This is Alec Baldwin and you're listening to Here's the Thing from iHeart Radio. If I were to share with you the greatest show business comeback story in history, you might not believe it, but it's all true. My guest today was the very first black woman to be crowned Miss America, only to resign following the release of unauthorized nude photos. In the years after the scandal, she reinvented herself, building an impressive and decorated career. She released chart topping music,
performed on Broadway, and starred in television and film. It could only be Vanessa Williams. Her work has earned her three Emmy nominations, eleven Grammy nominations, and a Tony nomination. She's the recipient of a Billboard Music Award and multiple NAACP Image Awards. I wanted to know how her upbringing in New York affected her trajectory and her goals.
I was born in Tarrytown. I grew up in one year in the Bronx and then up here in Westchester in Millwood, which is about five miles from where I live right now.
And your parents were both taught art. They were art teachers, music teachers music.
Yeah, my dad was band teacher in Elmsford and my mom was the choral teacher in Austining at Claremont School. So my dad was forty two years my mom was thirty eight years.
There, how many siblings.
You have one younger brother who is an actor as well. He's out in LA he's four years younger.
Just one you and the brothers.
Yeah, that's it.
And both of you went into the arts.
Yes, my brother he's done like Dodgeball, he's done Larry David's HERBYR Enthusiasm.
Historical dramas. He's done historical dramas. Yeah, yes, Dodgeball, that's history.
Yeah, yeah, yeah for a while.
He's been at it for a while. Yes.
Now, why the East Coast for you?
I did live in the West Coast from eighty five to ninety two because you were working. I was working. I kind of left after having a struggling here in New York, you know, after being Miss America and then the scandal and then trying to you know, make my way on Broadway. And I tell a story in my book which is called You Have No Idea, which basically is a chronicle of my recollection and my Mom's kind
of side by side. In the book, I talk about one particular instance where Mike Nichols was directing Tommy Tooon and Twiggy in My One and Only on Broadway, and Mike Nichols reached out to me. He said he wanted me to replace Twiggy because he knew that I was a musical theater gal and met him, had a wonderful meeting.
Did the audition, Tommy taught me all the tap did the audition went well, perfectly, left the theater and Mike turned around to Lee Gershwin, who was the head of the estate in Irish Widow, and said it wasn't she terrific? Thumbs up, and then he walked back downstage and the phone was ringing by the time he got to the bottom of the stage, and it was Lee Gershwin who said to Mike Nichols, over my dead body, will that horror be in my show? And that was nineteen eighty.
Five, the year after the incident.
Yeah, eighty four eighty five. They wanted me to go in right after. So I didn't know exactly what she had said. I knew that I didn't get it, but I knew that I crushed the audition, and Paul Martino was my agent at the time at ICM, so it was kind of a soft not this time. But I could feel like, Okay, this has nothing to do with talent. This is way bigger and it's going to be much harder than I anticipated.
Well, now that you've pivoted in that direction, we were going to get there. But no, no, no, no no, you talking about your Bucolic Westchester upbringing and instead we're having Gershwin's relatives.
Calling you a whore exactly.
Let's stop there, now, hold on, let me catch up. But now that you bring it up, I want to say you are someone who I'm a great admirer of yours, and I want to back it up a little bit, which is when you become Miss America. So it's a national competition. I remember, these are a Miss Universe contestants, where I always felt that the people in the some of these foreign countries, because their countries are so maybe economically,
I mean, less advantage than America. You'd see some of these women winning these awards in these international competitions and you think they're going to choke to death how much they're crying, like Oh my god, they can't believe they've won. It's this big deal to them. What was the roots of you becoming Miss America? Was it a goal for you? What did you think it represented? How did that happen?
Well, you talk about Bucolic roots, and the Miss America pageant itself was a bathing suit pageant on the board walk in Atlantic City back in the day, and it was still run by volunteers in Atlantic City yearly, So it wasn't this huge, huge corporation and corporate thing. And I only learned that once I ended up winning. The roots of it was. I was a Syracuse musical theater major. Aaron Sorkin was one of my classmates, by the way, and my freshman year's your core year. You can't do anything.
