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Exclusive Interview: Terry Barber of 'The Best of Broadway: The Music of Andrew Lloyd Webber & More' · The BSB Podcast

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  The Brighton Center for the Performing Arts is bringing an evening of Broadway to audiences with their The Best of Broadway, the music of Andrew Lloyd Webber and more.
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  Today we're speaking with Terry Barber, an internationally acclaimed countertenor who was featured in the show.
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  Thank you so much for joining us today.
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  Thank you so much for having me on the show.
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  We are so excited to talk to you about this and to talk about this incredible night that's happening.
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  ah To kick it off, I'm kind of wondering if you can tell the people, what is the best of Broadway?
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  Like, what is this night consisting of for them?
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  Right, so uh this is one of my most requested tour programs.
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  have two that are really the most requested.
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  And this one, really love.
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  When you think about the music of any composer, it tends to have a sound.
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  And that makes sense if you are having a dinner party and you want to put an album on and have a sound that is continuous kind of throughout the vibe that you're trying to create.
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  However, when it comes to live entertainment, I prefer a lot of variety.
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  fast, slow, funny, sad, all the things, right?
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  The music of Andrew Lloyd Webber, you can look at his work and see and hear things that sound like rock, things that sound like traditional Broadway sounds, and some even that
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  sound like classical.
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  So there's really a lot of variety within the show itself.
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  And so we're doing music from Phantom of the Opera, of course, which is the longest running show on Broadway, the sequel to Phantom of the Opera, Love Never Dies.
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  Evita, Jesus Christ Superstar, um and Joseph the Amazing Technicolor Dreamcoat, and some other Andrew Lloyd Webber shows, but also uh some music from Les Miserables, which happens
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  to be my favorite musical, um and Chicago and Hamilton.
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  So really, we're trying to cross section uh the Broadway genre and bring people an entertaining evening of
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  with a lot of variety.
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  mean, that's really hitting a lot of the classic Broadway, but also just the big hits from Broadway for the audience.
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  show-stopping hits for sure.
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  Like, um you know, when I didn't mention Cats, but we are doing a song from Cats and you probably can guess which one it is.
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  It's probably the most performed and recorded Andrew Lloyd Webber song.
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  In fact, I would guess there are people in our culture that don't know it's from a musical because it's been performed so often in so many genres by so many artists that it's kind
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  of transcended musical theater.
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  And that is memory, of course, I'm talking about from Cats.
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  gonna say, as soon as you said the cats, said, has to be memory.
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  That's the one song that really kind of encapsulates that show.
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  That song is going to be my musical arrangement that I created as a duet.
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  though people have heard the song memory many times, they probably have not heard it as a duet.
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  And so my collaborator, Shelly Keeler, who's coming up from Florida, who is an award winning singing actress, uh will be sharing the stage with me for that number, uh as well
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  as several other duets uh and also
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  bringing her power as a soloist to songs like Don't Cry For Me Argentina.
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  So, you know, just really, she's one of my favorite people.
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  She and I connected about a decade ago when she was doing some work with a nonprofit that I founded that helps artists use their talents in the community to help others.
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  And I heard and saw her and said, oh, I want to steal her for my personal tours.
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  uh
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  And so that's how our work together began and we become best friends and I'm enamored with her as a person, but also her talent is just uh amazing.
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  I know everyone will love it.
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  means she sounds like the perfect counter balance to you.
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  She's fun, she's incredibly professional, hardworking, and her talent is immense.
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  So it's always great to share the stage with her.
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  She has her own tour that she's working on now that is the music of kind of a tribute to Bette Midler.
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  So, you know, we all do our own things and then we come together to do uh the things that we do together.
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  And she's been in several of my tour programs and this is the one that's the most requested, as I said.
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  And we have a chamber orchestra of musicians who are coming from Cleveland Institute of Music and also from Florida.
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  My reed player friend Rick Kissinger plays oboe, English horn, flute, saxophone, clarinet.
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  So he'll be playing flute, clarinet and saxophone on this show.
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  And then we have a cellist and violinist and concert pianist from Cleveland Institute of Music coming to round out the chamber orchestra.
