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[0:00] Katie Finneran: My name is Katie Finneran and you are listening to And The Award Goes To...

[0:22] Ilana Levine: Have you ever dreamed of winning a Tony Award? Did you ever practice your Tony acceptance speech in the bathroom mirror? Did you grow up watching the Tony Awards every year? Do you have a collection of Tony Award shows on VHS tape that you refuse to throw out? Well then this is the podcast for you. Every week I interview your favorite Tony Award winners and together we go down memory lane as my guests share intimate and never before shared details about their Tony experience. By the end of every episode you're going to feel like you just won a Tony. Welcome to And The Tony Goes To... I'm your host Ilana Levine. Welcome today's Tony winner Katie Finneran.

[1:08] Katie Finneran: I have so much to be grateful for. I have like 20 family and friends that came in tonight to be here. They're all in the rafters. Darren Goldstein asked me to marry him last week and the week before that Angela Lansbury took me to Joe Allen for dinner. So I'm the luckiest girl in the world. I want to thank Craig Zayden and Neil Maron for making the most beautiful show. I want you guys to produce a million more Broadway shows. You're extraordinary. I want to thank the superstar Kristen Chenoweth who loaned me her eyelashes tonight. Sean Hayes who I'm so in love with. He's just the best scene partner ever and Beth Williams and the extraordinary Rob Ashford who gave me this part and let me run with it and created the most spectacular show which you'll see a little bit more of later.

But most of all I want to talk to the kids at home watching. I was a kid and I watched the show and it seemed so far away from me and I want to tell you that all of us up here on the stage and in this audience we feel the same way and with the world being so fast right now I want to remind you to focus on what you love because it is the greatest passport, it is the greatest roadmap to an extraordinarily blissful life. Just focus on that one thing, don't listen to anybody else and you will run into the right people, the right teachers, the right moments and circumstances and one day you will meet the person that will share that love with you and for me that's Darren Goldstein and my life has never been the same since I met you. And thank you for sharing the love of the theater with me because it's just the light of my life and I know you all feel the same way and I'm so very grateful. Thank you.

[3:06] Ilana Levine: Hi, how are you? So can you just talk about that?

[3:18] Katie Finneran: Sure, I think that I want to say I was pregnant at the—no I couldn't have been, was I pregnant? I think I was. My breasts looked incredibly beautiful so I think I was pregnant at the time. Is that too much information? I think that's why I podcast. No, I guess it—I, you know, it's funny I had won a Tony before that and I remember trying to remember people's names and was I going to get in trouble and it was sort of a thing of fear and that night I had such comfort with all of my—because everybody in that audience is my friend, I'm lucky enough to say that—and David and David Hyde Pierce and the world famous, oh my god, it's my friend Kelsey Grammer. Kelsey Grammer, thank you. I had played their girlfriend, they were fighting over me on Frasier at one point and so having them say my name was just so, so beautiful and I just remembered if I win just remember don't let your mouth get ahead of your heart, you know? Like don't just keep talking hoping that you're gonna fill the air. I really wanted to listen to what I would want to hear if I was watching.

[4:42] Ilana Levine: Well you achieved that. I mean I feel like you hit every note just so beautifully and it was aspirational and inspirational and also personal, like wildly personal about what was going on. I mean you had just decided to get married, you're now saying that you were pregnant and you knew that, and so how beautiful to kind of have all of that love in your life and love in your work sort of come together in that way. Promises, Promises was such a little gem of a show. What was so incredible is that you didn't have as much stage time as you've probably had in other shows but when you were on stage you whipped us all into a frenzy of delight and awe and thus this nomination and then win. Like it was like all there, that one number you had with Sean was just extraordinary. So when you were offered this part, did you read for this part? Were you offered it? How did it come to you?

[5:50] Katie Finneran: I think they had done several iterations of it in workshop and I was asked to do one of the workshops with Anne Hathaway and Sean, and Anne was wonderful. She probably had, you know, who knows what she had to do but she was wonderful and I remember I did the workshop and I've done so many of these quirky characters I thought like I'll know what it is when I find it and I hadn't found it after the first run through. We did the first run through then we're going to do it for like, you know, Harvey Weinstein and all the big Neil and Craig, Neil Merritt and Craig Zayden and I remember going, oh I totally bombed. It's called bombing before lunch and I hadn't made the right choices and I knew that I would make the right choices but they were all wrong.