So sophomore year I started performing. So I was in the Golden Apple, I did Frank Lesser's was Swinging on a Star. I was down at Syracuse Stage was a repertory theater and they were doing a production of a syro De Bergerac which I auditioned for and I got the part of the Orange Girl, which was a tiny little part, but it would have gotten me equity points. So I was supposed to do that after doing all these productions my sophomore year, and the local Miss Syracuse
pageant kind of scouts their talent at the university. So a couple of board members had seen me in shows and one of my friends a board member, would you be interested in being in the Syracuse pageant? I said, no, absolutely not. I doam do it Syrah No got canceled. I had April free. I called my mom and said, listen, do you think I should do this Syracuse pageant? Thing? Is their money? I said yes because I'd gotten scholarships the previous two years, and she said I would go
for it. So my parents didn't even come to the pageant. I bought a bathing suit down at Sibley's department store in downtown Syracuse.
My cousin worked at Sibleys.
You're kidding.
My mom is from Syracuse, Okay, so that's where I got my stuff, and I sang a song from my performance class. My friend Tim Thayer played piano for me. I did being Good Isn't Good Enough from Hallelujah Baby that I'd performed in class, and I ended up winning Swimsuit Talent and I won Miss Greater Syracuse. So that
was April of my sophomore year. Then I was on the way to States in July three months later, and you know, I'm twenty years old and I sing the same song where the same close and win that same Tim's playing for me, the same deal and I win that.
So within three months, I'm already headed to Atlantic City and the local pageant gal wants to change my song to something more familiar, so I sang happy Days are here again, the Barbi Streuis end version, got an upgrade on my gown and swimsuit, and I ended up winning
all within six months. So I literally had no intention of ever being Miss America, being in the pageant, and here I was getting ready for my junior year abroad in London, already put my dad deposit, my girlfriend was, my roommate was already waiting for me, and I ended up winning. So my first question when I won was now what do I do? And ah, now can go to London.
So if you're a super bright and talented woman and you end up in that universe, not that there's anything wrong with it, Like you said, what do I do now? How soon after you were crowned did the scandal.
Come, Well, it didn't come until I had been missing America for ten months. I had literally two weeks vacation and a month left. So but I think the biggest, biggest jolt for me being a New Yorker at twenty years old, living in Westchester, growing up in Westchester, you know, being surrounded by different cultures and my parents living through the civil rights movement making a better life. For me, that was the first time I really experienced racism on
a national level. And I guess, you know, being.
In this I wanted because of the scandal or.
Both because I won. Because I won, This is no scandal at all. This is just me being black at twenty years old. September of nineteen eighty three, death threats. When I had my welcome home parade here, they had to have sharpshooters on the roofs of buildings because of their threats like that. And again I was so, I guess naive because I assumed that nineteen eighty three were past all that stuff, and we lived in a world
this moment assume. So that was a big slap in the face and a big maturity kick in the pants for me.
Where was any moment. I mean, maybe I'm naive, but where was any moment of someone coming up to you and saying, here's the negatives, here's the pictures you can have. Just give me tickets to every show you're in for the rest of your life. You know what I mean? That type of thing.
Never one gesture, not even one gesture. It was all a betrayal. I mean I never pretended that I was perfect. I certainly I was a first Miss America that was pro era, pro choice, so I was ruffling feathers from the get go.
You mean you weren't a virgin when you were Miss America exact Good God, I wasn't.
So I think the betrayal is what hurt me the most because again, growing up in this small little town and a quick brief history of how these pictures ever became. I used to have the Pennysaber magazine, which we would look for summer jobs in the summer, and one summer there was a modeling registry in town, and not an agency that should have been the first clue, but a registry. And I said, well, let me go in and see
whether I can be a model of the summer. And he said, well, it's going to cost this amount of money for the picture's portfolio. But I need a makeup artist, So if you want to be a receptionist and a makeup artist for the shoots. So that's what my summer job was, and ended up getting convinced later on later in the summer, you know what, I've got an idea. I'd love to shoot you. Nobody will see them, They'll be in silhouette, blah blah blah blah, all that horseshit.