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  So it's going to be a really nice sound.
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  And then uh we also have some local students, right?
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  What is that like to bring them into that production?
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  has to be really cool to have some local students there with you.
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  For sure, so I really care about the next generation of artists and their exposure to uh what it's like to be a professional working artist, but also uh just the next generation
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  generally exposing them to the arts.
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  And so I'm always looking for an opportunity to do what we call outreach, which is uh in my world can take on various different forms.
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  It can be a mini concert for the general public as far as,
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  any school of any age.
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  It can be working with people that are aspiring artists, which in this case is what we're doing.
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  And I've been working with Philip Johnson, who is a conductor of the Brighton High School choirs.
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  And he's helping me to identify which soloists might need to get a great opportunity and which and also involve his choir.
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  So we're going to be doing
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  Masquerade, which is a big number of course from Phantom the Opera and his choir will join on that.
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  m They'll also join on the encore, which, spoiler alert, is The Phantom of the Opera.
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  Probably the biggest uh hit of all.
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  Yeah.
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  um And then they'll also be singing on one more thing, which I can't recall right now,
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  there are some soprano soloists that are going to be getting an opportunity to sing both in the fan of the opera song, but also they're uh going to be singing Think of Me.
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  So I'll be coaching them the day before.
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  uh Philip will have prepared them musically and I'll be working with them in a public setting so that uh folks can see what my suggestions are and how that might impact their
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  performance.
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  And then I'll uh
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  condition them for the sound check the next day and let them know, this is where you're going to enter.
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  So I am producing, writing, casting, musically directing all of my tours.
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  uh And yes, I am a control freak.
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  uh But also, it's true.
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  And I actually have some projects where I don't do all the things like where it's divvied up between different people.
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  But
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  Most musicians and singing instrumentalists and singing actors are used to being engaged to use their talent, but they're not all producers or music directors or uh so.
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  uh You know, me wearing all those hats is really just to justify or to to facilitate the outcome, which is the show that they're going to see on February 14th.
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  A romantic.
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  opportunity for you if you don't have any tickets or anything to do with your other half on this special day.
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  There's still chance to save yourself out there if you're listening.
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  uh There are some seats left.
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  It's not uh completely sold out, but I would say don't wait a long time.
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  This is really truly the perfect night to have it, Valentine's Day.
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  What a great way to kind of...
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  Andrew Lloyd Webber, is...
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  They're so romantic of music.
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  know what mean?
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  The songs are just...
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  They are perfect for the holiday.
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  For sure.
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  All I Ask of You, for example, which I'll sing as a duet with Shelly, the first time I learned that song, I actually didn't know about Phantom of the Opera.
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  My cousin was getting married and they wanted that for their wedding song.
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  And so I learned it for that.
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  And then, I mean, this was a long time ago, back when the musical just came out, right?
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  So, um but yeah, my introduction to that song in particular was
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  for its romantic uh power.
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  so, yeah, there are gonna be a lot of opportunities for you to make your loved one feel special and recognized.
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  And I'm also singing an arrangement of Le Vie en Rose which I believe is the most romantic song ever written.
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  I'm using my artistic license to do two songs that are not from a musical in the show.
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  but they're among the most requested from one of my other tours.
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  So I just like to kind of tease the audience with, I also do this and this is what people want me to do.
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  So I'll sing that and Leonard Cohen's Hall, you have my own arrangement.
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  awesome.
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  mean, it's perfect to give them a little taste of what else you you're doing and stuff like that.
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  But when it comes to like developing this show, you mentioned this is your most requested.
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  How did the show kind of come to be like how did you how do you say what music to pick?
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  How do you decide how to to make the best of Broadway?
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  That is such a great question.
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  I love it.
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  the first thing that happened, well, my training was my undergraduate degree at Northwestern University.
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  I was studying vocal performance, but I also did the musical theater certificate program there.
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  I immediately, because I'm a countertenor, I immediately went to England to do my master's degree after that and was very focused on pre-classical, meaning like Baroque and before
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  era music, which
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  it was the perfect place to go study it because I could actually go to the British Music Library and get the original scores of Bach and Handel, Purcell, in my hands.
