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DIVA TALK: Chatting with South Pacific's Loretta Ables Sayre Plus News of Cates and Hart
By Andrew Gans
06 Jun 2008
Question: Have you gotten feedback from audience members?
Sayre: Yes, and I'm always overwhelmed at people who will come and talk to us with tears in their eyes, thanking us, not only for the beauty of the orchestra... everything… They'll talk about all of that, and then they'll thank us for letting them enjoy a show like this and bringing these things to light and how moved they are and how great it is for us to be able to do a show where we do move people. We sit back here, and we hear people guffawing out loud with all of the comedy. And then, by the end of the show, you can hear men and women weeping. How lucky we are to have the ability to do a show like that.
Question: Were you born and raised in Hawaii?
Sayre: No, I was born in Stockton, California. My biological father was from the Philippines. He fought in World War II in the Philippines and then came to America and, because he only had a sixth grade education, he ended up being a field laborer. He married my mother, and they had the three of us kids. His hopes were that his children would have a much better life than he had. He passed away, and my mom married my stepfather, who was in the military. We got transferred to Hawaii when I was six years old. My mom had always wanted to go there, and we absolutely fell in love with it. In my heart, it's really home. I was born in California, but Hawaii is and always will be my home.
Question: When did you start performing?
Sayre: Gosh, I performed all the way through school. I remember knowing when I was four years old, five years old, that I wanted to be a singer. I wanted to perform. You know how we have show-and-tell days, and kids would bring their pet gerbils and stuff. I would bring a Sarah Vaughan record and sing along with it! [Laughs.]
Question: Who were some of the singers who influenced you?
Sayre: Well, I made my living singing jazz standards, so really the jazz greats: Sarah Vaughan, Ella Fitzgerald, Dinah Washington. Those were the base for all of the music that I did. But I also am a child of the sixties, so the Beatles and any R&B, Marvin Gaye, all of that kind of music. That's all part of my soul, too.
Question: I noticed in your bio that you played Effie in a production of Dreamgirls.
Sayre: Yes!
Question: What was that experience like?
Sayre: Oh, my gosh, that was incredible! Of course, living in Hawaii, and this was in 1989, I hadn't been to New York. I had never seen a production [of Dreamgirls], but that soundtrack went around all of my friends, and we knew every song inside and out. They got the rights to be able to do it in Hawaii, and they did blind casting there because we didn't have a large African-American performing community. Because it was Hawaii, they had to draw from who they had to draw from. I was able to play that role and oh, my gosh! I mentioned the word "catharsis" before, but… when we did that show, I had just come out of a six-year relationship that had a very terrible breakup, and every single night, it was all I could do to barely get through "And I Am Telling You I'm Not Going." By the time we finished the run of that show, I could barely remember what that guy's name was! [Laughs.] It came out on the stage and rolled out on the floor and up the aisles!
Question: That's what people need instead of therapy. They need to star in a production of Dreamgirls.
Sayre: Exactly! Oh, I am tellin' you. It was absolutely fantastic. And, we had a choreographer, Danny Herman, from New York that directed the show, and he did a great job of it, too.
Question: You mentioned before that you were about to do a show before South Pacific came up. What was that show?
Sayre: It was a local production by a writer in Honolulu, Lee Cataluna, and a Hawaiian musician, Keola Beamer. They had written a show about a woman and her family [whose] goal was to be in a certain entertainment columnist's column. He writes for the newspaper. The show was called You Somebody, which is a term they use in Hawaii for when somebody is famous. So it was called You Somebody, and it was about this woman who was willing to do anything and to make her family do anything — any kind of contest or talent show. . . . She'd have her daughter trying to do some hula thing, hoping that eventually she'd get into the column. It was a great comedy. And, like I said, I hadn't done a show in five years. So I was totally immersed in this show, but what was great about it is it had totally gotten me back into the chops of acting and singing and performing onstage as opposed to nightclub performing.
Question: How does it compare for you, doing a nightclub act versus a character in a show?
Sayre: There's no comparison. I've been fortunate enough to make my living in a couple of wonderful nightclubs at the two only five-diamond properties on Oahu. One, I was at for ten years, and the other one, I was there for seven years. It was wonderful to be able to do that, but you're there doing music for people to enjoy their evenings. They're not always necessarily a rapt audience. You're in the middle of some beautiful Duke Ellington ballad, and the blender goes on. [Laughs.] So, you do your best, and you do it because you love doing the music, and you kind of have to turn your ear off to the rest. To be able to be in a performance like this with an audience that's listening to everything that's going on onstage, that's listening to the entire dialogue, that are caught up in the entire performance that's happening, it's wonderful. It's that wonderful give and take with people that are listening. Plus, they bought tickets, so they really want to listen. [Laughs.] As opposed to just going and listening to a chick singer somewhere.
Question: How long will you stay with the New York production?
Sayre: My goodness, I hope to be here for at least another year. We have an open-ended run here now at Lincoln Center . . . so I'm prepared to be here for another six months definitely and hopefully for at least another year. At that point I kind of have to look back and assess what's going on back home, because I do have that responsibility. My husband has been so wonderful in taking care of my mom, and I have a couple of brothers and sister-in-laws that are doing that. But my mom is living in our home, and I just feel like I'm over here living my dream and taking this opportunity that I really never thought would happen. But the reality is that's where my home is, and I have responsibilities there, too. We just have to assess where things are a year from now, and hopefully she'll be doing fine. I would love to be able to stay with this show until the very last day, but the reality is this show could run for a very long time. Maybe I'll talk to them and see if they could let me go for a hiatus and then I'll come back again.