Then after I win, apparently he started shopping and I never saw a release for any of these photos. So he started shopping them around, apparently tried to reach out to my mother, which she doesn't remember. Then he started shopping them around and he went to Hugh Hefner first, and Hugh said, do you have a release? And he said no, and he said, well, I'm not going to do that to this woman.
How decent of you you.
And then he goes to Guccioni and Gucci was like, hell, yeah, bring him. So yeah, So that was so the biggest shock was I went to Crown the Miss New York in Watertown, New York, Friday the thirteenth and July and The New York Post called about Geraldine Ferrara and wanted to know what I felt about her being the first woman on the ticket great women power. Yeah yeah, yeah, And he said, oh, by the way, I heard from a reliable source that you're going to be on the
cover of Pentause magazine in September. And I was truly shocked. I said, I have no idea what you're talking about. He said, well, it's a really reliable source. I said, I don't know what you're talking about. He said, okay, then I want print it up with the phone call my parents and I say, I don't know what's going on,
but I need some help. And one of our family friends became my lawyer, and then it all all the shit hit the fan, and then I was given like a two week decision whether they were going to take the crown away or whether I wanted to resign. And I had a whole continuency of people that wanted me
to fight for the crown. So when I the day of my press conference, there were people saying, fight for it, fight with with I mean, it was it was insane and why didn't you Because I just wanted to get, you know, move on move on.
I mean, this really upsets me because we all had our times in the dunk tank here. How long did the downtime last before you start to crawl out of this and the wreckage of this and start to work again. And who's calling you, who's reaching out to who's the first person to say, come make a movie with me or do a show with me.
Well, it took me ten years to get on Broadway, so if the scandal hit in eighty four, in nineteen ninety four is when I got a chance to be in Case of the Spider Woman on Broadway, So that was a good ten year with Then that was Cheata Rivera and I stepped in after her one year run and she went on the road and I took over. So that was glorious for me to finally say, Okay, this is what I meant to be and this is where I am. And my parents were just elated to
see me, you know, have my dream come true. But prior to that, which is interesting, I'd gotten a lot of a lot of inquiries for like crap or they wanted to meet me just to say they could meet me. So there's a lot of auditions that I went I was like, they're really not going to cast me. They just want to say, oh, guess who we got in
the room today. I think the first thing I did was a Partners in Crime which was which was with Lonnie Anderson and Linda Carter and we shot it in San Francisco and I was Roselle Robbins, who is a singer, and I got a chance to record a couple songs and do a number and stuff. So you know, they were there were opportunities to kind of, you know, jump on all the publicity that happened.
In eighty four to ninety four. What did you do?
I did television. I did One Man Ban was an off Broadway show Willa Shalatte. Jean Shallette's daughter was one of the producers, and she and James Lucine was the One Man Ban and they believed in me and said we'll give you a shot. So that was off Broadway, and from there I went to La because it was just I want to do theater and the doors were closed, so you know, I was on TJ.
Hooker.
I did the Love Boat.
You know, you name it all My bread and butter here exactly what's funny in the brief time we've talked, you remind me of Pacino. When I interviewed Pacino, I interviewed him for school in order to go back to n Why You and graduate, I had to do a term paper about the applicability of method acting training to an actor who still had a real career in film,
TV and theater. So I interviewed Al for like eight or nine hours at his house up in Westchester, and every time I would talked about movies, he changed the subject. All he wanted to talk was theater. All you want to talk about? His theater? Interesting? So you shit, you pivot to theater all the time. That's where your heart is.
Well, that's where my training was, and that was my goal, you know, growing up. But believe me, my recording has kind of backdoored me into theater. And again being a recording artist, I mean, nobody wanted to sign me, and then when I got signed, you know, they would say, well, the competition is really over here. So my whole career is like, oh I didn't know she could do that.
Oh I didn't know she could do that? Right, And my biggest hit, say the Best for a Last, which was number one on the charts for five weeks straight. Was a song that be Middler and barbers Streisen both turned down there people, and I got it, and I said, I'll take it. I don't know what it's not sloppy seconds, I don't know what what thirds are, but I'll take it because I knew that there was something there that I can be Our.
Careers are built them.