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  uh And that's kind of the international countertenor battleground is London.
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  They all kind of come from everywhere to duke it out.
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  uh And so it was a great opportunity for me to uh insert myself into that.
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  Now, the reason I'm mentioning that is through that process, kind of
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  went down the rabbit hole on my love of classical and early music in particular, and had left musical theater to the side, even though I always loved it, but was not doing a lot
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  of musical theater.
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  And when I started to do, after, let's see, after that I went back to the U.S.
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  and joined a group called Chanticleer that was a world tour.
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  It was the only salary, health benefits singing job in the country for 12.
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  artists uh at the time, so it was a good reason to come back to the US.
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  I left that group to go to New York and sing at the Metropolitan Opera, New York City Opera, Carnegie Hall.
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  So I was very focused on classical, almost like to the point of snobbery.
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  um And uh when I started to do my own touring in 2013, a producer came to the show who I didn't know.
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  He was a legendary music entrepreneur who had helped the world discover Elvis.
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  He was a DJ uh at the time, was one of the first people to play Elvis's music on the radio.
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  He worked with Casey Kasem, know, like all these kind of big names in the entertainment industry at the time.
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  He heard me and he took me aside and he said, I want to co-produce a show with you and I really would like you to think about the music of Andy Lloyd Webber.
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  And I just was like, no.
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  You know, at this point uh in my, you know, my head, I was so focused on kind of classical and whatever that I was like, oh, you know, no, no, no, I'm not doing that.
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  And like, after two days of it rolling around in my head, I started thinking, he's right.
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  Like, I need to do this.
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  it was, I mean, I love musical theater and there are two or three shows by Andrew Lloyd Webber.
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  that are among my favorite shows in the genre.
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  Evita, Jesus Christ Superstar, of course Phantom is undeniable.
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  I mentioned Les Mis is my absolute favorite.
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  um So what I started realizing is that it would make a great show, that it's about what the audience wants.
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  your previous question, what do I do to put this stuff together?
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  The first thing I think is what...
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  does my audience want?
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  Like if I'm going to sing one song from Cats, what are they coming to hear?
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  What are they thinking?
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  And it's palpable in the audience when you get to certain songs and even you mention the name and they're like, oh my god, yes, that's what I want, you know?
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  And so giving the audience what they want is certainly one of the top goals.
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  The next one is really to take them on an emotional journey.
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  And so I don't want it to be all happy, all sad, all upbeat, all whatever.
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  I want them to relive those moments in the show, reconnect with the character, and understand what's going on for them in that moment.
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  And so, you know, I'll give them a little uh information or set up the scene often so that they can...
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  revisit or if they haven't seen the show understand like why is this character so pissed off or whatever you know and so you know for example in the sequel to Phantom of the Opera
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  which a lot of people don't know it's been 10 years since the Phantom has had any access to his muse he has not heard the voice of Christine he's not seen her and he's not happy
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  about it at all it's basically destroying him and he sings this song at the beginning of the show
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  called Till I Hear You Sing.
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  uh And so that's kind of the context that I'll give them before we start it so they know like, you know, why is this guy so angry?
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  But yeah, did I answer your questions?
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  I think so.
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  No, no, you did, absolutely.
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  So it sounds like it's really, it's part giving people what they want, but also giving them an emotional journey that is like, that you want to provide them for a show like
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  this.
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  Yeah, I want them to have some moments where they're oh, like that feeling of being in love or oh, something horrible has happened to this person and we all feel for them.
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  Like when I'm going to be singing Bring Him Home from Les Misérables and I'll start it off in French because it was originally written in French and I want people to hear those
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  original lyrics and then I'll change to English lyrics in the middle so they can hear what they're used to hearing.
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  But
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  One thing I like to let them know is that we have context for this in our own culture and it is the families of our fallen heroes, the people who have sent their children off to
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  war or their dad or whatever it is and that feeling of just hope and prayer and whatever it would take to get that person back safely and...
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  And so I think a lot of people uh that resonates with them, they understand that like, my God, my uncle, you know, died in World War II or whatever it is, right?