It wasn't funny, I was kind of picking out of stuff out of my old hat and it was just not clicking and so I worked during that lunch period very intensely and Sally Kellerman's voice came into my mind. Sally Kellerman, hello Sally. Yes. Hi everybody. And which is probably exaggerated when she's in public, right? So this woman wants to pick somebody up and so she's—so I did that and I really listened to Sean rather than trying to think about myself. I really listened to Sean and he's such a phenomenal partner, comedic partner, which is essentially like having a great mathematician play opposite you as you know from your genius performance in Charlie Brown which I'll never forget. It is math, you're doing a math problem together and you're solving it one at a time. You can't solve it at the same time, you just solve it one, you go now, now I'm gonna go, now you go, now and hopefully you both get the same number. It's so specific.

[8:04] Katie Finneran: It is so, I'm dead serious about comedy. I know I've spoken about it before but I love it but you have to figure it out. You have to figure out what the math is and Sean, there was nobody better, nobody better and so generous because he could lift his left pinky and everyone would laugh and he sort of, he's like okay your turn and now I'm going to set you up and now it's your turn again and then I'm going to set you up and it's your turn again. That never would have happened with a less scene partner and I mean that dramatically, I really mean that. Like all the person has to do is move the wrong way. I remember when I was doing Noises Off, there were a couple people on stage who hadn't done a lot of farce and I turned to somebody, I turned to somebody, this is Tom McCarthy before his big fancy Academy Award winning film career but he was sort of trying to talk to me naturalistically and I said if you move one more time I'm gonna fucking kill you because it was—I left me in the dust.

He, Patti LuPone, it was her turn on the left side of the stage but it's so sensitive, comedy. Yes, if the audience is watching and somebody's moving on the right side of the stage but they're meant to be focused on the left side of the stage, the plot gets lost, the next three moments get lost.

[9:21] Katie Finneran: Did you hear that like that buzzing? Okay, I thought maybe we'd have to do—Darren got an email so I just—so, but the audience gets lost. They have to take a chance to like psychologically recover. It's a real, it's a so sensitive and you think about things that make you laugh in your real world, you can't always define it but you know you're focused on it. Look at that guy, no look at that guy, look what he's doing, it's hilarious but you're not distracted by another guy or a dog or whatever, you're giving someone your full attention and the people on the stage have to understand that.

[10:05] Ilana Levine: Yeah, yeah, sorry, it's very serious.

[10:14] Katie Finneran: No, but I feel like I think you have always had, maybe it's a learned thing, maybe it's not, but you have always intuited and had this innate ability to do the math right. Like not everybody can do that or understand it in a way that allows repetition, right? Like sometimes you can fall into something but if you don't understand the equation of it, you can't repeat it night after night. I remember the worst, I was doing this very serious play with Danny Futterman and written by, it was called A Fair Country, John Robbie Bates wrote it, it's about South Africa and apartheid and everything and I played the girlfriend who's kind of tired of the son being so serious all the time. It was not a funny part but I had one moment with Richard Clarke, a wonderful actor, and I did something and I remember I think like Joe Papp and Meryl Streep were in the audience or something like that.

I remember feeling so happy because that night I got such a huge laugh and to this day I have no idea why. That's the only time that's ever happened to me. Other than that, I'm always in control of it. I know, yeah, like where it is, what the—that's the only—I kept saying to Richard Clarke, what did I do brilliant for a night? Like don't ask for a cup of tea, I don't ask for a lap, ask for a cup of tea, you know that one, right? Okay, we know, but also what did I do? I know that and I could never get it back and that's another thing.

[11:33] Katie Finneran: I never read reviews and I'm not just an actress who says I don't read reviews and then I secretly do. I really don't because it's none of my business. If the producers want to read it and it helps them change the show, that's fine. But I never read them because Ben Brantley wrote a review of a production of Arms and the Man and he liked me very much, did not like the production at all. But he said something very specific. Katie Finneran does this thing on the bed and she just takes a picture and I read it. I went back and looked at the script. It's not in the script. What she did is so funny. You have to see this performance moment. Yeah. After that, I was like, oh, everybody, this is the part Ben Brantley liked.