The guy that passed on the I can tell you the names of people that passed on Hunt for Red October. But it's interesting to me. How, by the way, do you teach you ever teach?
I teach you NYU, but I teach in their and their vocal performance. Songwriting, yes, perfect, perfect, perfect. Yeah.
Well, when I would teach, I'd say to people, do anything, do everything, don't be cute about it, don't be precious about what you do. I was doing a soap opera in New York and I would walk over to this, you know, back in the Pleistocene era when we had no Internet, and I would go over to the NYU
Film School to the casting board. It was a corkboard with things pinned up there, and would say, wanted actor twenty to twenty five to play a bartender in this thing we're going to shoot Saturday and Sunday on the weekend. This bar is closed and I was doing this soap opera. I think it was kind of spotty at the beginning of it. So I go on the weekends on my week to go do this movie and it's, you know,
this horrible independent film. But my point I say to people is don't turn your nose upon anything when you're first starting.
Absolutely it makes you never know what's skill set you'll need to tap into on, you know, when you get a gig, you know, and meeting fascinating people and learning, That's what I tell Never stop asking questions, never stop learning and being curious because that's exciting, but makes you more exciting. It makes you life way more satisfying when you know you haven't you know, you're at a dinner party and you're talking to somebody that you never thought
you'd be able to talk to. And that's the great thing about our profession. I've been lucky as Miss America. I've met seven presidents in my lifetime already. And those opportunities of going to the White House and dinner and sitting in the receiving line when it was Reagan. Actually that was the first big deal. When I was crowned, Reagan called me and said it was a great thing for our country. So that was like the first huge
moment of my reign as Miss America. But I remember going to the White House dinner October eighteenth, nineteen eighty three, and in the lineup was Ginger Rogers, Halston, Martha Graham and I was like, oh my god, these are legends and they were just you know. I sat next to Sonny Jorgensen, the football player Jurgensen. Yes, yes, he was at my table. My mother's like, get the president's autograph on the menu, like a mom, and I did I have.
She's there. That's why your mom's there, to remind you of those things you've forgotten.
Exactly, Vanessa Williams.
If you enjoy conversations with talented Broadway artists, check out my episode with Aldra McDonald's.
No one thought that I could find her voice. What's the soprano trying to be Billie Holiday? The show opens and the first thing I do is sing, and you can tell that the audience is waiting to hear is she going to get it? And I would open my mouth and sing the first all I know is I'm in love with you. Sometimes I'd hear the audience gasp, and that's when I'd be like, okay.
Aller.
Is Jamin Lowe.
To hear more of my conversation with Aldra McDonald, go to Here's the Thing dot Org. After the break, Vanessa Williams shares how Stephen Sondheim's work taught her an important lesson about the type of art she wants to make. I'm Alec Baldwin and you're listening to Here's the Thing. With her musical theater training, singing comes second nature to Vanessa Williams. She's released eight albums as a recording artist.
Her track Colors of the Wind plays over the closing credits of the Oscar winning soundtrack to Pocahontas, and this is Williams with the number one single Saved the Best for Last from her album The Comfort Zone.
But that was sad Faces Floods just went a fom sandcast you the best flat.
I wanted to know how she got her start in the recording.
Industry, Well, it was at Eckstein, who is Billy Eckstein's son. He got a new deal and a new label. Part of the PolyGram company back in the day, so he was the one that believed in me because a lot of people sounded thought that I sounded too Broadway or just thought that I'd be like a one hit wonder.
But he legitimately knew that I could have a singing career, and he was really instrumental in getting you know, back then we had an r artists and repertoire, so you know, great and curating songs, working with hungry young producers that were eager to have their songs written and performed. And so I really have to him and my ex husband, who ended up he was my publicist when I was
resigned as Miss America. He then started to manage me because I asked him because he was the only person that I really trust that knew my talent but also knew about me as my character and obviously loved me. So it was the two of them that said, you know, let's do this, Let's make her a legitimate recording artist. And I had a great run on PolyGram and then i've been I'm actually about to release It's been fifteen years since my last album, but I'm releasing new music
in April. So back in the studio, dancing again, making videos and making me feel young again. And actually the song is called Legs, which is about which was inspired by Diane Carroll wrote her book called The Legs of the Last to Go. And I remember watching our Oprah and she was talking about everything kind of decays and falls and SAgs. But damn it, those legs are strong. They're still holding me up. And there's still I can
still show them off in a mini skirt. There's still the last thing that I'm holding onto that's.
