This transcript was automatically generated and might contain errors.

[0:16] Lara Scott: Welcome to West of Broadway, a celebration of musical theater in Los Angeles.

[0:21] Will Armstrong: I'm radio host and theater enthusiast Lara Scott, along with celebrity publicist, a theater veteran Will Armstrong.

[0:28] Will Armstrong: Lara, I'm not gonna even be able to talk in this episode.

[0:31] Will Armstrong: I'm freaking out. Well, full disclosure, we just found out yesterday, 24 hours ago that this was happening that we would get to talk to the voice of Broadway herself, Betty Buckley.

[0:42] Lara Scott: Yeah.

[0:42] Will Armstrong: So we haven't had time to actually calm down and really process anything.

[0:46] Lara Scott: I'm so excited.

[0:47] Will Armstrong: Well, because uh I we saw her in Hello Dolly at the Pantages, and that was the night we saw Matthew Hoffman and we met Amanda Sallas, who if she you're listening, hi, we love you.

[0:56] Lara Scott: Hey Amanda, hi thank you.

[0:57] Will Armstrong: But um, yeah, and we fell in love with Betty and she was incredible, and then we did that show and we raved about her, and then we posted about it, and then she retweeted it and shared it and commented and I just love her. And now we get to talk to her, and hopefully we're not gonna scare her away when we talk to her with the depth of our love.

[1:14] Lara Scott: But Will, when we saw Hello Dolly, I still being sort of uh a newbie to the theater world, I said, what does it mean when someone's name is above the title?

[1:22] Will Armstrong: Because that's the first show that I've been to where it was Betty Buckley and then Hello Dolly.

[1:27] Will Armstrong: Right. It is a coveted position because it it is like you're the headliner, you know, and it's just it's it means that you've made it and that you are the draw. And it's it's not offered to everyone, but uh oh the uh a role like Dolly Levi being played by someone as amazing as Betty Buckley. Like it goes above the title.

[1:45] Lara Scott: Yeah, I was gonna say I was excited to see Hello Dolly, but I was there for Betty, and I believe the rest of the crowd at the Pantages was as well.

[1:53] Will Armstrong: So we're very excited because she is coming to Southern California to kick off the 2019-2020 cabaret series at Sager Strom Center for the Arts. It's a a really neat chance to spend an evening with Betty Buckley. And we're gonna find out more from her about exactly what you can expect and and some other fun things too. So she's gonna be calling. Oh wait, I think there she is right now.

[2:13] Lara Scott: Ah, okay. Take a deep breath, Will.

[2:17] Will Armstrong: Deep breath. Okay, here we go. Welcome Betty Buckley.

[2:21] Betty Buckley: Hi guys. How are you?

[2:22] Lara Scott: Well, first of all, we want to ask how your dog is doing.

[2:25] Betty Buckley: Oh, she's uh she's been having this ever since we went on the road. Uh we were gone thirteen months with Hello Dolly all across America. And um she started having these bouts of pancreatitis. Um so we have to get Pediolite and give her with a syringe and get her through that and then find a vet in the next city. So now it's happened about four times and she was better, and then today she stopped eating again, so I had to race her to the vet, and they found out she was dehydrated again, so she's a little shih tzu, and she's my little precious friend, and so yeah, I just got back from the vet.

[3:02] Lara Scott: Well, I'm sorry that you're going through that, but I'm so glad that she has you to take care of.

[3:06] Betty Buckley: And I'm so glad that you guys have each other for uh being on tour. Um traveling. I her name is Pippa, and then her cousin uh Zoe traveled with us too. Two little shits, and then I have a beautiful Malin was shepherd dog. Wow uh named Lucas. And so my three dogs and my assistant, Kathy Briganti, who's worked with me for nineteen years, she has an adopted Shepherd Lab mix. So we were this little caravan of four dogs and two girls traveling all across America.

[3:34] Lara Scott: I love it.

[3:35] Betty Buckley: I love it. How funny do you have a cat also that you rescued? Because I just saw a picture of a beautiful cat on Instagram.

[3:41] Betty Buckley: Yeah, I have two cats, um two house cats, and then I've just adopted another cat from uh cat rescue in Georgia and she just arrived two weeks ago, so the whole household is topsy turvy while everybody's trying to get used to this uh new creature in the house and the new creature, the new cat, uh her name is Callie, is um trying to adjust to um a house full of dogs and cats that she's just met, so it's been two weeks now, but she's she's adjusting nicely and everybody seems to be taking it a bit more for granted every day.

[4:14] Lara Scott: That's so great that things are settling in. And isn't it wonderful? We have social media now that we can share all these pictures.

[4:20] Betty Buckley: It really lets people get to know you. You know, they might know you from your roles or or the characters that you've played. But I love that I mean I found out on Twitter that you're an animal lover and you've become a social media superstar in addition to everything else that you're doing.