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  And so they have a real uh context for what is happening in the show in that moment when Jean Valjean is asking God to bring Marius back from the revolution where he's gone off to
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  fight.
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  So, yeah.
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  So you had mentioned that you got to kind of go to the battleground of countertenors to learn in England.
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  But for those who maybe don't know, what is a countertenor?
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  This is a great question.
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  And the reason is that it's the least common vocal category, right?
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  In school, when they told you that tenor was the highest singing voice for men, they lied.
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  The counter tenor is the guy who sings in the range above that, and it's not very common.
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  However, in popular music, we hear it so much that we don't think anything of it.
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  Roy Orbison, the Bee Gees, Frankie Valli, Michael Jackson.
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  Prince, Sam Smith, Adam Lambert.
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  You know, these guys are singing in an extremely high range above where we normally hear a tenor.
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  And so technically they really are counter tenors.
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  There's one in the pentatonix, a counter tenor, who's really singing alto most of the time.
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  Counter tenor is not a specific term like tenor or alto, which is also confusing to people because a counter tenor can be a contralto, a mezzo soprano, or even a soprano.
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  And so...
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  A countertenor just basically means a man who sings in the range mostly above tenor, where we typically hear women singing.
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  And so the next question I usually get is, why do we want men to sing in the range of women?
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  Because women do a pretty good job.
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  They don't need us to do that.
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  And historically, the reason why we have countertenors and why they do a lot of work in the pre-classical era for opera and oratorio is that in that period, men
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  who sang in this high range did so in a horrifyingly unnatural way.
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  I'm talking about the tradition of the castrato, castrati is the plural.
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  And that is men who were castrated when they were boys to preserve their vocal instrument and became a different type of human, a different type of vocal ability who were immersed
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  in full-time.
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  music study of harpsichord violin composing and vocal technique from the age of eight or whatever, right?
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  you know, musical prodigies who became the rock stars of their day, Handel wrote 29 oratorios and 42 operas with the idea that they would sing the roles of men and women
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  because men and women were not allowed to be on stage together.
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  Now that's a lot of history that I'm not going to be covering in the show, but I will tell you that
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  This is a reason why countertenors are valuable in that kind of music because we either can have women who dress as men who can sing that music well in the same range, or we can
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  use countertenors, which is a little more easy for the audience, I think, to look at and understand.
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  ah so, yeah, countertenors do a lot of work in that era of the pre-classical music.
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  I mean, it's, you you said that's lot of history, but that's really interesting because the it helps to paint a picture of why this is important to have a counter tenor in any
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  kind of music, really.
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  In barbershop quartets, you always have that guy who sings above the melody.
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  He's really using mode two of his voice or head voice.
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  Countertenors don't like the word falsetto, I could tell you mostly, even though that is what most people think of it.
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  um That means literally false voice.
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  a lot of people who are not trained and don't have the facility to be a countertenor have...
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  some falsetto which is usually an unsupported breathy sound where the chords aren't properly coming together and so that's not what countertenors are doing mostly if they're
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  good singers um but yes it is that same vocal range that you know any every guy has to and every woman really who wants their past adolescents have two voices an upper voice and a
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  lower voice now they'll be hearing me sing baritone tenor
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  and mezzo soprano in the program.
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  So I do this program sometimes by myself for smaller venues with lower budgets with fewer instruments.
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  And so in that program, would be all solos, but because this is a bigger show, we have more talent.
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  so I actually have some actual female sopranos who can cover some of the highest things.
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  But I'm still going to sing uh one duet, Pia Jesu, from the Requiem, which is written for boy soprano and soprano.
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  And I'm going to be doing the boy soprano role part.
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  That's incredible.
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  That's going to be such a great performance to see there.
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  Thank you.
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  um Yeah, that's a sad piece because Andrew Lloyd Webber wrote that for his father.
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  It's from the Requiem, which of course is a Mass for the Dead.
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  uh And the piece is translated, Kind Lord, grant them everlasting peace.
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  So asked the audience, you might want to think about someone that you like to remember while we share that.