Had great legs.
Yep.
Who played my mother on thirty Rock Jesus Christ, look at her.
Now.
Let me ask you this also, which is that you've been married three times. But when you're someone who can certainly take care of themselves and you're a tough woman, you're smart, you're beautiful, you're talented, and you're tough, and when you get married, why do you get married? Why?
Because I'm a romantic, I don't know. I do and I and I think that I see the best and what I can be and what we can be, and then I get disappointed on the future that I thought it was going to be and didn't turn out for it.
To be as my friend says, he goes and then we turn the lights on and see everything as it really is. Yes, Yes, it's always like like when we get married, why did we get married?
Like?
Well, I think the marriage question is always for someone who is as self sufficient as you, and I would imagine me like you know, do I have needs emotionally? I always think about it in this business because marriage is so tough in this business. What was it like for you as a mom?
Oh, I brought my kids everywhere, so I've got I've got four kids. So I had my first three with my first husband and then my last one with my second husband. But I mean I got married so the scandal. I was twenty as when I won Miss America twenty one when the scandal hit. Ended up getting married at twenty three, And partly not only because we were a unit, my ex and I trying to build our life and career together. But I that's what I could control. I
could control my family. I couldn't control my career. I couldn't depend on people something you can rely on exactly.
So what kind of work did he do?
He was a public He used to he was worked at Rogers and Cowan back in the day.
I remember I was with Rodgers and Cowan.
Yeah, yeah, yeah. So he was the first black senior vice president back in the day that he was thirteen years older than me. So my kids are very cringey now they're like, oh, mom, how could you twenty one?
He was in his thirties.
No, my son said the other day, he walks up to me. I'm in bed, I'm just barely waking up. My son wrote Mao books and he goes, Dad, are you going to die? And I go, no, No, I'm not going to die. I mean you have to lie to them. And I go no, I'm not going to die. He goes, but you're going to be like eighty five and then you're going to die. I go, no, I'm not going to die. I don't even think about that. Then as a pause, he goes, could you give mom your Apple pass code? Can I give mom my Apple pass?
How old does the arrange your kids?
Now?
They're how old?
So Melanie is thirty six, Jillian is thirty four, Devin my son is thirty, and then Sasha is twenty three.
And we're the three older ones. Are they in the biz?
So my oldest works in Westchester in the city's Bodies Instructor. My middle is a singer and she gave me a beautiful grandchild who who's two years old. And so she has her own career and her name of her band is called Lion Babe. And my son works out in LA he's in the fashion industry. And then my youngest is writing music and she's got four singles out on Apple and Spotify and all that stuff. So two in the business and two not. But they're all I'm really
proud of them. And they're doing what they love and doing what they're good at and and I love having them home. That's the best.
And are you finally after three trips to the plate here? Are you finally done with this romantic thing of yours? You are?
I think I am done.
Boyfriends are good. Boyfriends are good.
Boyfriends are good, And I'm fine being by myself. I travel so much, I have so many opportunities. I you know, I would love is fun and exciting. Sex is great, haven't had in years, but waiting for that to happen again.
But I you know, I.
Don't have people throwing themselves at me, propositioning me. It's not as it's not as easy as you would think.
Yeah, but let me just say this also, which is that with someone with your theater background and your great success in the theater, have you ever thought about doing a one woman show?
I have thought about it.
Take credit for it. It's a great idea.
Are you going to come on as producer?
No kidding? You should. When Springsteen did that show and you realize that the music is obviously there and what people were waiting for what was he going to say about his life and himself? And people would have died. I mean, they love that Springsteen show. But for you to be you and to combine those things, you singing and you performing and then telling stories about all the stuff you went through and where you want, no, that would be a hit show.
