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Exclusive Interview: Roz White of 'Hell's Kitchen' · The BSB Podcast

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The bright lights of New York are headed to Detroit with the arrival of the North American touring production of the Tony award winning musical Hell's Kitchen at the Fisher Theater.
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Today we're talking with one of the stars of Hell's Kitchen, Roz White.
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Thank you so much for joining me.
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Thank you for having me.
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So how has the production been so far?
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You're currently on tour, so how's that going?
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It's going amazing.
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We have so many great audiences that really love this story, that are falling in love with the characters.
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We've gotten great reviews, great houses.
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It's been quite the experience since beginning rehearsals in New York back in September.
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So for those who maybe are unfamiliar with the story, what is Hell's Kitchen about?
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Hell's Kitchen is about a young girl named Allie who is 17 and full of fire.
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She lives in Manhattan Plaza, which is located on 43rd Street and 9th Avenue in New York City, right in Hell's Kitchen.
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That's the neighborhood.
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And she's coming of age.
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She's 17.
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She's discovering love.
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She's discovering her passion in life.
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She meets a mentor.
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I play Miss Liza Jane, that mentor that she meets in this
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magical room inside the building called the Ellington Room, which does exist.
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And she walks into the room, Ms.
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Jane is playing piano, she's intrigued.
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Ms.
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Liza Jane challenges her to do something, step outside of her comfort zone and learn a new thing and discover her passion.
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And she does, with some bumps and bruises along the way, but um all in all, she learns who she is and who she can become.
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with focus and determination.
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So it's a pretty great story.
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She's also battling it out with her mom, who was trying to keep her safe in 1990s in New York.
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So it's a little battle that's going on between mom and daughter and her dad comes in and out of her life to try to buffer things.
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She just is learning.
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She's learning life through all of these people in her community.
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It sounds like such an awe-inspiring story, you know what I mean?
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Yes, absolutely.
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She also has best friends that kind of tag along and encourage her to take risks and also encourage her to not go against her mom because she's going to kill her if she finds out
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what's going on.
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And she falls in love with a young man who's a little too old for her.
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And she doesn't tell him her real age.
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So that kind of complicates things.
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oh know, young girls just trying to grow up.
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So yes, there's intrigue, there's humor, there's a little bit of suspense.
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um
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there's a beautiful story of legacy and passing on to the next generation um through the arts.
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So I think any audience will enjoy it.
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So with you playing Miss Liza Jane, what is your personal narrative through the show?
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Or your character's personal narrative?
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My character's narrative is that she is, unfortunately, at the end of her journey in life.
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uh She has uh terminal illness.
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We find this out later in the story.
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When we meet her, she's very strong, she's very regal, she's poised, but as the story goes on, you start to see her physical presence diminish as she's passing on to Allie almost as
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if...
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that passing on is taking some of the strength from her.
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And finally, when she does pass it on, she moves on and is able to even still be there in support through the spiritual realm for Allie So it's a pretty huge undertaking with about
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18 minutes of stage time, by the way.
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I was gonna say, that's like a heavy weight to have on your shoulders there.
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Absolutely, I'm glad my scenes are short because they are gut-wrenching.
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Do you feel like your interpretation of Miss Liza Jane has changed from like the early rehearsal process to now?
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Absolutely, I'm certainly embracing more of her regalness.
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I'm embracing more of her posture.
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My teachers were very much like that in the 90s.
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The teachers that I studied with in the 90s and the 80s, were very poised they were very proud of their heritage.
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And we kind of scoffed at it as kids because we were like, why are you wearing that dashiki or why are you so proud of this?
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But as I got older, I understood that holding on to that legacy is what makes us great and what keeps us
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grounded and what gives us hope.
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And so now that I'm playing this character, I get to be my teachers and I'm a teacher.
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So it is so full circle for me to be able to present a conglomeration of all of the great things that I've learned as I'm studying down through the years.
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What I love about it too is I feel like you're right.
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When we're younger, we always tend to like the older generations were like, that doesn't make like, why do we do that?
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You know, why do you carry those on?
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But now you get to kind of have that moment and be like, this is why we carry that on.
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And this is why we pass down things that are important.