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  Awesome.
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  So when did you first realize that maybe your countertenor voice was something special and maybe not something unusual?
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  Yeah, that's such a good question too.
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  So I was a boy soprano and my starting my voice uh private lessons at age seven.
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  uh And when I was nine, there was a new opera company in New Hampshire where I was living at the time called Opera North.
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  And they were doing an opera called Amahl and the Night Visitors.
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  they had Gian Carlo Menotti.
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  It's a story of a crippled boy who is
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  healed because of his, in a moment of wanting to give something to Christ, uh he offers his crutch and in that moment he's healed and he goes off with the three wise men to thank
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  Christ and give him his Crutch as a gift.
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  And so it's a beautiful story and the title role is a boy soprano.
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  And so I showed up at this open call and they had already identified a young girl.
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  that they were going to use.
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  I could tell from the audition, I remember this when I was nine, but after I auditioned, they decided to give the role to me.
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  And then I did that.
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  There was their inaugural production and then they decided to repeat the opera the next year when I was 10.
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  So we did that again.
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  And so I had already kind of established that I loved singing.
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  I was singing all the time.
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  When my voice changed,
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  I got a lot more low notes, but I still kind of had all that high facility.
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  And I remember in high school, I was singing tenor because that's the highest voice for men and that's where they put you.
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  But sometimes the sopranos would be like, I can't hit this note.
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  And I'd make fun of them and like, sing it.
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  I'd be like, you can't hit this note?
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  Like, whatever.
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  And so uh I remember just realizing like, OK, I
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  I can sing up there or whatever.
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  And then I went to Northwestern as a double degree in engineering and my voice teacher had asked me to sing a Baroque piece and I had never sung something from the Baroque.
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  So like a good music nerd that I am, I went to the library to listen to recordings of other people singing the piece and they were all men and singing in this weird high range.
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  And I was like, what octave do you want me to sing this in?
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  And he said,
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  I was thinking kind of the normal one, but let's hear it, you know?
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  And I sang it for him and he kind of sat me down and said, this is a real boon for you, like a real possible career opportunity if you like this kind of music and you decide you
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  want to focus in this area.
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  And it was weird because like suddenly all the vocal professors, mean, you understand the vibe of these music conservatories and are like the music departments at these big
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  programs.
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  Suddenly they all were like,
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  you know, giving me some special attention like, my, well, this guy is going to have an easy time of making a career.
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  And that was very encouraging.
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  know, at the time there weren't as many counter tenors as there are now.
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  Now people are really uh discovering it more in the industry.
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  Outside the industry, we're still pretty in the dark about it.
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  But in the industry at music conservatories, everyone's heard of a counter tenor right?
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  Yeah.
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  So what do you think is the biggest misconception that people have about countertenors?
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  Well, ah there are always jokes, right?
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  I I already said about, you know, one of the most famous countertenors of all time, James Bowman, who was the most recorded countertenor at the time when I lived in England.
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  He came to a master class where I was performing to give to give the master class.
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  And uh I remember him telling a story that just was hilarious.
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  He said a woman came up to him.
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  after the show that he had given and took him aside and said, excuse me, Mr.
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  Bowman, is it something physical?
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  You know, is there something wrong with you basically?
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  Like, you know, do you have parts that don't work or, you know, whatever?
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  And so, you know, I think we all have to kind of be prepared for the fact that it is different.
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  When you hear...
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  people singing in that range in popular music.
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  It's not so different to our ear, but when you hear it in the context of bel canto or classical operatic singing, for a man to be in that range is weird to a lot of people.
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  When it comes to your classical training, how do you feel that approach um influences maybe non-classical genres that you're singing?
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  this, I could take this to every master class.
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  This is the question.
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  The question is the same answer, whether you are a painter or an actor or a saxophone player or a singer.
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  And that is my personal value.
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  My personal belief is that you start with classical and if you're a dancer, you can.
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  We've all seen the show.
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  So you think you can dance and you can watch the ballet.
• 27:10
  train the classically trained dancer get up and do hip hop and get up and do salsa and get up and do all these things because they have a tool set that they can use to translate
• 27:21
  into these other things with health.
