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Gleich zwei, drei Neuigkeiten:

Kelly wird am 2. Dezember als Anwältin in Law&Order SVU zu sehen sein und ab Dezember wieder auf der Bühne stehen. Das Stück heißt "Betty Shaw" und sie spielt darin eine Frau die an MS leidet.

Außerdem gab's ein Interview mit ihr: http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=3J9w8jHxbj0

Transkript:

CC: When you first knew your passion for theatre?

KB: My first was passion for ballet and that was a passion that was kind of thrust on me by my wonderful mother, who, as Sheila says in “A Chorus Line”, she wanted me to be – she made me what she wanted to be. That’s exactly what she did. She loved the ballet and I think she wanted to give me an opportunity to not to be a housewife. We’re talking about the 50s here. And once I think she realized as she watched me grow and saw that I could really point my toe, that was it, she groomed me for the ballet. That was the way I was raised.

CC: Did you want to be a ballerina?

KB: You know, it’s very interesting, I was a rather clever little girl. I realized at some point - I was good, a really good dancer, I had great training and I did have the talent. But at some place along, twelve, thirteen years old, I thought ‘wait a minute, to be a prima ballerina - you have to give up a lot of your life for this and I think I want to live life a little more. So I think what I want to be is a soloist’. So that was my drive with the ballet and my, my – the ballerina I most admired, while I saw some great ones with Ballet Theatre was Lupe Serrano, who was brilliant. She was a ballerina, but she wasn’t Nora Kaye and she wasn’t Maria Tallchief and she wasn’t Alicia Alonso and I so admired her. That was my bent, although in the meantime I loved jazz and I wasn’t allowed to take it.
CC: You weren’t?
KB: Well, I was in a very severe ballet school. Very severe.

CC: Which school did you go to?

KB: It actually was the American Ballet theatre in Denver and when they closed it, Dimitri Romanoff, who was the regisseur of the American Ballet Theater, and his wife moved to Northern California and we followed them. So that was serious ballet, the most dangerous thing we did was character dance. No tap, no jazz, but I had such admiration for Cyd Charisse because I could see the ballet training and she was sexy and she was gorgeous and she did jazz, so very quickly after my first ballet job I took off the toe shoes and went to Luigi’s class and became a jazz/Broadway dancer.

CC: What was your first Broadway show?

KB: My first Broadway show was “Golden Rainbow” in 1967. And my second one right on the heels of that was “Promises, Promises” and that was the first time I met Michael Bennett, who choreographed that and the first time I met Jerry Orbach who starred in it. I was a chorus girl and then by 1987, now we’re talking almost 20 years…

CC: How was Jerry Orbach as a person?

KB: A doll. Everybody liked Jerry. What an easy-going, great guy.

CC: I met his wife, the sweetest lady.

KB: Yes, Elaine. So it was very funny with “Dirty Dancing” to say ‘You know, we’ve met’ and he knew who I was, but I don’t know that he put it together, so, it’s a very small world.

Male: With “Dirty Dancing” wasn’t there some casting switch around?

KB: Oh my, yes, oh my, yes. I was hired originally to play that kind of bad lady. If you really look at “Dirty Dancing”, there are two grownup women in “Dirty Dancing”, the mother and that other woman, I can’t remember her name. That’s what I was hired for, probably because I could dance and I think originally they were going to have maybe a little dance scene between Johnny teaching this bad woman, you know, so it could be kind of a glamorous thing. So, I get off the plane to rehearse. They told me come to rehearsal, you’ll have a week of rehearsal, then you go away and come back. I get off the plane, no make-up, my hair is fuzzy out to here, they drive me up the mountain, it takes an hour from Roanoke. I hear on the walkie “We’d like to have Kelly down on set”, and I’m thinking ‘Why down on the set, because I’m here for rehearsal’, they drive me down to set, it’s at the gazebo, they’re all dressed and ready to go, I’m not putting two and two together. I’m not realizing they’re camera ready, in costumes, they’ve got the extras. I’m not putting this together. I’m just confused. They ask me to stand there and they’re looking at me, talking about me. That’s always such a good feeling. That kind of thing. And all I’m thinking is ‘I wish I put some make-up on before I got on the plane’. Then pretty soon it was “Jennifer Grey come stand next to Kelly, Jane Brucker come stand next to Kelly, Jerry come over and stand next to Kelly” and they’re all talking, talking, talking. And then they step forward and they say ‘Today we released the actress playing the wife and we’re wondering if you’d take the role’. And it was a 180 degree turn, I mean no two women could have been more different. It was the most bizarre thing anyone has ever said to me. Jerry Orbach was saying in my ear ‘Take it, take it, it’s the better role’. And I’m thinking to myself ‘I don’t remember this character. I mean, I know she was there, but is she interesting?’ And then they said to me ‘You get to be in the movie, you’ll be in the movie from now until we wrap’. I’ve never been in a movie from the beginning to the end. I always, you know you come in, you do your stuff and you leave and I thought ‘That’s exactly what I wanted to do, be in a film from the beginning to the end. Yeah, okay.’ And then they took me up, got my hair done, found me something to wear, pushed me down to the gazebo and we did the merengue.