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Absolutely, literally I speak to Ali that we honor our roots, our ancestors, we keep their legacies alive after they've passed.
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you know, saying those things, my teacher says those things to me.
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And it did stick with me after a while, I understood, especially when teachers pass on that have been really instrumental in your life.
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You remember the things that they said so much, mostly the good things, you know, sometimes the things that stung a little bit will come back, but mostly the things that
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really kept you.
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and held you up in hard times.
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Sometimes those things that sting are really the ones that kind of change you though, know, kind of push you to be like, okay, I didn't want to hear that, but like, let's take
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that in, you know?
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Is there a specific teacher, because you mentioned that you have quite bit of inspiration that is inspiring this role of Miss Liza Jane?
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Yeah, well, like I say, it's a combination, but it starts with Carol Foster in Washington, D.C., my hometown.
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She had a group called the DC Youth Ensemble.
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That was my first professional performing experience.
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She trained me on everything, on stage, backstage, how to do your makeup, how to be poised in an interview, and then moved on to Mike Malone and Linda Gravat at Duke Ellington
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School of the Arts, where I studied in high school.
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That continued on into...
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College at Howard University with Henry Edmonds and Kehenbe Eichelberger and Wesley Boyd and my god so many teachers I have so many great teachers I don't want to leave anybody
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out but I've had so many great teachers
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And it sounds like that love for both music and theater started at a very young age.
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Yes, yes.
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My mom used to tell me the story of me being about four years old and being in the preschool Christmas play.
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And I have one part, but other kids got stage fright.
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Like somehow, like it was an epidemic.
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Like one kid got stage fright and they pushed me out there and I said the line.
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And another kid got stage fright and they pushed me out there and I said the line.
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And by the end of the show, all the parents were mad at me because I was taking their kids parts.
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And so, yeah, about four years old, the bug bit me.
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So with this show featuring the music of Alicia Keys, what's that like to bring her music to stage?
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I feel like that has to be so cool.
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It is so cool.
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I, like I said, I went to high school in the eighties, know, went to college in the nineties, actually started singing background for another artist who's playing Miss Liza
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Jane on Broadway.
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Shout out to Yolanda Adams.
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I started singing background for Yolanda Adams and met and saw Alicia Keys in the beginning of her career.
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So I know all these songs as they came out.
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I used to work in retail music at a record store.
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So when the record broke, I was there.
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And so hearing these songs interpreted,
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differently by these amazing young performers who have these incredible voices.
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Yeah, every night I'm listening to the show.
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The show sings.
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I say that all the time.
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This show sings.
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And the songs just resonate.
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The love relationship between the mother and daughter comes through in no one.
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And if I ain't got you with the father and the daughter, and perfect way to die for me and Ali.
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It's just so great how Alicia's music is translatable to
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different situations and she wrote these songs when she was a kid, of them.
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It's incredible.
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think it's always so interesting too when you get to have a show.
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Like we just saw Tina, the Tina Turner musical just stopped here, which I know you were part of as well.
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um But like to see like the music, how it applies to the story and how it, just getting to see it.
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And like for you, I'm sure that's cool that you got to see Alicia at the very early parts of her career.
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And now here is a musical based on her work.
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It's amazing.
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Christopher Diaz, the writer of the script of the show said in our first day of rehearsal, some of you had to be born for this to happen.
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That's how long this project has been.
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This project, Alicia calls this her first child.
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So before she had her children, she had Hell's Kitchen as an idea, as something that she wanted to nurture and make grow.
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And she made it happen.
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And it's on Broadway, it's doing well.
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We're here on tour.
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So this whole experience is...
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I had to get to this point in my career to even be ready for this.
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It couldn't have come 30 years ago.
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It couldn't have come 10 years ago.
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So I'm really, really excited.
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So as a powerhouse vocalist that you are, how do you blend your own style of singing with the music, the musical voice of Hell's Kitchen?
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Well, thank you so much for asking.
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I'm just kidding.
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Adam Blackstone, can I say that name enough?
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I came into this show, I know who I am as a vocalist.
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I'm a woman of a certain age and I've been singing a long time.
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And I have a certain quality to my voice that is not the traditional legit musical theater quality.