Yeah, I have to. James Lepine asked me to do Sonjam and Sonham in twenty ten, and that was the format that it was mixed media. It was all interviews of Sondheim and then you know, with us singing. And one of the strongest moments in that show was when they cut to Sondheim and he's talking about a telegram was brought to his home and he opened it and it was a letter from his mother saying, I'm about to go into surgery for heart, my heart. I just want to say, the only regret in my life was
giving birth to you. And you could hear and then and then he said, and then I knew that it wasn't about me. She couldn't give me love. It had nothing to do with me. It had to do with her. And then the stage tarts to rotate, and we started saying care but the things you're saying, children will listen. And then you hear the sobs of people just sniffling because you realize those words turned into his art. He gave us everything because of that, that relationship that he
could never crack that nut. So those are the omens I mean I want. If I'm going to do a one woman show, I want that moment. I want to be able to have the audience in my hands so they can see my pain, you know, turned into art. They can see my triumph turned into art. So it's delicate, and it really is, you know, a specific task.
Vanessa Williams. If you're enjoying this conversation, tell a friend and be sure to follow Here's the thing on the iHeartRadio apps, Spotify and wherever you get your podcasts. When we come back, Vanessa Williams shares with us the joy of working with Sir Elton John. I'm Alec Baldwin and you're listening to Here's the thing. Theater and music are not Vanessa williams only strengths. The Triple Threat has also been featured in over one hundred TV and film roles,
highlighting her impressive range. I wanted her to share how she approached her different roles on Ugly Betty and Desperate Housewives.
Well, Ugly Betty was one of those shows where we were going to be a Friday night kind of for chicks because they didn't really believe that we had what it took. And we did the TCAs the Television Critics Awards panel, and after we finish our panel in Pasadena, Yeah, in Pasadena, and they said Ugly Betty, they said, you guys are the hit of the season. You guys are the best thing that we've seen. So we knew that
the critics liked us. And then when we finally when we got so much momentum, they turned they changed us to Thursday night, right before Gray's Anatomy, and that kind of gave us. Yeah, that blew us up when we won the Golden Globe that year. But we you know, it was like doing a feature film every episode because we had so m much production value and costumes and runways and all kinds of fantastical stuff. It was long Friturdays, Fridays turning into Saturdays. But we loved it, and we
loved each other, and we loved our script readings. As we never knew, especially I never knew what I was going to be doing the following week. What I'm pitching to Naomi Campbell and a softball game. What I'm taking a baseball bat and smashing you know, Mannekins on the roof of some here. Oh I'm having Yes, this is ugly, Betty.
So it was amazing. So then going by the time I got to Desperate Housewives, and the reason I got on Desperate Housewives is I was doing Sondhaim' Sondheim and Mark Cherry is a huge Sondheim fan, so much so that every episode of Desperate Housewives is a Sondheim song. That's how big it is. It Yeah, so, uh so he saw me and Onheim Sanaim and so Onheim, and then I got a call like a week later, would she like to join our cast? And Nicolette was already gone.
They needed a cast edition, so you come and you shoot that. And I worshiped Felicity. I mean, I just love Felicity to death.
Love her too.
I did a movie with Terry Hatcher. She came into play Eric Roberts's wife, and you found out she was the drug lord in the operation. Played a copp that was based on this famous book called Heaven's Prisoners that Phil Juano directed, and she was the villainous and none of us thought that she would really be able to get there in terms of the extremes of intensity and ugliness. And she was good.
She was damn good.
She came in there and she was ready to hit and be hit and fight, and she was scrappy. And we did this movie, Heavens Prisoners, and Terry was damn good in that movie, and I wanted to do a project with Felicity. How different was that experience?
You know? I came in and they called me Switzerland because I had no beef with anybody, so I was friendly with everybody. I had worked with Terry Hatcher previously because we used to do these radio shack commercials back in the day. So it is Terry and Howie Long and me and Ving Rains, the black and the White couple, and we would do, you know, product commercials for the radio shack together. So that's I knew her from back in the day. But it was easy and talking about clockwork,
absolute in and out. Craziest days. Mark would come and give us pretty much line readings across the board and then take off to the writer's room, so we all knew what was going on even though their market. Yes, very very hands on.