• 27:22
  And it's the same thing with singing.
• 27:25
  I have sung New Age music, I've sung popular music, I've sung musical theater, the musical theater I'm singing in this show is rock tenor and classical mezzo soprano and like it's
• 27:35
  all over the place, right?
• 27:37
  And so if I didn't have a technique,
• 27:39
  that was based in classical, that would not be happening.
• 27:43
  So it's always the foundation of whatever you sing.
• 27:45
  It is, but I think you have to be a lover.
• 27:48
  So one of my new projects, which I'm really excited about, is called The Three Tenors of the Americas.
• 27:55
  And we've got a Canada Idol finalist and voice finalist uh who is representing Canada.
• 28:02
  His name is Marc Devine.
• 28:03
  He's bilingual, Francophone.
• 28:07
  And we have Rodrigo Garceroya, who is from Mexico City.
• 28:15
  And he's like a Domingo type tenor, dramatic tenor, which is like a darker, warmer, fuller sound.
• 28:23
  And one of the things we're doing is we're not just doing the kind of things that you would expect from the three tenors of the Americas, celebrating our neighboring cultures,
• 28:32
  singing in Spanish, French, and English mostly.
• 28:36
  But we're also wanting to sing some songs that have been made famous by the best singers.
• 28:43
  of each of our cultures.
• 28:44
  So we have a Whitney Houston song that we're working on, for example, I Have Nothing.
• 28:53
  Mark, the Canadian tenor, I have a lot of love and experience singing more popular music.
• 29:00
  uh And the Mexican tenor loves the music, but he doesn't have as much experience in it.
• 29:07
  And so we're trying to choose those moments where, okay, we can really have a full legit sound on this line, but it sounds like a mockery if we do put it on this line, right?
• 29:19
  And so either he has to change his technique for that or...
• 29:22
  we assign it to somebody else who's more comfortable.
• 29:25
  ah And so, yeah, they're both incredible artists and I'm really excited about the project and we will be taking it around the states next season.
• 29:36
  ah But uh yeah, that's a perfect question is, how do you approach, I don't do a lot of jazz, even though it's one of my favorite genres and that is because I feel like
• 29:51
  to be the kind of jazz artist that I would want to be, I need to have 300 charts in my head and know, you know, like all these things, I need to be, you know, be able to scat a
• 30:01
  B flat blues and whatever.
• 30:03
  All these things that I know are great skills for jazz artists that I love and appreciate.
• 30:09
  Fitzgerald's one of my favorite artists of all time.
• 30:11
  um And so I know where my limits are as far as what I can do with authenticity.
• 30:19
  ah
• 30:21
  in that genre in particular.
• 30:22
  And so I won't be releasing a hard-hitting, you know, scat album anytime soon.
• 30:31
  yet.
• 30:31
  One day.
• 30:32
  But it sounds like you already have so many things on the docket.
• 30:34
  This sounds like a really cool project that you're working on.
• 30:37
  uh Are there other things that you're also working on as well?
• 30:40
  Sure, so my other most requested tour program that is current, that I just did in Michigan in January, is Mercury, a tribute to Queen's lead singer.
• 30:50
  And so, as you probably are gathering from me, my master's degree is in historically informed performance.
• 30:56
  So I like to know about things and I like to do it with authenticity and I like to deliver it in a way that respects the origins in every genre, right?
• 31:09
  And so to do with Freddie Mercury, the first thing I did was read five biographies about him and then go to his interviews to understand like, what does my audience want to know?
• 31:19
  How are they going to get to know him?
• 31:21
  So I'm not going to impersonate him because I feel like there are a few technical reasons.
• 31:26
  Like he had vocal nodules and in the upper part of his voice, he sang amazingly with that and had that gritty rock sound, which I am never going to try to have in my voice because
• 31:37
  it uh
• 31:39
  it would keep me from doing the other things I do with authenticity.
• 31:43
  But also the amount of bravado and flamboyance that he brought to the table for everything he did.
• 31:50
  So what I would deliver in that show is quotes, his actual words, stories, set up the music.
