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 GraceAnne
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Registered:
5/20/2004
From:
New York, NY | posted: 1/28/2005 at 6:12:05 PM ET
http://www.heraldtribune.com/apps/pbcs.dll/article?Date=20050128&Category=FEATURES&ArtNo=501280395&
SectionCat=&Template=printart
| PTM
Registered User
Registered:
6/26/2003 | posted: 2/2/2005 at 1:49:33 AM ET
Another interview from something called TWN. Says it's for South Florida's Gay Community. Glad to see that she's sstill speaking in support of gay marriage especially in today's climate.
http://www.twnonline.org/050127_insider_profile_gypsy_girl.html
Gypsy’ girl
Tony Award-winner Bernadette Peters
By LOANN HALDEN
Features Editor
There are two things that are immediately striking in a conversation with Bernadette Peters. The first is how unrehearsed it feels. More than 30 years and countless interviews have passed since her Broadway debut and yet she’s perfectly content to veer off the beaten path and share a random thought about TiVo or her two dogs. The other is the jolt of hearing that oh-so-recognizable voice on the other end of the receiver. Miles of telephone line can’t dilute the girlish notes that skip and hop within the words when Peters speaks.
It’s a voice that has made her an icon of the theater, propelling her to two Tony Awards (“Song and Dance,” “Annie Get Your Gun”) and numerous nominations – including her recent star turn as Momma Rose in the Broadway revival of “Gypsy.” On Jan. 30, she’ll bring that voice to South Florida for a concert at the Broward Center for the Performing Arts complete with a 28-piece orchestra as accompaniment.
“I just like to be entertaining, and take the audience on a little adventure, so to speak,” she says of the Fort Lauderdale concert. “I’ll be doing stuff from shows I’ve been in and albums I’ve recorded; I’m going to do Rodgers and Hammerstein, and there will be Stephen Sondheim, and I’m going to do Peggy Lee’s ‘Fever,’ which I’ve never done before.
And a taste of “Gypsy,” perhaps?
“Yesssss, there will be,” Peters says playfully. “There will be, def-in-itely.”
She says she loves performing even more now than she did earlier in her career. “I love the connection with the audience; I like the different challenges in the different mediums also. The main thing is, the more I perform the more I learn about myself and that’s really wonderful,” Peters says, sprinkling her thoughts with laughter. “It’s all very personal to me and hopefully it will be personal to the audience, too. … Everybody has their own private revelations and I just do it in front of people.”
Florida performances have a personal connection for the singer-actress who has friends here; she and her husband previously owned homes in Miami and now have a place further up the coast. In fact, Peters was in the audience at the Miami Shores Performing Arts Theater on opening night of the 2002 gay play “The Nature of the Beach” to support her friends, director Richard Jay-Alexander and writer David Sexton.
Many musical theater stars have a gay fan base, but Peters is one who embraces them wholeheartedly. She donates time to AIDS causes and she earned bonus points from her lesbian fans when she played the quirky half of a same-sex couple in the Showtime movie “Bobbie’s Girl” in 2002.
“They’ve contributed hugely,” she says of gay support for her career. “I guess the first thing that I did that brought me to people’s attention was (the off-Broadway hit musical) ‘Dames At Sea,’ but we first did it in a coffeehouse, which was basically really just off-off-Broadway and Village-y and really, mostly a gay crowd – an avant garde crowd, I would say. I hate to pigeonhole people, you know, I really do, because I feel people have hearts and souls and that’s really what I deal with.
STAR OF STAGE AND SCREEN: Peters has wooed audiences for more than three decades in roles ranging from “The Goodbye Girl,” “Sunday in the Park With George,” “Gypsy” and “Annie Get Your Gun” on Broadway to “Pennies From Heaven” on the silver screen.
“If I’m in a small club, I know, if there are gay people around, they’re going to come,” she says, with a little chuckle. “That’s a wonderful thing. It’s also a lot of fun. I think the heart and the emotions are very deep in gay people and that’s always very rewarding for a performer.”
She pauses, reflecting on her words.
“I wonder if that’s going to change now that things are becoming more accepted – you know what I mean?”
She laughs and answers her own question: “Not right away.
“That’s the way it always goes when you’re making progress, it goes forward and then backward and forward … That’s why I think gay marriage is an important thing to support. When anyone realizes they are different in any way, they feel strange, so I think to say, ‘Well there’s a lifestyle out there for you and you don’t have to go sneaking around, you can have marriage’ – the fighting is important.