[4:34] Betty Buckley: Well, I wouldn't say that, but thank you for saying that. Um my assistant lives in the guest house on the ranch and she's worked with me for nineteen years. I think I said that, but um so between us we've rescued about twenty two animals while we've lived here at the ranch over the past sixteen years. And um but it's it's almost like when we moved here, everybody the word got out that if they wanted to dump their animals to dump them near the Buckley Ranch. And some dogs came to us, some cats came to us, others I found along the side of the road and uh picked them up and rescued them and my brothers uh were laughing when that was happening at the beginning of my time living here at the ranch.

They were like, Betty Lynn, you can't go into people's houses and take their pets. And I'm like, I'm not doing that. They're coming to me. And they they my I have three younger brothers and they they love to tease me relentlessly, so uh but anyway, that was the running gag was that I was going in in stealing people's animals. But I was not doing that, I swear.

[5:34] Will Armstrong: Well, you're talking to two animal lovers right here, so we appreciate everything you're doing for all of these providing loving homes for these animals. That's amazing.

[5:42] Will Armstrong: Um Lara and I had the pleasure of seeing you when you came through Los Angeles at the Pantages in Hello Dolly, and you were amazing. We loved you.

[5:51] Lara Scott: We loved every moment of it, and you were you it was incredible. I we both love the show very, very much, and watching you and what you brought to that role and what the entire cast brought to the role, uh their roles. It was it was a very fun night. So thank you.

[6:18] Betty Buckley: Now we're looking forward to your cabaret performances in Costa Mesa coming up on October 17th, 18th, and 19th.

[6:27] Lara Scott: And what can somebody coming to one of those shows expect? Because it sounds like it's gonna be very different from say going to see you as Dolly Levi.

[6:36] Betty Buckley: Well, I would think so, but um yeah, it's it's uh I've been working with the same ensemble of musicians for a number of years now. Uh my pianist Christian Jacob, who's also my ranger and music director. He and I have been working together for almost ten years. We've done three of my most recent albums together. The most uh the one that was just released last um a year ago, um by um Palmetto Records was called Hope. And so the majority of the repertoire will be coming from Hope, and the album before that, the previous year was called Story Songs. So some of the songs will be from Hope, some from Story Songs, within a couple of new pieces that Christian has just done new arrangements for. And he's also done some terrific new arrangements of the uh three of the main songs that I sing in or sang in Hello Dolly.

Um Parade Passes By when the parade passes by or before the parade passes by, Hello Dolly and um So Long Deary. They're very cool arrangements, so I'm excited to uh share those. And then a couple of new songs that I've just been inspired to sing and a couple of new songs by Jason Robert Brown that I think are really timely. He wrote the song Hope, the title song uh for my latest album. You know, Jason is one of our elite musical theater um composer lyricists is a brilliant writer and storyteller. And I loved, loved, loved his music for a really long time. So the Samueli Theater at the Segerstrom Center will I think we've played there twice in the past. In fact we recorded story songs there a couple of years ago and so this is I think our third engagement there and um so I I love the Sagerstrom uh Center of the Arts and I love the Samuel Theater and and so I'll be there with Christian and uh the drummer Dave Tole from LA and um the bass player Trey Henry um who's brilliant and plays with Christian and the Tierney Sutton band.

And then a guitar player that I really admire named Near Felder is flying in from New York. So I'm excited to get to see all those guys and work with them again and present an evening of what we think is really beautiful, timely and topical music.

[8:52] Betty Buckley: Then I have another big concert in on Saturday, November 2nd at the Saban Theater in Beverly Hills. And the gr brilliant saxophone player Tom Scott, um who had a bunch of hit records with a group called the LA Express, his group um is going to be doing the opening set with his guest Billy Valentine. And then uh that concert is gonna be with Christian, my same pianist arranger, musical director, the drummer Ray Brinker, and this brilliant guitar player that I've worked with for a number of years named Oz Noy, uh who's flying in for that concert, and the bass player Trey Henry again. Um so and then Tom is gonna be coming on in the second half of the concert to uh do some uh material with me too and I think I might get to do a duet with Billy Valentine who's a brilliant singer.

So I'm excited. I think it's gonna be a really musical evening um in LA um with the you know honor of getting to work with Tom and the brilliant musicians that I I'm very lucky to get to play with and then the the Segersham is um this new you know hope with the song material from the Hope album plus some of this new stuff from Dolly and um a couple of other two or three other new pieces.

[10:07] Will Armstrong: And Betty I would guess that people love hearing the stories that you tell in between the songs almost as much as they love to hear you sing. Can you say a little bit about like the stories are you talking about growing up or how you first got into musical theater?

