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[0:10] Robert Bannon: Are you ready? It's the Roundtable with me, Robert Bannon. Welcome to the Roundtable.

[0:17] Robert Bannon: Hi everybody, my name is Robert Bannon, and you're watching us on YouTube. We're listening to us on the Broadway Podcast Network. It's Broadway Week. It's Broadway Week right here on the Roundtable. It's always kind of Broadway Week here on the Roundtable, but tonight, especially, we have some of Broadway's best this whole entire week. While Broadway's giving tickets away, buy one, get one free. We figured we'd talk to some of the best. I had a great time at the Music Box seeing "Purlie Victorious." It was a special evening of theater. And I need you to go get a ticket. You know, we try to support art and artists and be a voice for artists. And it was such a joy and pleasure to have Heather Alicia Simms here. She is such a superstar. Her energy jumps off of the screen. Check out Heather Alicia Simms on the Roundtable.

[1:04] Robert Bannon: Well, Broadway Week continues here at the Roundtable. I had the pleasure. Whoo! You all, if you don't get yourselves to the Music Box by February 4th and get yourself a seat and a little M&M, well, not a loud bag of M&Ms, a quiet bag of M&Ms, and shut your cell phone and put your playbill under the chair and get settled down. Ossie Davis is a legend. He's a genius. He wrote a play that is as relevant now as when he wrote it. This cast is stacked from top to bottom. I hope they don't have plans for June because they better get themselves a fancy gown and a tuxedo and head over to Lincoln Center because this year's awards ceremonies are going to be filled. And we are so excited. Heather Alicia Simms, I've seen you on the TV. I've seen you on the screens. I've seen you on the stages, and now you're here. Welcome to the show.

[1:57] Heather Alicia Simms: Thank you. I'm so excited to be here.

[2:01] Robert Bannon: We're so honored to have you. People are listening to us on the Broadway Podcast Network or you're watching us on YouTube. She's so damn beautiful.

[2:08] Heather Alicia Simms: Oh, thank you.

[2:09] Robert Bannon: Your energy just shoots off the screen.

[2:12] Heather Alicia Simms: Oh, thank you. I appreciate that.

[2:15] Robert Bannon: Well, I was talking about your television. For many people who maybe they're not into the theater world, I know a lot of people were all up on the "Luke Cage" of it all and Marvel's "Luke Cage" and your recurring role on that. And when I was looking at your history, if it's "Luke Cage," if it's "Blue Bloods," if it's "High Maintenance," if it's "The Last OG," it's all the television work. And then you have this body of theater work, "Ma Rainey," which I remember seeing that. It was a snowstorm. I was 18 years old. We trekked in from Jersey. If it was "Raisin in the Sun," and so you don't pick, you pick some deep heavy stuff.

[2:59] Heather Alicia Simms: You know what? I pick deep heavy stuff. Deep heavy stuff picks me. And I've been fortunate to be able to work in this industry. And in fact, I think I remember that snowstorm because right after, you know, during it, somebody's Mercedes broke down right outside of the theater. And I come out of the alley and I see Whoopi trying to push somebody's car. I was like, what are you doing? And she was like, this guy's car stopped. So it's like, no, no, we'll all help. And the dude was just kind of gobsmacked that Whoopi Goldberg was trying to help push his car through the snow. I was like, girl, you don't have to do that. We can call somebody, I believe. Um, yeah, I was there and it was Whoopi Goldberg and "Ma Rainey" back, you know, doing August Wilson before the movie, before all of that.

[4:03] Heather Alicia Simms: Yeah. And "Raisin in the Sun," and these are classics. And you hear about "Raisin in the Sun" or you hear about "Ma Rainey," but a show like "Purlie," which I thought it's "Purlie," Debbie Allen, "Purlie," you know, the move, no, no, no. This show, not back on Broadway in how many years?

[4:22] Robert Bannon: It's 62.

[4:24] Heather Alicia Simms: 60, no, now it's 63 because it premiered in 1961, and we're now in 2024. So yeah, it's been 62 years since anyone has seen this play. And people come to the Music Box Heather thinking, hey, we're going to see the musical with Cleavon Little, Melba Moore, Sherman Helmsley. No, that's not it. And you know, having Leslie Odom Jr. in the cast, people think, and they're waiting for him to sing. And they are so wonderfully surprised at what they get instead.

[5:10] Heather Alicia Simms: Ooh, well, what they get is the tour de force performance by this amazing, amazing cast. It is a night of theater, and it pays special homage to Ossie Davis as well. You guys really handle his words and his work with the utmost grace and respect. When you got this project, what can you tell us a little bit about the journey? Did you get an audition? Did you get a phone call? Did you have to prepare sides? What was it like to get the part?

