loewe's masterful musical version of Pygmalion - no small feat even for these two seasoned Broadway performers with two Tony nominations apiece.  No doubt adding to the challenges of the two weeks for the couple is that they are deeply-invested parents with two eight-year old girls who have come to Connecticut with them.  Despite any exhaustion, they are both genial, down-to-earth and very pragmatic in their approach to their work-life balance. 

Added to their plate, in two days, d'Amboise is going back into the Broadway production of Chicago for the eleventh time (in addition to the first national tour).  Her brother Christopher d'Amboise will step in to choreograph some portions of the production until she can return from New York on a day off to supervise the finishing touches.  As you will see with their directing gigs, teaching gigs, acting gigs and choreographing gigs, Mann and d'Amboise have a right to be exhausted.  And before they can dig into their cold sesame noodles and other Chinese fare, they will have to field some exhausting questions from BroadwayWorld.

HOW DID YOUR INVOLVEMENT IN CRT'S MY FAIR LADY COME ABOUT?

Terrence Mann - Frank Mack, who is the Managing Director, and I have been friends for about 30 years.  We have known each other since the North Carolina Shakespeare Festival, back in the late 70s.  I was directing The Lost Colony, outdoor theatre on the Outer Banks of North Carolina.  He was on the board, so we reconnected in 2001.  We stayed in touch.  He came up here and asked me if I wanted to come up and do something.  Over the last few years, we've been trying to do that.  (My Fair Lady director and CRT Artistic Director Vincent Cardinal enters the restaurant and sits at an adjacent table.  Mann leans back and loudly says...)  We're thrilled and excited to be working with Vincent Cardinal.  I think he is a genius. 

SO WHO BROUGHT UP MY FAIR LADY?

TM - Frank had called and said we're considering these shows.  I suggested a bunch of things.  I talked about 1776 as something I could direct and be in.  We talked about Hello Dolly as something the two of us could do.  We talked about what really made sense and Frank said, "How about My Fair Lady?," and I thought, "Oh, the last time I did it I was 17 years old.  That's frightening and terrifying enough to do when I'm 60."  And I thought Charlotte could choreograph.

YOU PROPOSED CHARLOTTE AS CHOREOGRAPHER?

TM - I proposed it.

SO YOU DID THE SHOW BEFORE?

TM - In high school...Largo High School in Florida.  I was Artistic Director for about 10 years at the North Carolina Theatre and I directed it there, as well.

CHARLOTTE, HAVE YOU DONE THE SHOW BEFORE?

Charlotte d'Amboise - No.  Never.  And I don't think I've ever seen it, except for the production you directed in North Carolina.

YOU BOTH APPEARED IN CATS.  WAS THAT WHERE YOU MET?

Both:  Yup.

TM:  I used to drag her into the tunnel and we'd make out and we'd go back onstage and our makeup was all smeared.  It was hot and heavy.

CD:  Hot and cat heavy.

DID YOU TRY TO KEEP THE RELATIONSHIP ON THE DOWN LOW FROM YOUR CASTMATES?

TM:  Yes, because I was married at the time. 

CD:  He was married and it was not a good thing.  We broke up for a while and got together again.

DO YOU GET MANY OPPORTUNITIES TO WORK TOGETHER?

CD:  Less so now.  We've only worked together a couple of times.  We did Cats together. 

TM:  We did Jerome Robbins Broadway together.  We did The Guys together.  That show about the [9/11]  firemen.

CD:  We also did Noel Coward's Tonight at 8:30.  We have worked together, but not that much over the years.  We teach together.

I SAW CHARLOTTE PERFORM AS ROXIE IN THE NATIONAL TOUR OF CHICAGO, WHICH PROBABLY KEPT YOU AWAY FROM HOME FOR QUITE SOME TIME.  HOW, AS A COUPLE, DO YOU HANDLE THE LONG ABSENCES?

CD:  We do it less so now as we have children.  At that point we didn't have children.  We definitely are choosier now that we have children.

TM:  We had a rule that we could not be apart longer than 8 weeks.

CD:  It was 3 weeks.

TM:  But it ended up 8 weeks.

CD:  He cannot do tours anymore for 6 months.  We always have someone home with the kids.  Is it a juggling act?  Every year.  Weekly for us.  We're either acting, choreographing, directing or teaching.

TM:  I teach at Western Carolina University.  I'm down there 35 days out of the year. 

WERE YOU DOING THAT WHILE DOING THE ADDAMS FAMILY?

Yes.  Once we got back to Broadway, I'd teach on my day off and come back.  I did that three times in the Fall and then I got time off from The Addams Family to go down to direct, which I had to do.

DID YOU DO ADDAMS FAMILY IN CHICAGO?

TM:  Yes.

CD:  We all went to Chicago.  For Christmas.  It was a juggling year.

TM:  It was tough.

CD:  I was out in LA doing Parade at the Ahmanson.  The kids loved it, though.