“I keep going back to when someone finds out that you’re gay and you feel ‘oh my god, I have to hide it.’ I don’t feel like you should have to hide it when you’re a teenager or a preteen and you find this out about yourself. That’s where the trouble starts, I think. If it’s something that’s accepted, it’s healthier for a young person.”
Peters is currently on the board of Broadway Cares/Equity Fights AIDS and has done benefit events for Gay Men’s Health Crisis in New York – most notably a 1996 solo concert at Carnegie Hall. While talking about her admiration for Broadway Cares, Peters segues into a story about another cause that’s particularly important to her.
“A couple of years ago, I did something called Broadway Barks with my friend Mary Tyler Moore, because we wanted to help the shelters in New York,” says Peters, who received assistance from her allies at Broadway Cares. “We’ve made really nice strides, because now there’s a mayor’s alliance. We’re trying to get New York City to be a no-kill city. That’s a huge change, because the first Broadway Barks, the shelters didn’t even show up at the same events together and now they all work together.
“I’m passionate about people realizing how healing animals are, how important they are in their lives – without being a nut.”
She’s less focused when talking about what she’d like to tackle next. Although she performed in the national touring company of “Gypsy” as a teenager, she had no idea she would one day embody the role of Momma Rose – and that’s a tough act to follow.
“The thing is, after you do ‘Gypsy,’ it’s like what musical do you do? It’s the most brilliant musical ever written,” she says. “The role is the best role, the most wonderful, deep, complex character that you’d ever want to play or could play, and so where do you go from there?
“Maybe plays. You know, maybe a play or two – or a new musical that someone writes.”
With that voice, it’s not much of a stretch to bet that everything will come up roses for Peters in the end.
Bernadette Peters will perform at 7:30 p.m., Jan. 30 at the Broward Center for the Performing Arts, 201 S.W. Fifth Ave., Fort Lauderdale. Tickets are $35.50, $45.50, $65.50, $75.50 and $95.50.
For more information, call (954) 462-0222.
PTM
|  leebee
Registered User
Registered:
1/19/2004
Fav. BP Song: Being Alive
Fav. BP Show: Sunday In The Park With George
| posted: 2/2/2005 at 12:53:01 PM ET
What a superb interview. Many many thanks.
| Carolyn
Registered User
Registered:
1/20/2005
From:
Mississippi | posted: 2/2/2005 at 1:32:00 PM ET
Thanks for taking the time to put in the article. It was great!
Carolyn
| PTM
Registered User
Registered:
6/26/2003 | posted: 2/2/2005 at 10:46:15 PM ET
Here's another fun interview. Is it just me or do the gay oriented publications seem to have the more interesting interviews.
http://www.watermarkonline.com/special2.html
BERNADETTE PETERS
SARASOTA: 8 p.m., Thursday, Feb. 2, Van Wezel Performing Arts Center. Tickets: $45-55. Call (941) 953-3368 or visit vanwezel.org.
BROADWAY BABY
Bernadette Peters may be the toast of New York, but she’s still a diva who loves to do laundry
By Dave Wiethop
Setting up an interview with Bernadette Peters before her appearances in Clearwater and Sarasota almost didn’t happen. Arms were twisted, calls were made and candles were lit to encourage the Broadway Gods to allow the ringlet-tressed Tony-winner to consent to the telephone call.
But she finally did -- and every fiber of my showtune queen’s body took notice. I would get to talk with Mabel Normand, queen of the best original cast album ever, Mack and Mabel!
“Do you need her bio?” Peters’ press agent offered.
“I’m a gay man. I inherently know Bernadette Peters’ biography,” I snapped. We set up a time -- Bernadette would call me, unlike most other performers who graciously offer their home or cell phone numbers, thus saving the long-distance costs -- and I prayed that Watermark’s phone system wouldn’t fail me that night.
When Bernadette Peters called (her almost-in-a-giggle voice betraying her identity), she seemed relaxed and comfortable -- but a little more guarded than expected.
As we talked, I learned that Peters is every inch the star, and that means that she lives differently than you and I. When the hurricanes approach, we board our windows. If you’re Bernadette Peters, you hire a private plane to make sure your dogs are OK.
At the same time, she has two Tony Awards on her mantel and I have my kindergarten photo on mine.
We chatted about Broadway shows (of course), fresh laundry and pit bulls. Please note that I opted not to ask about her penchant for little black cocktail dresses.
WATERMARK: If I slip into “showtune queen” mode too often, just tell me to “Butch it up!” What are your concert like these days?