Never got a laugh after that. Never got a laugh. It was just like too self-conscious. Like, oh, people are probably coming and pointing out this moment and now I'm just in my head and I'm lost. Right. After that, I never read reviews. The role of Marge McDougal, that was your character's name in the show, had originally been played in the original production by Marion Mercer who won a Tony. So, you went into this show knowing that there had been some history and a precedent with this particular part. How did that make you feel?

[13:01] Katie Finneran: Fine. It told me that the part has a template. It has a skeleton for brightness. It can hold. The words can hold. Of course, it's Neil Simon. I was very close friends with Neil Simon for a good 12 years. We were very close. Then life gets in the way. Getting back together with him on this show, he said to me, the only note he ever gave me was, I always wanted someone to do the owl noise. I always wanted someone to do the owl noise. That's the only thing. You're like, okay. I just did it as a joke in rehearsal one day. I always say, I always say, that won me a Tony.

[14:00] Ilana Levine: Have you been able to work that into other roles?

[14:04] Katie Finneran: Every child I ever meet, my kids are like, here comes the owl. You're like, mommy wanted a Tony for this. This is a Western screeching owl. It was great to be with Neil again before he started to decline in health. That's really why we weren't really friends anymore because he was kind of losing, it was harder to communicate.

[14:28] Ilana Levine: Right. Well, Rob Ashford, the director, of course, but the show, who also is an extraordinary choreographer. You had, in one person, this vision that infiltrated the production in many wonderful ways. The original team were Bert Bachrach, Neil Simon, and Hal David. As we speak today, it is the day that Bert Bachrach passed away. I just found out this morning. Was that trio of Bert and Neil and Hal around the rehearsal room when you did the show?

[15:06] Katie Finneran: It was a funny process. Bert Bachrach, what an extraordinary individual voice. You can always recognize a Bert Bachrach song. It's like he brought that sound to the world and he did that. It wasn't really even imitated that much. He was really great. It was a pleasure to listen to that show every night. The rehearsal process was kind of odd because the cast had already rehearsed for like six weeks before I came in. It wasn't six weeks, but it was definitely three, three and a half weeks. Because your part was smaller and so they were sort of attending to the rest of the show. Our musical number was just going to be Sean and I.

[15:50] Katie Finneran: Right. Sean and me. I try to teach my kids that, Sean and me, Sean and me. It was just me, Sean and me. I hadn't been sort of hadn't really bonded with the company. Sean and I had bonded right away when we met, but Sean comes in, knows all his lines, knows he's such a pro. He's just unbelievable. I never learned my lines, especially with a comedy, because I need to know what the intention is with the line. It's sort of like having all the ingredients on the counter, learning my lines and not knowing what to do with it.

[16:23] Katie Finneran: Yeah. I didn't have my lines memorized. The way Rob rehearsed it, I think you were talking about this with Patti LuPone also, that you never really work on your book scenes that much in a musical. That's traditional. It's nobody's fault. It's just sort of the way, what you have time for.

[16:39] Ilana Levine: Yeah.

[16:39] Katie Finneran: Then we're all pros and we work it out. But I knew the scene was going to be very technical and very kind of difficult. We were going to need to give it at least an hour or two. There's a couch, there's this sort of physical comedy. I came into the room and I read it and all the dancers were watching and Rob and everybody was watching. It was just like, okay, do the scene now. I'm the least pissy person in show business, I think, but it was very disconcerting for me. It was evident enough that Rob said, let's go in the other room.

[17:24] Katie Finneran: So I went in the other room and I said, Rob, you're going to need to etch out some time for this because this is really technical stuff and we're going to need to find this together. This is more than what you think it is. We need to make it look easy, but we need to know exactly what we're doing. Then he just etched out more time and Sean and I and Rob worked it out. It was pretty exacting.