Question: That sounds very plausible.
Sayre: It would be incredible if they would consider that. I am quite far away. It would be different if I could jump on a plane for even a three or four or five-hour flight, but this is 11 hours. If I had my way, I would stay until the very last day. It's just an incredible moment in my life and a dream come true, and I want to savor every single moment and second doing the show and doing it with the people that are in this cast. I just can't say enough about them. Kelli and Paulo and Danny Burstein, who is a rock star in my eyes. The last two trips that I came here, the only show I saw was The Drowsy Chaperone. I saw it twice, and I could not believe the incredible talent that was in this man's body. And then when they cast me as Bloody Mary, and they told me they were casting him as Billis, I just about lost my mind. They could have said it was Mick Jagger. My reaction would have been the same.
[South Pacific plays the Vivian Beaumont Theater, 150 West 65th Street. Tickets are available by visiting telecharge.com or www.lct.org.]
DIVA TIDBITS
A host of Broadway favorites will take part in an upcoming concert to benefit Diverse City Theater Company, the organization founded in 2003 to focus on "promoting diversity and multiculturalism in the theatre arts." The June 23 concert, titled An Evening of Music Celebrating Diversity in the Theater, will be held at the Helen Mills Event Space & Theatre in Manhattan. Show time is 6:30 PM. Among those scheduled to lend their vocal talent to the evening are Allison Blackwell (Les Miserables), Nikki Renee Daniels (Aida, Beauty and the Beast), Angel Desai (Company), Ali Ewoldt (Les Miserables), Rona Figueroa (Nine, Miss Saigon), Norm Lewis (The Little Mermaid), Jose Llana (Flower Drum Song, 25th Putnam County Spelling Bee), Julie Danao Salkin (Lennon) and Amy Spanger (The Wedding Singer, Chicago). The Helen Mills Event Space & Theater is located in Manhattan at 137 West 26th Street (between Sixth and Seventh Avenues). Tickets, priced $250 and $500 (includes a post-performance VIP champagne reception) can be purchased by calling (212) 916-0508 or by visiting martha@diversecitytheater.org.
Famed Carol Channing tribute artist Richard Skipper will star in a one-night-only benefit performance of Hello, Dolly! at the Paramount Theatre in Asbury Park, NJ. Directed by Thomas Morrissey, the June 14 performance will feature choreography by Connor Gallagher and musical direction by John Fischer. Show time is 8 PM. Skipper will star in the title role, which was originated by Channing. He will be joined onstage by Charles Karel (Milk and Honey, Dear World, Zorba) as Horace Vandergelder, Kristy Cates (Wicked, Jerry Springer The Opera) as Irene Malloy, Jim Weitzer (Little Women, Phantom) as Cornelius Hackl, Chris Gunn (Little Women, Jerry Springer The Opera) as Barnaby Tucker and Jenna Coker-Jones (Evil Dead The Musical) as Minnie Fay with Anne Kissel (Ernestina), Jack Hallett (Rudolph), Hernando Umana (Ambrose), Brooke Wallace (Ermengarde) and Gary Mottola (Judge). The Paramount Theatre on the Boardwalk in Asbury Park is located at 1300 Ocean Avenue in Asbury Park, NJ. Tickets, priced $15-$50, are available by visiting www.ReVisionTheatre.org or by calling (732) 455-3059. For more information go to www.RichardSkipper.com.
Casting has been announced for the York Theatre Company's upcoming production of Grind. Part of the Musicals in Mufti series, the musical will play the Off-Broadway venue June 13-15. Annette Jolles will direct with musical direction by Steven Marzullo. The cast features Bob Ari as Harry, Joe Cassidy as Doyle, Nikki Renee Daniels as Satin, Brandon Victor Dixon as Leroy, Wendy Fox as a Stripper, Chasten Harmon as Clementine, Linda Hart as Romaine, Larry Keith as Gus, Max Quinlan as a Juggler, Michele Ragusa as Lizzie, Christopher Sergeeff as Juggler and Jasmin Walker as Ruby. Grind will play five performances: Friday at 8 PM, Saturday at 2:30 and 8 PM, and Sunday at 2:30 and 7:30 PM. Audience discussions will follow the matinees. The York Theatre Company plays the Theatre at Saint Peter's, which is located at 54th Street, east of Lexington Avenue. For more information or to purchase tickets, priced $35, call (212) 935-5820 or visit www.yorktheatre.org.
Several veterans of the Broadway company of Mel Brooks' The Producers will star in the upcoming production of that Tony-winning musical at the St. Louis Muny, the nation's oldest and largest outdoor theatre. Playbill.com has learned that the June 16-22 run of the hit musical based on the Brooks film of the same name will feature Lewis J. Stadlen as Max Bialystock, Don Stephenson as Leo Bloom, Anthony Cummings as Franz Liebkind, Larry Raben as Carmen Ghia, Lee Roy Reams as Roger DeBris and Angie Schworer as Ulla. The ensemble will comprise James Anthony, Michael Baxter, Christina Hammersmith, Leah Hoffman, Nicole Hren, Andy Jones, Aaron Kaburick, Ana Llewellyn, Nathan Madden, Ruth Pferdehirt, Alex Puette, Peggy Quinn, Jennifer Smith, Kendal Sparks, Karilyn Ashley Surratt, Jeanne Trevor, Keith Tyrone, Gia Grazia Valenti and Amos Wolff. For more information call (314) 361-1900, ext. 550 or visit www.muny.org.
Well, that's all for now. Happy diva-watching! E-mail questions or comments to agans@playbill.com.
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