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Never has been, I tried it, wasn't my thing.
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um But Adam Blackstone was really able to get in my ear.
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and say things to me that would let me know that what I was doing was okay.
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I just needed to technically tweak a couple of things.
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And once I figured that out, it's been heaven for me.
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My musical supervisor, Lilly, came by the other day and she was just like, you know what I'm saying?
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So I just had to really stop judging myself.
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I had to let go of a lot of my own judgment of my sound is husky and I have a deep contralto voice.
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Most stars on Broadway are
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high belting sopranos.
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And so me not being that had, you know, me insecure for a few days, I would say.
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But there was one day in particular where Adam, know, and Alicia was literally sitting in the audience as well.
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And they both just put the big thumbs up and I was like, okay, we got it.
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We can rock now.
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So just really trusting myself to really basically answer the question that you're asking.
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I had to trust myself in that I was a good singer and that I've been doing it a long time and that I know what I'm doing.
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As a psychologist, can say too that that is really hard sometimes to really just like get like you could be your toughest barrier sometimes to really believe you can do it.
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I think as an artist, I think we all have that little piece of us that wants everybody to like it.
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Because, you know, people gotta buy tickets and people gotta come see you, so somebody's gotta like it.
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So that little part of that makes us always wonder, am I okay?
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Did I do it well enough?
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Kind of thing.
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And once you relax into what you know you can do and trust your technique, then I think you'll be really good.
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So, Hell's Kitchen does not only have this beautiful music, it also is quite heavy in the dancing and choreography from what we've seen and stuff.
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oh Is there a song or a scene that you feel is like really technically demanding or has been challenging to kind of get used to?
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Well, for me, I don't really have to do a lot of dancing because my character just, you know, she's above some of that.
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However, I will say that watching the rehearsal process and seeing the number of the gospel and what it goes into to really illustrate what a day in the life living in
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Manhattan Plaza with street drummers drumming and people just kind of making up choreography.
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These dancers are in
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incredible athletes.
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Camille Brown is a genius and every movement has significance.
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She tells the dancers that you don't have lines but your choreography is your lines.
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So that's how you approach the movement and it works, I mean, every single night.
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Little things that, you know, wouldn't normally get applause, people cheer for because they see the dancers really connecting.
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They're all actors, they're all brilliant.
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So the gospel is one of those.
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And then of course, when we all get to come together and do a little bit of choreography and rapping in Empire State at the end, um I have a ball, a fan actually asked me last
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night, he was like, you're not as old as you're playing because you were dancing and you were getting it.
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And I was like, hey, old people can get it too.
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But yeah, it was good, it was good.
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It was really, really good to experience just a little bit of Camille Brown's choreography.
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and understanding how movement can really inform the storytelling.
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And that's some of the things that I don't always think audiences think about when they go into a musical as well, or any kind of show is that like movement in the dance and stuff
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like that is just as important as what's being said on stage, you know, like you, it brings you into the whole world of what Hell's Kitchen kind of is to see that, to see
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those movements, to see that dance.
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It's so true.
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I've Manhattan Plaza many, many times, staying at my, uh my diva sisters from Howard, staying at their apartments to, you know, crash for auditions.
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And I've seen that energy.
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I asked about the Ellington room the last time I was there and it does exist.
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It's just,
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just an amazing place and to be able to put that on stage so that, as a matter of fact, somebody was walking out of the theater and they sang the name of their city, you know, as
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they were walking out because it makes you feel good about your city and what you might have in your community.
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Sure, absolutely.
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uh And also I just want to congratulate you.
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You're celebrating 40 years as both a professional artist and an educator with some incredible credits, including Billie Holiday and Lady uh Day at Emerson Bar and Grill,
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Zelma, as we talked about from the national tour of Tina, which you played for two years, is that correct?
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What have been some standout moments from your career for you?
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This is definitely a standout moment.
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We are in a standout moment.
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This role came to me.
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I got called to go in for Broadway and had another gig that I had already committed to.
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And so it was heartbroken that I couldn't audition for Broadway.
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But then it came back around less than a year later for the national tour.
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And I get to work with an original Broadway cast member, Desmond Ellington.
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I get to work with Kennedy Carlson.