[5:39] Heather Alicia Simms: You know, it was a phone call. And it was a phone call because I did Jeffrey a favor, right? Okay. So, you know, during the pandemic when we were all home, everyone was doing this theater on Zoom. And I did this play that reprised this play, "Barbecue," that Robert O'Hara wrote, and we did it on Zoom, and it was great. But then the next week, Jeffrey was doing another play, but he lost an actor. And he was like, "Hey, would you mind doing me a favor and doing this play?" And I'm like, sure, you know, what am I doing? We're home. And so I did it, and he was like, "Oh my gosh, you saved me. I owe you one." I was like, okay, you know, when people say that, right? And you know, you might get tickets to a show or just a thank you.

And so he said, he called me a few weeks later asking me if I'd like to do a workshop of "Purlie Victorious." Sure, you know, and it may not have been a few weeks later, it may have been a few months later. Time, you know. And so I said yes. And after that first reading, he asked me, would you like to go to Broadway? And so again, sure, because everyone thinks they're going to Broadway. And I've heard that many times before, and it doesn't happen. And I was like, it happened. So, yes, the things come.

[7:16] Heather Alicia Simms: It happened. Some of your cast has had the pleasure of being with us here on the Roundtable. If it's Leslie himself, Billy Eugene Jones has been, oh, he acts his teeth out. Um, he, you know, and you all, and Jay and Vanessa and Noah and Kara and other Noah and Bill, this all-star cast, you all come on stage, you work very physically with each other. This is not just a monologue reciting lines. There's a lot of physicality, there's a lot of humor, there's a lot of timing. What was it like in the rehearsal space to get comfortable with each other as an ensemble?

[7:58] Heather Alicia Simms: So, you know, I love actors that say yes, you know, and everyone said yes, but Kenny Leon, our director, was like, you know, he's one of those directors who kind of has like a really soft touch, and he wants you to try, he wants you to throw your instincts out. My computer is dinging because people are texting me.

[8:28] Robert Bannon: Because you're on Broadway, you are on a critically acclaimed Broadway show.

[8:38] Heather Alicia Simms: Um, I thought I could, um, but anyway, so but he has a very soft touch when it comes to directing, and so it felt like a very safe space to just try what you wanted to try, and everyone is so amazingly talented and amazingly creative that it was kind of like, oh, okay, wait, I'm gonna do this. Oh, wait, you know, and Billy is someone that I've worked with a few times in the past who I love working with. Um, and we would sometimes sit down and just talk about our characters and you know what Kenny envisioned for us as a couple because you know, our characters, our relationship could have been put on the stage in a very different way, you know. And what Kenny really wanted to let everyone know was that Missy and Gitlow still love each other, they still have a relationship, they still have romance, even if they get at each other sometimes, they still have that thing that you know we often just want to see in very young and new love. And that was exciting for us because we had to find the hills and the valleys in our relationship, and so yeah, you know, so we all came to play.

[10:19] Robert Bannon: Well, I think you found all the hills and all the valleys because it is a realistic fun relationship where you love somebody, you fight with somebody, and then you love them again. And it, and um, Billy. If your Broadway niece is out there, Billy just jumped off the stage from "Fat Ham" and ran across the street to "Purlie," who he's so brilliant in "Fat Ham," and he's so brilliant in "Purlie." And you two's chemistry is palpable in the theater. You have such a fun, bombastic relationship with each other. When this show opened, what is it like the first preview or opening night? And what do you do as to calm your nerves or to not be worried, or what is the trick?

[11:06] Heather Alicia Simms: I don't know if there's a trick. If there's a trick, someone please tell me. Because I pray, I breathe, I read the script, I tend to like have my pages somewhere backstage just in case something happens, and then you know, you let and you have to let go of it, right? Because anything can happen on stage, you're not gonna run off stage. I mean, there are times when you're like, but you're not going to do that. And so the thing is the first preview is electric because you go, wow, I've been working all of these weeks for this moment, and you hope that you're going to have the reaction that you were anticipating. Now, Kenny did something really wonderful in our last week of rehearsal, and he had people come in the room.

He had us invite our friends to just come and sit because it was the kind of play that needed an audience, you know, and so the audience is really the last character in our play. And people say that all the time, but it truly was necessary for that last week of rehearsal. And it was such a gift to have.

[12:35] Heather Alicia Simms: So that first invited dress and the preview weren't the first times that we were hearing the laughter and the oohs and the ahs, and maybe even some of the tears.

[12:47] Robert Bannon: I was gonna say it's so funny and it's so deep, and there are such moments of a reaction that the timing had to have changed once the laughter and you played to the laughter, you played to the emotion.