[17:52] Ilana Levine: Spectacular. Another beautiful soul in your show who I just had a long talk with about with Harvey Fierstein because Dick LaTessa was also in Hairspray with Harvey. And Harvey talked a lot about what sort of Dick LaTessa brings to a show. And I wonder because he also had a part that came on, but you both might have been off stage at some point together. Did you get to know him at all?

[18:24] Katie Finneran: Let me tell you something. It's so funny that you, I thought to myself this morning, how am I going to bring up Dick LaTessa and spend time on him? It's very funny that you brought him up first. He was like a Broadway force, like a journeyman. You put him in your show, everybody breathes easy. He is a foundation for a show. He has an effortless quality. He is so affable, but again, very exacting. We had worked together on the tour of Neil Simon's Proposals, and he'd done so many shows. We weren't selling very well. I just always think of him when I'm in a show and it's not selling well. He would go, you can shoot deer in the balcony. I don't even know why that's funny. It doesn't really make sense.

[19:16] Katie Finneran: Or what it even means, but right. You can shoot deer in the balcony. Don't buy a car, anybody. He was just extraordinary. I love that guy. I remember Jonathan, his husband, I feel like he wasn't celebrated enough when he passed. Something was happening. I can't even remember what, some world events. I always celebrate him to myself. Back in the day, he would have been a very famous supporting actor. But these days, I guess things are more about TV and film and everything, but everybody knew his work on Broadway. He was extraordinary. I'm sure Harvey said extraordinary things about him. He actually made that performance in Hairspray. He validated Harvey's physicality as a woman, because he was so in love with Harvey in that show. He never sent it up. He never winked at it. He was in love with that movie.

[20:23] Ilana Levine: Yeah, that was-

[20:23] Katie Finneran: The whole show worked.

[20:24] Ilana Levine: Yeah. This is my wife.

[20:26] Katie Finneran: This is my beautiful wife. Yeah.

[20:28] Ilana Levine: Yeah.

[20:28] Katie Finneran: And think about other actors would have sort of, I don't know. He just really grounded that whole show.

[20:34] Ilana Levine: Yeah. And everything he did.

[20:37] Katie Finneran: I'm also his fourth daughter. I used to call myself Vanessa LaTessa. I wanted to be Vanessa LaTessa.

[20:44] Katie Finneran: I'm Dick LaTessa's fourth daughter, Vanessa LaTessa. Wonderful man. Wonderful man.

[20:52] Katie Finneran: It's so funny that you talk about Sally Kellerman, sort of the little seeds that we plant sometimes for ourselves. We start out sort of with this idea of imitating a goddess of some kind that we adore their work for. And then, of course, it becomes your own and no one would have seen you in Promises and Go, oh, she's imitating Sally Kellerman or even channeling her. It was pure you, but I love the idea of sort of where the seed of an idea comes from, just to like get the thing jump started when it's hard, when it's not coming exactly in the moment that you need it to. And that kind of miracle when you're like, oh, I know.

[21:38] Katie Finneran: Oh, it's such a blessing. I always, I hope that comes for the rest of my life because it is such a blessed moment when that happens. It's like a miracle. I just saw Sally Kellerman and I went, this woman wants to be, I don't know if she's the same at home, she's not, but when she's out and she's looking for a man, she wants to believe that everything she says, everyone's listening. Everyone leans in and listens to what she's saying, no matter what it is.

[22:02] Ilana Levine: You know what I mean? Like she's just-

[22:04] Katie Finneran: It's the best.

[22:04] Katie Finneran: ... needs the attention so badly.

[22:06] Ilana Levine: Yes. And the fun of your characters sort of, I mean, maybe barfly, there might be a better word, but just the idea of like this, we think we know who this person is. There's sort of an idea of the kind of character we find in a bar alone with-

[22:23] Katie Finneran: The closing.

[22:24] Ilana Levine: ... feathers, feathers on her outfit. Can you talk about your relationship to Kristen? Did you know Kristen before Promises?

[22:34] Katie Finneran: Yes. We didn't really, we knew each other. I remember I busted, I didn't know anybody on stage. I didn't know you and Charlie Brown, but I came back. I love that show so much. I saw you backstage after that show. Do you remember that? It's a long time ago, but I came backstage and I told you how wonderful you were. I mean, that was a hard character to do. What a cartoon. I mean, it is a cartoon, but-

[22:57] Ilana Levine: Yeah.