BERNADETTE PETERS: What’s it not about? I have a taste of Gypsy, some Sondheim, some things from Rogers and Hammerstein. I haven’t done this show in two years, so I’ve changed a few things here and there. I want it to be entertaining -- an adventure for the audience, and for myself!
Do you still perform Glow Worm in pig Latin?
I did Pennies from Heaven, actually. But I don’t do that any more. Fever -- I do that now. But not in pig Latin.
What role do gay men play in your career?
A huge one! Oh, my! My first show, Dames at Sea, was done at the Café Chino off-off-Broadway and it played to an almost all-gay audience. They loved the show because it was a takeoff on those old movie musicals that they really liked. They really got it. Gay men get it and really appreciate what you do.
Gay people have a heart and soul that is so totally honest.
What’s your take on gay marriage?
I’m for it so much. It would change perceptions about gay people -- and change the way that young gay people grow up. If there was this level of acceptance, then the young people wouldn’t have to sneak around and feel so badly about who they are. That’s just not right.
Were you active in the last election?
No. Not really.
When was the first time that you understood that someone was gay?
I grew up in the business, starting out when I was 3 and on the road when I was 13, so I was always around gay men. I guess it was the first time that I saw a fellow wearing makeup, or someone with their eyebrows tweezed. I probably understood that most men didn’t do that.
I probably met a lot of gay men through my mom and my older sister, who went to the High School for the Performing Arts.
Let me switch into full-bore showtune queen right now. Mack and Mabel -- great cast album, but rotten reviews. What happened?
It was great, wasn’t it? But it was a very heavy story about murder and drug abuse. And Mabel dies in the end -- very sad. But we told the real story about Mabel Normand and Mack Sennett, which was sad. At the same time, we had the Keystone Kops.
This was done at a time when musicals had to have the comedy. Nowadays, you could probably do that show because you can write a musical about anything.
What was (your co-star, the late) Robert Preston like?
He was fantastic. I was a young adult at the time and really reaching my first awareness of what it was to be an actor. He was so helpful. We’d go off-stage and he’d say, “That scene went differently tonight -- but it worked,” and he would build my confidence that way. He really taught me what acting was like.
Stephen Sondheim writes much differently than Jerry Herman. How do you wrap your mouth around some of those Sondheim lyrics?
Stephen Sondheim’s music and lyrics make sense because he’s writing them for the character. When a character is angry, he’s writing the character angry, so you know why that quarter-note is there.
In Sunday in the Park with George, he writes very staccato because he’s writing about Pointillism and the music reflects the character. It’s so rich, with so many layers. But it all makes sense.
Do you sing much Sondheim in your show?
You bet!
Do you like to sing songs out of the context of the shows?
Absolutely. I sing Children will Listen, You Could Drive a Person Crazy. I sing There’s Nothing Like a Dame from Rodgers and Hammerstein and put my own spin on it.
And what would that be?
You have to see the show.
What’s in the pipeline for you now?
This concert. That’s all for now.
You’ve done some seminal works in the theatre: Annie Get Your Gun, Mack and Mabel, Song and Dance, Gypsy. Are there any roles that you would like to tackle?
After Gypsy? How do you follow up a show like Gypsy? Mama Rose is the penultimate role. The great thing about doing theatre and film and television is that I can switch back and forth and do things when they’re offered.
Any shows that you’d rather not think about?
None. I’m very happy.
Even The Goodbye Girl?
The good thing about that was working with Marty Short -- he was a dream. The show itself was less than as satisfying as it could be.
You’re headed to Florida in a few weeks. How do you handle your hair when you’re here?
We have a house in Florida …
Really? Give me the street address.
No.
Where is your house?
I’ll tell you that it’s north of Palm Beach. But when I’m down there, I just put products in my hair and try stuff and try stuff until I find something that works.
And?
I haven’t found anything, really.
When I interviewed Tammy Faye Bakker about a year ago, she said that gay men like to give her things like makeup and hair care products. Does that happen to you?
Not me.
You played her in a movie, didn’t you?
Yep. She’s so sweet. She liked the movie. We still visit with one another.
What do you do when you come to Florida? Hit the beach? Volleyball? Gatorland?
I read a lot. We go to Florida to relax. I work out a lot there. And I do a lot of laundry there. It’s very relaxing -- like a zen laundry. I love the smell of clean clothes.
I bought a candle for $17 that smells like clean cotton.
How great is that?
What does your husband do?
He’s an investment adviser. He’s based out of Florida, actually.
Do you bring your dogs down with you?