You only do that. Are you recurring a couple of years of recurring on that show?
I was.
I was for regular for two seasons and then they were killed. I guess no, no, no, I got married, and then.
The show was you got killed, kidnapped, you got married. I got one of the three.
What are you working on now?
I Am about to go across the pond to do devilwares Prada on the West End.
I've read that.
Yeah, So Jerry Mitchell is directing and doing the choreography, and Elton John's writing the music and he wrote two songs for me already, which is incredible, and it's all British cast over there and we're at the Dominion Theater. We open our first player, Rand Priestley. Yes I am yeah. October twenty fourth we start and I'll be there for at least for a year. We're doing our out of town in Plymouth, which I guess is the southwest portion
of England. So we're out of town end of June through mid August.
So this is they're workshopping this and working this is new.
Yeah, you're going to create this role? Yes?
What is greater? What is more powerful and more? The thing you want in this business, the one thing you especially if you can sing like you and dance, you want to create a role in originate a role. How lucky are you?
Absolutely?
Did you flip that when they told you that?
Well, I knew that. Jerry kind of gave me a heads up. They had done a production in Chicago a couple of years ago and it did not do well at all. Different cast, different director, and Kevin McCollum, the producer, called in Jerry and said, listen, I needed to see this. I needed to help me out. What do you think? And Jerry said, I will do it, but I want complete control whole new team, and I want to make
sure that Elton will write me some new music. And Elton was doing the Yellowpic road tour at the time, so he was, you know, really really busy, but he promised and he did. So I had demos of Elton, you know, singing the new stuff, and then I got a chance to hear Jerry's vision. And then when we're in the room for two weeks, Elton was so happy. He said, I wanted to kill myself in Chicago. Now I'm really really happy, and just like, you know, just to give a little smidgeon of what it's going to
look like. So Jerry said, in the other production there was no fashion, and it's about the world of fashion. So he's got all these built in runway production numbers
happening and act too. When Miranda goes to Paris and they're trying to oust her, there's a song that she sings called stay on Top, and we haven't obviously, we haven't staged it yet, but he told me that what he's gonna do is he has got a passer l in front of the stage and we will be sitting as if we're sitting and watching a runway show and I'll have my glasses on and he's going to have the girls start and then have everybody freeze and have
me start. You think that I can't see you sitting there with Glee Ega for the ending You've been waiting years to see. Today she's getting ousted. Yes, her final hour's nigh. Miranda's rain has run its course, that's.
What you think, Oh my, and then it goes into like a total banger, and it's like this techno, it's going to be incredible.
Now I want to say, my god. I mean, here you are. It brings me to tears. Almost here you are having to deal with because when all of us deal with something painful in your career, when you fall down, they watch you fall down, but the first words out of their mouth after them is what's she going to do? I mean, I remember Michelle Pfeiffer had that great quote. She said, the acting's free. You pay me for all the other crap I got to put up with, you know,
and I'm sure other people have said that. But when they knock you down, then they look at you and they're like, what's she going to do? And to think that you're about to go do this project, this great, great project are they're talking it all about when the opening would be, what month in the fall.
The opening night is December first, and that's that coincide with Elton's Big Aide benefit ball. So we're doing a command performance for that, but in London, in London at the Dominion yet but our first shows are October twenty fourth. We start at the Dominion. Yeah, I'm going to camp it, come.
Come any I want to say thank you. I am a huge fan of yours. I'm a huge fan of yours. You are this incredibly talented. You're such a bright and interesting and beyond your physical beauty, you're just such a great actress.
And we're fellow board members too. I see you at the Roundabout board all of our boards.
Yeah, yeah, but you're but I wish you the best of luck with us. When do you leave your head over there?
When mid May we start rehearsals.
Thank you so much, my great pleasure.
Thank you, thank you, Alec, thank you.
My thanks to Vanessa Williams.
This episode was produced by Kathleen Brusso, Zach Macnice, and Maureen Hobin. Our engineer is Frank Imperial. Our social media manager is Danielle Gingrich. Here's the Thing is recorded at CDM Studios in New York. I'm ALC. Baldwin. Here's the Thing is brought to you by iHeart Radio completely