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I mean, I am doing pretty well right now.
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I will say another standout moment for me was working with Yolanda Adams, just being able to tour all over the world with her and meet so many amazing people, to sing on a
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Grammy-winning record with her, standout moment.
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Also writing my own shows and producing them.
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I just did a Roberta Flack piece called Roberta's First Take in New York at the Green Room 42.
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so that's a standout moment, just knowing that this little girl from Southeast DC could
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achieve this level of professionalism in the arts in any profession, um is to me, I feel like it's quite an accomplishment based on what I've been through.
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So yeah, every moment is a standout moment because I'm still here and I'm still kicking.
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Would that young girl from DC even know what to say at this point about where you're at?
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I mean, that's so incredible, all the things you're doing.
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believe she probably would be expecting more.
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She would be like, okay, let's go.
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Yeah, that girl was fearless.
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Absolutely.
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She had no insecurities.
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She knew what she wanted to do and she knew she wanted to be a star.
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So she would be like, okay, what's next?
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What are we doing next?
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it's really cool that you had mentioned that the opportunity came for Broadway.
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And what a way to say it was your time to be when it came back a year later for the touring production.
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Absolutely, I was heartbroken.
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I really was.
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I went into the show that I had committed to, sad, and I spoke to my other castmates and they were like, don't worry about it.
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It's gonna come back.
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I promise you it's gonna come back.
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And I was like, okay.
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And I just, you know, let it go and put my all into the production that I was in, which was a fabulous production, by the way.
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Another standout moment working with legends like Hope Clark, who was the first black woman to choreograph Porgy and Bess.
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So I am living Miss Liza Jane.
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through my own life.
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keep meeting people that are pouring into me.
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I get to pour into young people.
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uh sometimes you just have to wait and sometimes you have to wait your turn, as my mom used to say.
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I love that because sometimes, you know, we feel like maybe things pass us up, like, my way, there's always a reason.
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And if it's meant to be, it'll come back around.
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And this is just proof of that.
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The universe knew that you needed this role.
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Yes, absolutely.
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So with so many themes within Hell's Kitchen, what resonates with you the most right now with where you are in your life?
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wow, so you know what end of life and I know that that seems kind of dark but it's not I don't mean it to be dark.
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um I've you know unfortunately we're you know in my community we've been losing a lot of people you know cancer different illnesses and so it helps me to put that in a place where
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I can deal with it and understand that there is a legacy that is to be left and to work on what I'm doing right now to make sure that
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long after I'm no longer here, people will be saying, well, Roz White taught me this or Roz White showed me that.
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That's how I look at my mentors from Ellington.
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That's how I look at my mentors from Howard.
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um Some of them I feel left too soon, but I do know that everything has a purpose.
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And so be having to play this heavy role where I have to take that journey, it does help me to be focused and to understand that every moment is a gift.
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Every moment is a gift.
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So that's my life journey with Hell's Kitchen.
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try to enjoy, I'm here prepping for Thanksgiving for my cast members to cook for them and all that kind of stuff because I just love making sure that we all stay connected and we
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understand that, you know, this is a special moment in our lives.
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It truly feels like it's a family, not just a cast, you know?
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Yes, absolutely.
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You know, as a psychologist as well, also say frequently to people that we are, the immortality that people sometimes see comes from the legacy that we leave behind and the
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impact that we leave on people.
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And it sounds like that is kind of lining up with what you're saying of what's weighing on your mind from Hell's Kitchen.
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Absolutely.
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I also believe that we don't always get to see the fruits of our labor, but we have to plant seeds and we have to water them.
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And then we have to allow nature, God, the universe to take its course and bring that seed to fruition.
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And we can't keep watching it because if we keep watching it, then it's not going to grow the way that we want it to.
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We have to step back sometimes and move through.
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So this is a part of that.
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You know Ms.
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Liza Jane didn't get the chance to see Ali become.
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know, this accomplished pianist, but she did get to see her grow into the knowledge that she could become that.
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And that's a big part of a teacher's journey.
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That's fantastic.
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uh So with a show that is such high energy and it's Hell's Kitchen and with the audience having been responding pretty well to this, uh what is that like for you on stage when the
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audience is probably they want to get into the music, they're kind of probably jamming in their seats that has to feel really good?