[13:01] Heather Alicia Simms: Ooh. You know, the timing did change a lot. Um, Kenny had a dream number in his head, and so we worked diligently to keep that number in mind. And the first, I think it was our dress rehearsal, our invited dress. Um, I think we went 20 minutes over that dream, and so that would not stand. And so, you know, it was about really feeling about feeling out the audience, and the idea of yes, the audience is with you, but we couldn't let the audience take the show because if the audience takes the show, then it's not our show, you know, and every audience is different.

[13:55] Heather Alicia Simms: Well, there is not one member of this ensemble that is not commanding the stage and has their moment to really get their point across.

[14:04] Robert Bannon: PearlyVictorious.com is where you can get your tickets while we're talking till February 4th.

[14:08] Heather Alicia Simms: It was extended. This is the final extension. This is it. You know, I so many people have come back. We have somebody that can't has come 30 times.

[14:22] Robert Bannon: Yes.

[14:24] Heather Alicia Simms: Jordan has come 30 times. And you know, I call him one of our pearls because there are people who just come back. They come back to see it because it is so poignant. It is laugh-filled, but you will leave the theater saying, wow, I am awestruck, not just by the talent on stage, because there's so much talent on stage. And that's what I'm gonna miss most about this group of people because you know I just love working with big talent. But come to the music box theater so that you can see the things that we're talking about. We are not lying to you. You are going to have a great time, and you're gonna leave having said, Oh my gosh, I needed this for my soul. Oh, it is soul filling, it is thought-provoking, and it is not um, you know.

I think that sometimes, and I'm if I may speak frankly, as this very white man who thinks, what am I going to see? And am I and it and there's something for everyone. It is not a show for any audience, it is for humanity, it is for people.

[15:36] Robert Bannon: What about the themes of the show are relevant today? What do you think people leave feeling that are as important as it was in the 60s and the early 1900s as it goes down and past in history?

[15:49] Heather Alicia Simms: I mean, you know, ideas about um racial justice, generational wealth, how we um look at inheritance, you know, um, money, relationships, love. Uh there's so many themes, police brutality. There's so many themes that you know, Assie Davis was dealing with back in the late 50s, early 60s that he put on the stage. This people then said, oh my gosh, this is poignant. This is so now, this is so today. And people in 2023, 2024 are leaving with the same sentiment. So that says something about our society, but it also says something about the play, how timeless it is. It is a classic. It is a classic that has been unearthed. And if you are interested in beautifully crafted classic plays, I believe that this is one of them.

[17:02] Robert Bannon: It sure is. It's so well crafted. And I have to say, a pet I I'm not as artistic and sophisticated as some other people are. This play gives you a good middle, a good beginning, middle, and end. It is is is a beautiful full circle story. It's not gonna be one of those plays that the house lights come up and you say, What happened? What's this you you are gonna get a full fleshed out, beautiful story and leave feeling something and knowing something and and believing in something a little bit more than when you got there. That's for sure.

[17:33] Heather Alicia Simms: When when you do this show, you talk about, and I was struck for me about the amount of people, and I'm sure that they are on your shoulders, the ghosts of the theater, the the ghosts of the people you're representing on that stage, that without giving the story away, people are owed something and not given it. They're supposed to stay quiet and just listen and not ask for what's rightfully theirs. Do you feel the heaviness and the presence of the people that the story was written about and for?

[18:03] Heather Alicia Simms: I do because you know it's still going on now. And there's so many people who've been disenfranchised. There are so many people who have been displaced. And she was just given the land that she was dispossessed from as a child back to her. And it's amazing that those kinds of reparations have not happened. And so when we talk about, oh, people are owed something, it's not just people who have worked this land. There are people whose land was just taken from them. Just taken and it's unfathomable, it's unfathomable. And so it does it does. I I I feel emotional about it because it does tug at my heartstrings because it shouldn't happen. It shouldn't happen in a just society.

[19:36] Robert Bannon: No, absolutely. And uh and when you watch this and and the the layers that you were talking about and themes, police brutality, lives, lives taken for no for no reason, aside from money and and land and and dignity and all of the things that that we uh we we go through the show goes through it all, but it also makes you laugh out loud, and it also makes you um it teaches you a deep lesson in a really entertaining uh and enjoyable. It's a fast nine Kenny. You got it in there in 90 minutes.

[20:07] Heather Alicia Simms: He did. If you have gone to see a lot of theater and plays it, if it's top dog, whatever shows you've seen the past few years, Kenny is fences, he's behind the big, he is the quietest, chillest guy, but he can hit a home run out the park. He is got some vision. Um how much and you talked a little bit about it, but how much of what we see on stage was his ideas, or how much of it was letting him let you come up with ideas and and bring your own ideas to the table?