• 31:58
  This was what was going on, know, his determination to perform and record through his failing health.
• 32:06
  certainly inspired Brian May to write The Show Must Go On.
• 32:09
  Right.
• 32:09
  And so we get that moment in his life when uh things weren't going so well for his health and he was struggling and yet he was still killing it.
• 32:19
  know.
• 32:19
  uh And so, yeah, I take again, taking him on a journey of these hit songs that they all know.
• 32:27
  I mean, the band, an incredible, probably the smartest rock band in history, all wrote hit songs and
• 32:35
  all our songs that everyone in our that's alive has heard, you know, so.
• 32:42
  What I love about that is that you really are, it's not just going and performing songs.
• 32:47
  You are trying to build the whole experience and make sure that you are like well informed about these things that you are performing, which is maybe even a lot of work that people
• 32:56
  don't even recognize goes into developing shows or tours or performances.
• 33:02
  When my agent, who was an opera agent, told me, I have this opportunity for you to tour your own tour, you know, make your own tour.
• 33:12
  And I said, I don't what tour?
• 33:14
  don't know.
• 33:15
  I don't know what you're talking about.
• 33:16
  I don't have a tour.
• 33:18
  And so one of my first challenges was in those moments where I was connecting with the audience and trying to get them into the moment of the art and
• 33:30
  and be entertained because being as one of my favorite concert pianists that I worked with of all time, Alina Kirieva, who was scholarship through her undergrad and master at
• 33:39
  Juilliard for a concert pianist.
• 33:41
  uh She said, I knew I was a great musician and a great artist when I met you, but I didn't know what it meant to be an entertainer.
• 33:53
  And so that's kind of another whole skill set that I think great.
• 33:59
  uh
• 34:00
  people who have their own performances need to.
• 34:03
  Absolutely.
• 34:04
  With you touring though and doing all this performing, I do wonder as a psychologist, how do you keep your mental health up?
• 34:12
  You how do you keep yourself strong as you're going from city to city, town to town, bouncing back and forth?
• 34:17
  That has to be difficult, especially when you're giving your all in every performance on every stage you're going to.
• 34:23
  That's a, you know, only a psychologist would have that perspective and be able to shine a light on one of the hardest things about being an artist.
• 34:35
  I have to say, one of my favorite uh performers at Northwestern when I was young, Jessica Henson, ah she right out of undergrad was cast as Christine in a national tour of Phantom
• 34:47
  of the Opera.
• 34:48
  And it was in her first
• 34:51
  contract her first six months on the road doing that work that she realized she didn't want to do it.
• 34:59
  She didn't want to be the artist doing the things that she had dreamed of her whole life because the reality is very trying.
• 35:08
  It's very different than a lot of people might realize.
• 35:11
  And so um what I see from my fellow artists is that we are up there giving it our all and we're sweating and we're
• 35:20
  emoting and it's emotionally draining for me to take the people on a journey where I'm angry here and I'm crying there and you know and laughing here and whatever so like that
• 35:31
  is it's it is it is physically and emotionally draining and in a great way I mean it's cathartic for me I always joke with the audience and say I'm such an optimistic happy
• 35:42
  person and yet my favorite songs to perform are the angry ones because
• 35:46
  That allows me to get that emotion out, which I don't usually visit.
• 35:50
  And so I tell the audience, thank you for being my therapist tonight.
• 35:54
  You know, while I performed the angriest piece on the program, you know, from Jesus Christ Superstar.
• 36:00
  oh But yeah, it is emotionally draining.
• 36:03
  m It is, uh you know, part of your whole understanding, self-awareness, you know.
• 36:12
  When I start feeling like I might not be 100 % healthy-wise, I might have, you know, be on the verge of getting something, I have like herbal supplements that I know I take that
• 36:22
  kind of help me with that.
• 36:24
  I take a lot of probiotics when I'm on the road.
• 36:26
  I wash my hands like a crazy person.
• 36:30
  You know, there are a lot of things that I do and singers can get a little overboard with some of that.
• 36:38
  And sometimes this part and this part are
• 36:41
  so close that they start telling themselves, well, I have to have a scarf.