We do. We came down last summer with them, and then a hurricane headed toward Florida. I found out that if you go to a shelter, you might not be able to bring your dogs with you. I hired a private plane and flew them back home.
Did you go with them?
Absolutely! They’d never flown before. Do you have any dogs?
My boyfriend and I have a pit bull mix, Damien. He was OK during the hurricanes. Slept through them.
I’ll always have dogs with some pit bull in them. They’re great dogs. You treat them well and they’re great.
What kind of dogs do you have?
Two shelter dogs -- they’re mutts, both Heinz 57 dogs. Stella and Kramer. I’ve always loved animals and my friend Mary Tyler Moore got me interested in helping the shelters in New York.
When I was doing Annie Get Your Gun in 1997, we had done a really successful Broadway Cares for AIDS and raised a lot of money, and some of us began to talk about what we could do next. Someone suggested helping out the animals -- and that’s how Broadway Barks was formed. Once a year, we bring in shelter animals for adoption and raise money all along Broadway.
Right now, we’re trying to get New York to be a no-kill city, and a mayor’s alliance has been formed with all of the shelters to work toward that goal.
Something that I think is really great is that the animal wrangler for Chitty Chitty Bang Bang just hosted open auditions for animal roles in the show, but he only wanted shelter animals. He’s got a lot of roles in the show for them too. I think that’s great.
This is our Arts Issue. Have you seen anything good lately that you’d recommend?
Million Dollar Baby. I liked that.
It’s very sad, isn’t it?
Did you see it?
No.
Someone told you how it ends, then?
I read about it on the Internet.
You shouldn’t do things like that. Go see it.
Anything else? Concerts? Shows?
(Silence) Umm …
Are you a homebody?
Yes! We travel a lot and I spend a lot of time with the dogs. Oh, wait -- we’re going to see Pacific Overtures tonight. Then, it’s back to rehearsals for my concerts. W
PTM
|  moljul
Registered User
Registered:
4/2/2001
From:
New York
Fav. BP CD: I'll Be Your Baby Tonight
Fav. BP Song: Dublin Lady
| posted: 2/2/2005 at 11:10:25 PM ET
Just a few comments:
"Do you still perform Glow Worm in pig Latin?"
Glow Worm??? Bad gay man, bad gay man!
"I just put products in my hair and try stuff and try stuff until I find something that works.
And?
I haven’t found anything, really."
Very funny! 
Michael is now based in Florida?? Well that explains why he is missing a lot of events. Boy they have really "made the move" to Florida!
| BPfan11
Registered User
Registered:
5/18/2004
From:
Rhode Island | posted: 2/2/2005 at 11:14:04 PM ET
I wish I could think of doing my laundry as "very relaxing -- like a zen laundry"
Great interview, thanks PTM!
| jmslsu01
Registered User
Registered:
6/9/2003
From:
northern VA | posted: 2/2/2005 at 11:31:49 PM ET
Well,these are just great. Thank you!
Jenn
| Karen
Registered User
Registered:
5/3/2002 | posted: 2/2/2005 at 11:41:27 PM ET
Wow, that's like one of the best interviews ever! But Moljul is right, what's with the bragging about inherently knowing her bio, and then asking that ridiculous question about "Glow Worm" in pig latin? Very dumb.
And the "gay man" drumbeat was also kind of annoying. I know it's a gay publication, but what about the half of the gay population that's female? I guess they don't exist. He was playing into all the stereotypes that exasperate me.
|  Jean
Registered User
Registered:
6/7/2003 | posted: 2/3/2005 at 4:20:35 AM ET
Now I'll be thinking of Bernadette and her "Zen laundry".
Thanks for these interviews--sometimes silly, sometimes exasperating, but usually fun and entertaining and occasionally enlightening, despite the interviewer's mistakes and efforts to make it too much about him.
I agree with everyone else's comments.
| PTM
Registered User
Registered:
6/26/2003 | posted: 2/5/2005 at 12:05:53 AM ET
quote:
Just a few comments:
"Do you still perform Glow Worm in pig Latin?"
Glow Worm??? Bad gay man, bad gay man!
Well to be fair, assuming the interview was accurately transcribed, Bernadette didn't get it right either. She actually sang "We're in the Money" in pig Latin not "Pennies from Heaven"
PTM
| Karen
Registered User
Registered:
5/3/2002 | posted: 2/5/2005 at 10:46:13 AM ET
Good point, but at least it was part of a medley with "Pennies from Heaven," while "Glow Worm" had no connection at all.
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