[20:44] Heather Alicia Simms: I mean, you know, the big picture is Kenny, it's all Kenny. Kenny did uh a wonderful job, especially that um beginning tableau, you know. Um, people I think it allows people to enter the play with us in a way that gives them room to breathe throughout the rest of the play, and so you know, this was very much Kenny, because even in the moments that we came up with as a cast, you know, he allowed it to stay, you know. Uh, you know, some directors might go, you know what, no, not because it's not good, but because they didn't come up with it, and you know, he's not that kind of director. He's he's a very um open-minded and generous spirit when it comes to you know the work, because he wants you to wants you to find your way in, and so he'll allow you the room to to do that.

[22:03] Robert Bannon: Well, pearly victorious.com. You gotta go go get your tickets, get them, get them before it's gone, because it is a production you need to see. It is the it is the play of the season for me for sure. Um, you have a master's in fine arts from Columbia, I do. And uh and um, you know, as a teacher, especially a drama teacher and musical theater teacher, how important is the foundation of your craft and an education and what you do? Do you take some of the lessons, some of the toolbox that you've learned through your career with you, even on on a Broadway stage?

[22:38] Heather Alicia Simms: Oh, yeah, absolutely. Um, you know, I I went to grad school because as an undergrad I majored in history and English. And um Robert O'Hara, who I went to undergrad with and um subsequently grad school with, um, he was the one who told me that there was this program there. So I was like, okay, you know, let me do that. And it was the best decision that I could have made because it opened me up to different ways of approaching theater. Um, because the work that we did was pretty avant-garde at the time. And so I was able to release any idea that I had about what theater was and think about what theater could be. And now I also teach, I teach at NYU.

[23:48] Robert Bannon: Another whoop, okay, you better, you better bring in these schools.

[23:55] Heather Alicia Simms: Um I teach at NYU and I and I find myself learning from my students, because you know, when I'm trying to teach them what I know, I have to go. How do I know this? How can I synthesize what I know into something that they can digest, and and that's a challenge.

[24:20] Robert Bannon: Oh you you are, I'm sure you are one heck of a teacher. I'm sure you are giving uh all this a lot of skills and a lot of space for them to be the artists that they are. Um, and then they get to go see you on stage at night. If you're I'm sure all the Broadway, like we said, VIPs out here know Robert O'Hara, you know, Robert O'Hara is a brilliant writer. He's been here, he wrote shops, he wrote, oh goodness, a whole bunch O stuff. Barbecue.

[24:52] Heather Alicia Simms: Barbecue, and he's trip and a half. Um, so you all must be a good time together if you have a little brunch, lunch, zoom over.

[25:00] Robert Bannon: Yeah.

[25:01] Heather Alicia Simms: Um known each other since we were children. My goodness, what a fun ride it must have been uh for you all to be here and be in New York City and doing what you're what you're doing. Um amazing. If you if you want to follow Heather, you can go to Instagram and you could you could follow Heather uh on Instagram and you can of course follow the show and get tickets to Pearly Victorious by February 4th. And then if we follow you, we could stay up to date with what's next and what's coming down the pike.

[25:32] Heather Alicia Simms: I know. You know, so what's coming up the down the pike? I have no idea. You know what? I've been doing a couple of audio books. I just finished an audiobook um last week, and and um in the next few weeks. But right now, since the strike happened, some work that I did, we're still waiting to hear if what we did before the strike is gonna get picked up. Who knows? Fingers crossed. If not, I'm all doing more everybody else.

[26:08] Robert Bannon: Yeah, you know, they'll they'll there's you've only just begun. There's a lot of TV and a lot of theater and a lot of film work left to do, and we are here for it. Everybody, you need to go get yourself down, get a ticket, enjoy the show, and then stay. You're such a beam of light. I'm I'm gonna go. If MYU accepted me, I'd be there.

[26:30] Heather Alicia Simms: All right, that's the deal.

[26:31] Robert Bannon: That's the deal. Thank you so much for being here. Congratulations on everything. And I'll be looking I'm gonna see you the whole award show circuit. You'll have to keep okay on the red carpet.

[26:40] Heather Alicia Simms: Oh, from your lips to God's ears. Thank you.

[26:45] Robert Bannon: How about that? Go see a show. If you want to see Pearlie, go see Pearly. If you want to see a musical, go see a musical. If you want to see community theater, go see community theater. If you want to just listen to a cast album, listen to a cast album. Whatever you want to do to support art and artists, we're here for it. If you want to support me, go to RobertBannon.com, see when I'm gonna be in your neck of the woods, when I'm gonna be in concerts, like my pride show at 54 Below in June, or listen to us every day on the Broly Podcast Network, or watch us here on YouTube. It's always an honor and a pleasure to be here with you. Remember, the best is always yet to come. Be the light for somebody out there today. Good night, everybody.