[22:57] Katie Finneran: ... it was just hilarious every time you opened your mouth.

[22:59] Ilana Levine: Thank you.

[23:00] Katie Finneran: And then when Kristen did that thing, I was like, oh my God, I can't believe you did that.

[23:36] Katie Finneran: The person gets the part is the right person. And I felt so just happy for her because it was the right one. Yeah. And so I went, I found my way backstage and maybe I need a stage manager or something. And I said, you are phenomenal. You're going to win a Tony for this. This is an extraordinary performance. I mean, it's so, so well done and so human. And yes, that's why. So we knew each other from that. Right. And around the community. And then when we first saw each other, we were doing rehearsal and the first thing she said was, I'm gonna freeze my eggs. And I was like, I'm gonna freeze my eggs too. We just talked about, you know, just playing these roles. And I think it was so brave of her to do that role because it's not the funny role.

It's not my role in the show. It's kind of a serious role. It's not in a part of her voice that is usually celebrated. It's an alto part. Yeah. And it's a sad part. She's like, did she like during my scene, she's like, killed herself on the bed. Thank goodness that wasn't lit because everybody's looking over there. It's like, she's taking like a handful of pills. Yeah. But I thought it was really brave of her to do it because I thought she really shone and she's so versatile. And I don't think she gets to do that very often. And it was, it was a, like a quiet part, right? It was like this quiet jewel of a part. I mean, those songs, what do you get when you fall in love? I mean, there are some incredible songs that she got to sing that sat so beautifully in her instrument.

And, and she too, just fell deeply in love with Sean Hayes. So you had to leave the show before some other cast members. Because as I recall, it was announced that you were pregnant. I was so pregnant. I was, it was like, I'm playing the, I'm drinking through the whole show. And then Sean and I had this thing where he jumps up at the end where we go to make up. He jumps up on my stomach, you know, he wraps his legs around my waist. And this was so bad. And I'm so sorry. I've apologized to him a million times since, but during the show, I remember going, Oh my God, I'm pregnant. I just had to tell you that during the show. I told him it's so bad. When you're pregnant, you think like you're the only one that's ever been pregnant.

It's just so silly. And it's your whole world. And I was nervous to tell people because I was older. I was like almost 40. And, and he was like, Oh, okay, well, uh, should we do the jump? And I was like, yes, of course we should do the jump. Making him responsible for squeezing my baby. Yeah. Go ahead and squeeze my baby. Terrible. And I am strong as an ox. So I would just lift him above the belly and, uh, we would continue to make out. And then I just got so big. They kept releasing the spandex and the, and the, um, the black lace until it was kind of like watching the audience saying this, this, this has a lot of layers. This show, she really weird. Apparently she has met somebody. Um, so it was time.

I think Beth Williams actually said, yeah, um, I brought you this box and it's all these baby clothes. And she's like, you need to go. And I said, really, I can stay another month. And she's like, well, it's just looking a little. So, um, the wonderful Molly Shannon came in after me. You mentioned Beth Williams in your speech in, in the list of people you thank. So she was the producer of the show. She was the producer at one of the producers of the show. Yes. Yes. Before we come to a close, I have to just say, and I think I've told you this before the first Broadway show, my now husband, then newly dating boyfriend and I saw together was Noises Off and watching you in that show, the, like we laughed in a way that I feel like people next to us were like, that bit happened five minutes ago and you're missing the rest of the show.

And you're distracting us. Like every time you did that brilliant, like walk into the wall and seem like you're, you know, Katie's character loses her contacts and then just walks into walls for most of the play. And there was something about it that it's not like I've never seen someone do slapstick comedy or farce before, but we both looked at each other and we were like, we have never witnessed anything like this on stage. And it was so bonding for us because it was the first time we sat like next to each other, like side by side watching something. And I was like, we have to have the same taste because if we don't go to the theater with someone for the rest of your life and not in the kitchen with them, nothing, everything was going to be a disaster.