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It does, it feels great, especially Empire State.
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Like I said, the songs that I sing are not the most happy songs in the context of the play.
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However, they are moving.
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do, what I do notice is so interesting, I'm the opposite.
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Yes, I love to hear a big roar from a crowd, but I also like to be able to not hear a pin, to be able to hear a pin drop, because I know that they're listening, that they are in it.
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And so there's both of those moments with this show, and it's so great when that happens.
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um
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Like I said, Empire State is just one of those songs and just makes you want to feel good about your city.
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New York, you want to visit New York, you want to make your city be like, I don't know.
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I just feel a great sense of just uplifting when we're doing that number.
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And it feels really good to have the audience immediately jump to their feet as soon as they see that one hand in the air for the big city.
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It's so good.
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It's so good.
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Yeah.
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As somebody who visits New York frequently, I go there at least once a year, when you hear Empire State being pumped into, you know, Times Square, there's just something magical
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about it.
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It's like, only imagine what that's like in the theater, you know?
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Absolutely.
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It's a great feeling.
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as a psychologist, I'm always kind of wondering, how do you balance your mental health while you're in such a physically demanding job as traveling around the world?
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You know, you're making stops all the time.
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Home is kind of out of a hotel and your, family is your cast and that's great.
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But like, how do you prioritize your mental health?
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Several different ways.
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A big part of mine is getting out into nature and seeing beautiful things.
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I'm a botanical gardens person, aquarium.
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I went to the aviary in Pittsburgh.
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It was beautiful.
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things like that.
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Also therapy.
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We do have a component of mental health support within the Actors' Equity Association.
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So I'm a union actor.
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That means I get access to mental health support while I am working, while I'm not working.
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That's a big part of it as well.
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staying in touch with people that I love, not just my cast members because we can get sick of each other just like any family would, but calling my friends or texting.
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I have a text thread with my five best friends from high school and college that we stay on.
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Just staying in touch with people that know me.
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We get to know people on the road and we get to know people in the cast, but some of those people we may never see again.
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Those people that I've had in my life for 30, 40 years is important for me to stay connected.
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and that we have a good relationship because that lets me know that I'm still Rosalind for those that don't know the government.
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But yeah, so yeah, that's really one of those three things, the nature, the therapy, and the staying in touch with family and friends that, chosen family and friends that keep me
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lifted.
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All three of those things really keep you grounded and just like, I'm not an actor, but I'm assuming it can easily get overwhelming when you're just always going.
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And I'm a mom of two grown men.
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you know, letting go of checking in every week or trying to check in every day or racking my mind every day.
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That's been a big process of the last, I would say five years of my life because Tina, you know, was in 2022 it began.
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And here we are with Hell's Kitchen.
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So I've always been on the road.
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Yes, before, even before those things.
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But this has been an intense time where I've had to really understand that, okay, you have actually
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raise kids, you know, in your own way.
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And, you know, like I said, I'm the mom that's on the road, but that's the biggest challenge for me is feeling like a good mom, you know, and my son texted me that he was
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proud of me, you know, the other day.
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So I'm like, OK, I can breathe a little bit, you know, that kind of thing.
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So, yeah, that's my biggest balancing act is motherhood and making sure that I'm a real person when all of this is over and that I don't get so caught up in the hype of a role.
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that I lose my touch with myself.
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That's beautiful answer.
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uh Final question for you then is just what are you hoping audiences take away from this production of Hell's Kitchen?
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You know what, I really hope that this becomes the kind of musical that can become a traditional family favorite that people go to, kind of like The Lion King, where they get
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to see people grow up through it.
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I really want people to be inspired to tell their own stories of their communities, to embrace the people in their communities that are positive.
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That's what I want people to take away from Hell's Kitchen, that wherever you are, you can make it great if you put in the work and you put in the effort.
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Thank you so much for talking with me, Roz It's been such a pleasure.
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I've enjoyed this so much.
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Hell's Kitchen arrives at the Fisher Theater on December 2nd and runs through the 14th.
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So get your tickets now from Broadway in Detroit and we'll see you there.