• 36:45
  I can't sing in if it's too humid or whatever.
• 36:47
  These things that may or may not be real.
• 36:50
  So keeping tabs on what is real and what is actually needed to be successful.
• 36:58
  Yeah, it's a lot.
• 36:59
  It's a lot.
• 37:00
  But I love it.
• 37:01
  I've been doing it since I can remember and I don't have an end date yet.
• 37:08
  So.
• 37:10
  Do you think that part of the outreach that you had mentioned, you know, going to places and giving those performances and working with people, does that help to also kind of like
• 37:19
  mentally rejuvenate you as well?
• 37:21
  That like, yes, you're still giving your energy, but it's something that seems very important to you.
• 37:27
  So the audience is incredibly important as a piece of the puzzle, right?
• 37:37
  And so you see these Broadway shows, for example, where like every Saturday matinee, they know that the audience is gonna be a different creature than the Friday night or whatever.
• 37:50
  And so they get kind of conditioned.
• 37:52
  And for me in each venue,
• 37:55
  You know, I want it to feel more like a conversation with the audience rather than a monologue.
• 38:00
  Like, I want to feel like we get to know each other.
• 38:04
  um And each audience is its own animal.
• 38:07
  I do feel like their energy is a piece of my...
• 38:12
  Everybody on stage, they, I don't, you know, it's interesting.
• 38:16
  I don't think the audience realizes how much their involvement affects.
• 38:22
  the total performance in everything live.
• 38:24
  And that's one of the reasons we do live, right?
• 38:28
  Like you can, you want it to be perfect.
• 38:30
  You can watch the video or whatever, know, or put on, put on the recording, but live is something different.
• 38:36
  Like we're really there.
• 38:37
  We're really feeling this altogether.
• 38:40
  It's like, do you want to watch your favorite comedy movie that's just come out by yourself on TV at home?
• 38:47
  Or do you want to be in a room with a thousand people laughing and, you know, and experiencing it for the first time?
• 38:54
  It's, it's, there's no replacement for that experience.
• 38:58
  Did I answer the question?
• 38:59
  I feel like I might.
• 39:00
  you did, you did, you did.
• 39:02
  So then just one final question for you is just what are you hoping audiences take away from this performance?
• 39:08
  That's great.
• 39:09
  I want them to hear some of the things that they were hoping they would hear.
• 39:16
  I want them to experience some of the up and coming talent that they might be interested to follow in their own community who have been identified as exceptional and deserving a
• 39:31
  spotlight here.
• 39:33
  I would like them to go on this emotional journey with us and revisit those moments that are, I think, some of the most impactful and the characters from this wide array of shows.
• 39:46
  So, you know, I want it to be an experience.
• 39:50
  I think that's the word that you said earlier that really makes sense.
• 39:53
  It resonates with me.
• 39:54
  It's not...
• 39:56
  uh Freddie Mercury, uh one of his quotes is...
• 40:00
  our performances are not a live rendition of our album.
• 40:03
  It's a theatrical event.
• 40:06
  And so, you know, I want it to be an experience for everyone, for sure.
• 40:11
  Absolutely, and I'm sure it's gonna be.
• 40:13
  we're again, so excited for you to be coming here and to be at the Brighton Center for the Performing Arts.
• 40:19
  And so thank you for being here to talk with us and thank you for coming and spending your Valentine's Day with a whole bunch of people and spreading some Broadway love.
• 40:27
  Yes, maybe I'll find my new Valentine.
• 40:33
  Click the link in the below and sign an application.
• 40:39
  I'm kidding.
• 40:40
  Apply now.
• 40:41
  put a Google form up for everybody.
• 40:43
  ah But thank you again for being here.
• 40:47
  It's been such a pleasure talking with you.
• 40:49
  Thank you, Brian.
• 40:50
  I'm excited.
• 40:52
  So the best of Broadway, the music of Andrew Lloyd Webber and more happens on Saturday, February 14th at 7.30pm at the Brighton Center for the Performing Arts.
• 41:00
  So get your tickets now and we'll see you at the show.