Actress/ singer Michele Lee will appear in S.T.A.G.E. benefit's Original Cast on May 1 at the Luckman Theatre. Star of stage, screen and TV, Lee starred on Broadway with Robert Morse in How to Succeed in Businees Without Really Trying (1961-65) and then repeated the role of Rosemary on film in 1967, Bravo Giovanni in 1962, Seesaw in 1973, winning a Drama Desk Award as Best Actress and a Tony nomination as Best Actress in a Musical and in Charles Busch's comedy The Tale of the Allergist's Wife (2000-2002), receiving a Tony nomination as Best Featured Actress in a Play.
On the big screen she is best remembered for Disney's The Love Bug in 1968 and for playing Ben Stiller's mother in Along Came Polly in 2004...and on TV for 14 consecutive seasons in all 344 episodes as everyone's favorite neighbor Karen Mackenzie on the longest running prime-time soap in TV history Knots Landing (1979-1993). In our chat, Lee talks fondly about Cy Coleman, Dorothy Fields and Seesaw and other theatrical loves.
Q: You deserved a Tony Award for Seesaw! You were wonderful in it.
I so appreciate that. There's that old saying that You don't appreciate what you've got until you don't have it. It was one of the most glorious times I've ever had playing a character. There were changes going on with the show...and I remember so fondly Michael Bennett, who left us much too early (writer, director, choreographer).
Q: Tell me about the "Finale: I'm Way Ahead" from Seesaw, which you're doing for S.T.A.G.E.'s Original Cast. It's a lot like "Rose's Turn" from Gypsy, don't you think?
It really is! Well...Seesaw was in trouble in the last months before we opened. Michael Bennett, Tommy Tune and I came into it, just a few weeks before the Broadway opening. Michael had a vision that was new. As I was memorizing lines, they were being thrown out or rewritten. And the music...this was Dorothy Field's (lyrics) last show...most of the songs stayed. At one point Neil Simon was "doctoring" the show. His scenes were mind-boggling funny. Michael and I ...I know this sounds braggadocio, but that's the way it was...would stay up until 3 in the morning during previews, editing the show. We were trying to get it down to an acceptable size, because it was so long. The music...I think is one of the best scores ever...the cd is one of the best produced cast albums. Anyway, the finale "I'm Way Ahead" didn't have enough emotional balance or what they thought it needed for a curtain. It needed an embellishment, so Cy Coleman (music) wrote ... "Rose's Turn" (she laughs) At rehearsal, on this very old out of tune piano Cy Coleman played me the new finale. And...we opened the next night. I might do it for the S.T.A.G.E. benefit...I do have, now on cds...I recorded it originally on my old recorder in 1973...Cy Coleman teaching me the Seesaw finale with Dorothy Fields in the background shouting "Stop already!" That's the true story of the "Seesaw Finale". That time was the most, most fun!
Q: Tell me about Mame that you did at the Hollywood Bowl a couple of years back.
I had to learn the whole show in a 10-day rehearsal period. We had our dress rehearsal in the morning, opened that night...and closed that night. It's like...what the hell did I do? It was such a task. I had so many costume changes. We did hair changes; I might have had 4 wigs. To do the show right, you need more time. It's such a Herculean feat, that you better do it more than one night. Now they do 3 shows over a weekend, but then it was only one night. You know what I love...I always like to bite off a little more than I can chew, to prove to yourself that you can do it.
Q: You were terrific as that Auntie Mame type character in Charles Busch's The Tale of the Allergist's Wife. Have you done any other plays recently?
