Betty Buckley has wowed audiences for years from her Tony Award winning role as Grizzabella in CATS to Norma Desmond in SUNSET BOULEVARD to her numerous concerts around the world. She is a storyteller and painter with her voice. I talked with Betty about her new live album- Stars and Moon and the healing power of music. She will be performing in the Chicago area at Centre East : The North Shore Center for the Performing Arts in Skokie, Saturday Sept. 29th.
AM -The new album is fantastic! So intimate.
BB - Thank you.
AM -It has such a wide variety of music from Stephen Sondheim to James Taylor. I love that you select songs that tell stories, that take us on a journey. Are there common elements to the stories that captivate and move you?
BB - In general, I look for a really good story song. That has a clarified character that describes her experience and feelings. That has a point A, point B, point C, beginning, middle, and end. She should ideally go through something viscerally through the song and be different at the end than she was at the start. Like Stars and Moon is a perfect example of that kind of song. Or I look for a song with beautiful lyrics or sensual imagery. I kind of run a little movie in my mind's eye and try to share that with the audience. Or sometimes I just hear a song and I am in rapture and I have to sing it! In the emotional aspect of a song, I am looking for material that has universal connection and to lift it to a point to assist people in their perspective or their experience.
AM - This new album "lifts" many lyrics from famous female writers and poets - from Dorothy Parker, Emily Dickinson to Edna St. Vincent Millay, a personal favorite of mine. What about these women still resonates today?
BB - Each one of them were really iconoclastic in their time period. They were very powerful individualists who had a very strong creative vision. Emily Dickinson is very romantic, Dorothy Parker is more wry and her wit is what we celebrate, and Edna St. Vincent Millay was a real firebrand from all of that I've read - passionate ladies all three! I love all of them and that particular collection of poems ( Poet's Medley on the new Stars and Moon album ) flows very well together. It's very feminine and very strong.
AM -You started singing in your Southern Methodist church choir.
BB - Yes. Yes, I did. In Texas.
AM - You have been quoted as saying "I think about music like I think about my feelings for God." What do you mean by that?
BB - ( laughing ) It's kind of an esoteric statement, I guess.
AM - ( laughing )
BB - Well, music is a universal language. Through music we all can share our hearts. That "I am" that exists in every heart is the same "I am." That love in all of our hearts is God, that love, that powerful animating force that brought us all here is God, that spirit. I think that we are all natural singers as human beings, quite like birds. That we are all meant to express with our voices ( what are ) our feelings. Everyone is a singer should they feel like singing. I love traditions where singers just say "I am one of God's singers." I've just always known that I was one of those. That regardless of where I was - a concert hall, a cabaret, a Broadway show, that my job is to express that spirit.
AM -In addition to your theatre and concert schedule you also act in film and television. You will be joining the cast of the gritty HBO prison drama, OZ, this season. OZ loves its powerhouse theatre actresses with Uta Hagen and Elaine Stritch formerly appearing on the show and of course cast regular Rita Moreno. Tell us about your character.
BB - My character is Suzanne Fitzgerald. And was introduced briefly last season. Tom Fontana was so happy with the character's presence on the show that he figured out a way to bring her back. I'm in 7 of the 8 new episodes that start airing in January. It's a really neat part. ( laughing ) It's a great story how it happend. Do you want to hear it?
AM - Absolutely!
BB -The way it happened was, I went out to dinner with Tom and told him that I really wanted to be on OZ. I loved the show 'cause it's one of the best on television. It's very gritty and raw for some people but it's really well done adn has great acting. And he said "Well, what would you play?" And I said, "well I don't an attorney or a judge or something?" and he said, "no no no, we've done all that." And I am trying to think and Dean Winter, that plays O'Reilly on the show was having dinner with us - I'm a huge fan of this young actor - and I said, " I could play O'Reilly's mother." And Tom said, "He already has a mother." And I say, "No. I'm his real mother." And he said, "What? What do you mean?" And I said, "I ran away. He didn't know I existed." And he said, " Why did you run away?" And I said, "I was one of those 60's radicals in some group demonstration and...and...people got killed and I have been in hiding all this time. And..and...I feel guilty and I 've got to come forward and set things straight." And Tom and Dean were like "That's good. That's good." ( laughing ) I made this up on the spot. I couldn't believe it. Three months later he ( tom ) calls me, he's written the role, and it is exactly that. I was blown away! ( laughing ) So now, I get to be on this show with all these hunky guys. It's just amazing! It's such a great job!
AM - And a far cry from the step mom on Eight is Enough.
BB - I know. ( laughing ) Well, she's still a mom, but she is a little grittier than Abby was.
AM - I can't wait to watch.
BB - But they are both concerned mothers.
AM - Betty, you live in Manhattan. The recent terrorist attacks have impacted people around the world. Where were you Tuesday morning Sept. 11th?
BB- I was here in my office. My assistant's brother called us and told us that a plane has crashed into the World Trade Center. And I thought it was a two engine or small plane accident. And then as we were watching the horror take place on TV, we were just in shock, as everyone was.
AM - You have said that music is the "universal language." We look to artists to express emotions we feel. How can music heal us?
BB -I did a concert last night ( Sept. 19 ) at Alice Tully Hall in Lincoln Center for the American Songbook Series and will perform another tonitght. I thought that they would be canceled. But the producer and the mayor called u s and told us to please not cancel any of our Lincoln Center performances, but to continue to make artistic offerings to assist the public and the community. They said that they wanted us to give a very soothing concert to uplift people and help them with their grief. And I was so moved by his statement of the value of artists. And he also said, and I was really extremely touched by this, that the purpose of terrorism is to make us afraid. To make us introvert. To make not us not wish to live our lives. And this envy they have is of our beautiful culture and our freedom to express all of our individuality and creativity and all that we are as America. To make us afraid to leave our homes. To make us afraid to live life. To diminish us. That's its ( terrorism's ) primary objective. To destroy us from within bit by bit by bit. And that we can't let that happen. And that we need to move forward as artists and continue to express the human spirit because that's our job. And when he said this I was walking and talking on my cellphone and I just kind of leaned over against a lamppost and started sobbing. Because I had been walking around the city, you know, trying to figure out how I could help. I had gone to offer blood. They didn't want anymore volunteers and I wanted to be on the rock brigade! What ever I had to do. And I was like, okay. Good. I have a mission and I will do everything I can. So my musical collaborator, we reshaped the concert, rehearsed over the weekend and prepared this event. We all approached it with a lot of trepidation. We didn't know what to expect. But it was an amazing experience of community and connection of shared sadness and shared joy of life...it was exquisite. And everyone came! We were so moved by that! It was a wonderful opportunity to see the power of the human spirit through music last night. More than ever I know that it's a mission to serve -- and that's all I want to do.
AM - Thanks so much, Betty.
BB - Thanks Amy. Take care.
Betty Buckley's new album Stars and Moon: Betty Buckley Live at the Donmar is in stores now or you can purchase at bettybuckley.com . And don't miss her Centre East performance Sat. Sept. 29th. Purchase tickets at 847-673-6300.
This interview also appeared on Windy city Radio Sept. 23; see www.windycityvoices.com .