And really like when I think about my origin story in my relationship with Dominic, you are like front and center. You're such a huge part of the thing that I treasure, which was like just laughing together in the early unencumbered days of new love. So thank you for being a part of my love story, not just with the theater, but with my husband, you just, you're just front and center. There's nothing like an ambiguous comedy to sort of bring people together. Right. It's like, so it's like medicine. It's like medicine. But you in particular, and, and, you know, that was your first Tony. And I feel like I sat there, you know, the way you were watching Kristen and you're like, you're going to win a Tony.

I saw you and I was like, she's going to win a Tony. And if she doesn't, I'm going to like sit shiva and rip my blouse and just sit shiva for the theater community. Before I let you go, I just have one or two questions left. One, the dress you were wearing that night, this beautiful white gown, do you remember cream? Do you have a story about how that dress came to be your Tony dress? Jeff Mashi makes dresses for, for these lovely, beautiful women who win Tony awards. And I was introduced to him a long time ago. And he's become a very close friend of mine. He did my first Tony dress, my red dress. And I thought I wanted a pink dress. And he's like, let's try cream. So I was like, fine. He put it on me.

And it was just so, so elegant. I loved it so much. I wore it for my wedding. Wow. Yep. Wow. Twice. It's a podcast, you guys. Breasts are still gorgeous. Fantastic. You also talk about, you know, people you love being in the audience that night. Obviously the camera panned to your beautiful at the time fiancé, who else was there from the close friends and family circle that you can recall? My parents are nuts. They have been so supportive of me since they, since I was 12, I've been training, like seriously training and acting since I was 12. And they've been extremely supportive. They have a network of like 30 friends. I thought people wouldn't believe me if I said 30. So I said 20, there were 32 people there that night that all friends, my parents is like, it's like, if I think people just want to be friends with them so they can get invited to the Tony or the opening or whatever.

Every time I have an opening, in fact, I have a show coming up that this theater is small. It's the Helen Hayes. And they're not going to fit all my parents' friends. There's like 32 people every year. You're like, guys, we have to, what's happening with the Shubert? We're going to have to get a bigger theater. A few of their friends have died now because they're 82, or they're 81 now, sorry. But the number's dwindling a little bit, but these people come every time I do a show. And so when I won a Tony award, they were like, well, we already have the tickets. So I had to get them all tickets. But I thought if I said 32 people would think I was exaggerating and it was only five. There was 32 people.

In fact, at the opening of Promises Promises, they were in the corner of a ballroom waiting for me. And I remember it took like an hour to go through every person. It's extraordinary. If you can do that for somebody, I'm like the biggest backstage host you've ever met. Yeah. We met this man at the post office and he said that he loved Oklahoma when he was growing up. Do you think you can meet him backstage and bring him back to your dressing room? Of course, mother. I love it. I love that. I mean, that's the fun, right? To be able to share something that you do with the people that you love, who supported you through the whole thing. How extraordinary that you have that. I know you brought your brother to the first Tony awards.

I mean, it really has been a family affair. It's so beautiful. All right, before I let you go, if you could just indulge me and finish this sentence, which is to me, Katie Finneran, Promises Promises is? To me, Promises Promises was a chance to carry the audience and take them away and make them laugh at themselves and these great characters. It just worked. It just worked. It really did. It was just, you know, sometimes there's an actress and a part that come together and it's just undeniably delicious to behold. And I had a few of those and it's just been, what a ride. What a ride. I mean, don't I know it? There's nothing more thrilling than when it all comes together like that. Like I said, the math, the chemistry of it, and you can deliver that and the audience receives it in that way. And it just lights them up and makes them feel energized and happy. Oh my God. There's no better. There's no bigger privilege. Thank you, Katie, for being on the show today. I am so grateful.

[34:02] Katie Finneran: Thank you.

[34:04] Ilana Levine: Thank you, Alana.

[34:08] Ilana Levine: And The Tony Goes To is produced by Alan Seales for the Broadway Podcast Network. The music and lyrics for the theme song were written by Georgia Femusa. Theme song orchestration by Alexander Sage Oyen. Episodes are edited by Derek Gunther. Thank you to Parody Bill for the graphics. And please don't forget to go to the iTunes show page and rate and review the show. Thanks for listening. Excerpt from The Tony Awards used with permission of Tony Awards Productions.