CC: That’s wonderful! That’s one of my favorite movies of all the time.

KB: You and a whole bunch of other people. Isn’t it amazing?

CC: It’s like one of those cult films that everyone watches like a 100,000 times.

KB: There’s a sweetness in that film and it’s interesting, sort of a segue to Gilmore Girls …
CC: Did you meet the writer?

KB: Oh yeah. They were all there.
CC: What was she like?
KB: Oh, she’s lovely, she’s lovely and I loved Emile Ardolino, the director, what a good guy. And Kenny Ortega, who was the choreographer, now he’s a director, he choreographed the Olympics, he got an Emmy,

CC: How do you feel that they’re bringing ‘Dirty Dancing’ to New York?

KB: I’ve heard. I’m curious about this production. It was big hit in London then I hear it wasn’t good but people love it. But I don’t know, I don’t know. It’s fine.

CC: Did you ever talk to her and say to her when they bring it to Broadway you want to reprise your role in the Broadway show?

KB: I’m too old to play Marjorie Houseman.

CC: No you're not.

KB: Marjorie Houseman was just about 40 years old and I’m just about not.

CC: Okay, well you could pass. You’re vitamins are working.

KB: My vitamins are great. I’m a great grandma. I’m into grandma now. You know those actresses who think they can fool people. I’m not interested.

CC: Well, you know in the Hairspray movie that they just did with John Travolta…

KB: But that was a funny, funny. This is reality.

CC: Well, RickiLake was in the audience in the scenes and she played Tracy and was in the gym scenes.
KB: Well, yeah, you can come back in and be somebody else but you know, I mean we do our roles, we do them as well as we can and then we move on and if they happen to be huge hits and memorable roles, we pat ourselves on the back, thank our lucky stars and move on.
CC: Were there any exciting moments in “Dirty Dancing”? I love the leading men in “Dirty Dancing”.

KB: Well, Patrick Swayze.

CC: What was he like?
Male: How’s he doing with…

KB: I was just reading online today, he’s on that new television series that he’s starring in, God bless him!

Male: What is it called?

KB: It’s called ‘The Beast’, I believe it’s called ‘The Beast’

CC: Okay.

KB: He’s been doing chemo, but see, he was a dancer, he was a dancer.

CC: I didn’t know he was sick.

KB: Yes, pancreatic cancer. This is…I mean there are cancers and there are cancers but pancreatic cancer is…scary.

CC: I fell in love with him in the movie ‘DD’.

KB: Oh yes, he’s a doll. One of the nicest people and so dedicated to what he’s doing, whatever the project is, he’s so committed. He’s an angel, a terrific guy.

CC: Have you seen ‘Ghost’? The movie ‘Ghost’?

KB: Oh yeah, he’s marvellous, just marvellous.

CC: And what was Jennifer Grey like?

KB: She was a little kind of stand away because I think she was nervous because she was starring in the film but she’s quite funny. I mean Joel Grey is her father so how unfunny could she be? She’s very smart. Actually, you know, it’s interesting, when I think about the Houseman family in the film – they’re all smart. The individual actors, were all intelligent people so that made it easy for us all to get along. I like Jennifer a lot. She has a good sense of humor.
CC: Wanna talk about being Sheila in my favorite show of all time “A Chorus Line”?

KB: A Chorus Line?

Male: Or your new show at SecondStage?

KB: I do have a new show. It’s called “Becky Shaw”. It a new play at Second Stage. I haven’t started rehearsal.

CC: Do you dance in it?
KB: Oh no, no, no. I far from dance in it. This woman is not at all capable of dancing. She has an affliction.

CC: What’s her affliction?

KB: She has MS. It’s a five character play, the other four characters are younger, like one generation down from me. It’s a beautifully written play and I have yet to rehearse it or to even pour over the script, so I’m just going to just say “Becky Shaw”, keep it in your mind. I’m not going to say anymore about it. We’ll see how it goes.

CC: You know when it opens?

KB: I believe right after the New Year and then I think it closes mid, late February. So it’s a limited run and we’ll see how it goes. But I think it’s well written and I’m not going to talk about it. That’s it. I’m done. You pulled it out of me. Damn!

Last but not least: das neusest Foto von ihr, Oktober 08.