IS THIS YOUR FIRST TIME WORKING TOGETHER IN A CHOREOGRAPHER-PERFORMER RELATIONSHIP?

CD:  Yes, but I don't really do that much with him. 

TM:  We will, though.  "Rain in Spain."  But this is the first time.

TERRENCE, YOU HAVE CREATED A NUMBER OF ROLES, MOST RECENTLY IN THE ADDAMS FAMILY.  HOW DO YOU APPROACH A ROLE LIKE HENRY HIGGINS THAT HAS BEEN SO INDELIBLY ASSOCIATED WITH ITS CREATOR, Rex Harrison?

Well, if it's not broke, don't fix it.  I've listened to Rex Harrison.  Watched the movie.  And steal everything he does.  I'm hoping and assuming, since I'm a different person that there will be me in it and him in it.

A LOT OF ACTORS WOULD DO THE EXACT OPPOSITE.  WHY DID YOU EMBRACE Rex Harrison RATHER THAN AVOID HIM?

Because of time.  The amount of time that it takes to put this show up.  If you embrace the Rex Harrison way to sing the songs, you automatically put the Rex Harrison stamp on it.  I think every actor is lying a little bit if they say they are trying to make their own take on it.  If there is source material to get you into the character, you use it.  I do it.  You are not reinventing the wheel.  You're trying to pull off the arc of a character.  It's going to be different because you are who you are.

ARE YOU FINDING IT CHALLENGING TO TACKLE HIS STYLE OF SPEAKING-SINGING? HIS SONGS ARE INCREDIBLY COMPLEX.

They are patter songs.  They are not challenging.  It's just a challenge to remember all of those words.  It's like a roller coaster.  If you fall off, it's hard as hell to get back on.  I did see a production and the Higgins sang every note and I didn't find it as compelling.  I didn't understand what he was saying.  It was all about the notes and not about the words.

CHARLOTTE, WHEN YOU THINK OF DANCE MUSICALS, MY FAIR LADY DOES NOT COME TO MIND.  AS A DANCER, ARE YOU PLANNING ON DOING ANYTHING SPECIAL TO MAKE THIS PRODUCTION DIFFERENT?

CD:  No.  You're telling the story.  That's the most important thing.  You want to serve the piece, always.  There are dance numbers in it.  More than you think.  I thought, "It won't be much," but actually it is a lot.  The harder stuff is the character/physical comedy that is almost harder to do in a short amount of time.  And this show has a lot of it.  Or maybe I've just put it in.

TM:  I think you've done both.  I think she's put more choreographic structure and cheap and shameless stuff.

CD:  That's because of you.  He's cheap and shameless. 

IS THIS VERSION WITH THE FULL ORCHESTRA OR THE TWO PIANO Gary Griffin VERSION?

TM:   This is full orchestra.  Small orchestra.

WHO IS PLAYING ELIZA?

TM:  A young lady named Alix Paige.  Very talented.  Really good.

DO EITHER OF YOU HAVE A FAVORITE SONG OR MOMENT FROM THE SHOW?

TM:  I do.  My favorite moment is...We're putting the end of the first act when they go to the ball.  The orchestration is so lush.  "I Could Have Danced All Night" is underscoring it.  Higgins and Pickering go upstairs and get their coats and they come down and go outside.  And Eliza is left onstage alone.  Higgins walks back in and walks up to her and puts his hand out and takes her hand and they walk out the door together.  It's that first moment where you get that sense of partnership.  Elegant partnership.

CD:  "I think she's got it!  By George, I think she's got it."  I love that moment!

IS THERE A DREAM PROJECT YOU WOULD LIKE TO WORK ON TOGETHER?

TM:   No.

CD:  I think we like working together.  I've been really lucky and gotten to do what I've wanted to do.  Except for Sally Bowles, but I'm getting too old.  I like choreographing and he likes directing, but...

TM:  Our kids are our dream project.

CD:   But this project is great.  I love choreographing.  I love the kids being in the show. 

TM:  They're going to be urchins.  Pickpockets.

YOUR KIDS ARE IN THE SHOW?  ARE THEY GETTING PAID?

CD:  No.

TM:  For the love of it.

ARE THEY INTERESTED IN WORKING ONSTAGE?

CD:  As long as it doesn't interfere with their academics and I'm not schlepping them to auditions.  I don't want them being in a Broadway show.  School is the most important thing, but in the summer, if it works out, great.  They were doing School for American Ballet.   They were in The Nutcracker at Lincoln Center while Terry was doing Addams Family and I was doing Chicago.  It was insane.  I remember my daughter Shelby...I woke up one Saturday morning and told Shelby I couldn't come to the theatre to do her hair because I had two shows that day and she said "It's okay, I've got two shows today, too.  High five!"

Terrence Mann in My Fair Lady with choreography by Charlotte d'Amboise runs at Connecticut Repertory Theatre's Harriet S. Jorgensen Theatre on the campus of the University of Connecticut in Storrs will run July 7 through July 17.  www.crt.uconn.edu

 

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