[10:20] Betty Buckley: Well, there's some of them are on hope and some of them are on story songs, but all those things kind of just come up in the moment. Um, I have a general sense of what I think I might say and why a song is important to me or why I've chosen it. But it usually just happens in the moment and in the inspiration of the moment and, um, the connection I have with that particular audience. So I'm still kind of in the process of learning these new songs that I'm doing and, um, the new arrangements that Christian has done for me and thinking about the structure of the evening and how the songs go together. It's really quite a process and it all just kind of evolves and reveals itself to me over the time that I work on it, um, and says, "Okay, let's do this."

So at this point we've got, uh, quite a few songs that we're gonna choose from and then we in the rehearsal process, which will be, um, for several days before I come to Costa Mesa, um, I get to LA on October fourteenth and then rehearse with the band the fifteenth and sixteenth and then go to Costa Mesa and, uh, rehearse there. I just got back from a trip to LA for four days working with Christian on, uh, the material and what songs from the past two albums, hope and story songs that we might select, and so we just ran through all that stuff there in LA. I just came back and now I'll go back out and add in the trio and then Nearfelder will show up and we'll continue to work on the music and then present the three songs at the Samueli Theater.

Um, and then I come back home for a week and then go back to LA for four days before the, uh, four or five days before the November second concert and work again with that particular group of musicians and Tom Scott on formulating the rest of the plan for the evening.

[12:14] Lara Scott: How many animals are going with you back and forth?

[12:17] Betty Buckley: This trip nobody. This trip will be everybody will be staying home. Um, I have a quick question for you, Betty. Uh, well, actually, the other day someone asked me, they said, "Who if name a celebrity that you would love to have dinner with?" And I am kind of as obsessed with you on social media. One, because I love to hear what you're talking about as far as performing wise, but I also love what you post and repost about society and the environment and politics. I just feel like I really appreciate your take on things. And I said, "You're welcome." And I said, "Betty Buckley, I would love to talk to her and just have a meal with her." So my question for you is who would you love to have a meal with if you could choose one person?

[12:56] Betty Buckley: Oh God, there's so many people I admire so much. Um, well I was invited recently to, um, an event in Austin, Texas, um, to, um, meet with Nancy Pelosi and some wonderful women, um, who are running for office and, um, I really wanted to go to that. But I was previously engaged and it's like a three-hour drive there and three-hour drive back so to from where I live, my ranch, uh, which is near Fort Worth. So I at the last minute decided I couldn't make the trip because I had so much going on here at home and work I had to do. But yeah, I'd like to sit down with Nancy Pelosi and pick her brain.

[13:37] Lara Scott: That's a good one.

[13:38] Betty Buckley: Or Ruth Bader Ginsburg, that would be an inspiration, or Hillary Clinton. You know, I really admire them. Or Kamala Harris, you know. Um, yeah, all those wonderful women that have inspired me so much, um, and that we're very, very blessed to have on the political scene today. Um, let me think who else. I would love to sit down with, um, uh, Martin Scorsese at some point and ask him a million questions. I love great filmmaking and, um, I can't wait to see his new movie, The Irishman.

[14:14] Lara Scott: Yes.

[14:14] Betty Buckley: Um, and I've, I don't know, people like that I suppose.

[14:21] Lara Scott: That was, uh, thank you, that was incredible. And I, it makes me appreciate you even more because I feel like all those people would be on my list too. They're there for us to, you know, they provide inspiration and, um, they're all of those women are role models to me. Um, you know, and it given me the courage to step forward in and of myself to say what I feel too. Um, which I think it's important for us these days to do. You know, the, the unfortunate thing about social media is that everybody is led to believe that all of their most petty opinions are meaningful and they're not, you know. Um, but the, uh, upside of it is it gives us the opportunity to, um, to have, as you said, to have, you know, inspiration of the people that, um, have chosen right thinking and, um, and who care about humanity and our planet and they serve as beacons of light for the rest of us, you know, in terms of, uh, how we go about our lives and, um, yeah, it's a, it's a critical time period as Nancy Pelosi said, you know, the times have found us and, um, we have to rise to the occasion and protect both our planet, you know, first and foremost our planet, our humanity, um, our connection with one another and our, uh, beautiful but delicate democracy and our republic, which is, you know, needs, uh, utmost attention and care and is currently, um, you know, being challenged and it's, it's, uh, they're very, uh, strange times and something I never anticipated that we'd be living through but we are, you know, and it's, uh, it's not easy.

[16:09] Will Armstrong: Well if you ever run for anything you've got my vote and Will's also.

[16:14] Betty Buckley: No, that would, thank you for saying that but in a million years never, no, no, not me. I'm there to support, you know, everybody else but not, um, no.

[16:25] Lara Scott: Well, I'm sure that tickets are selling very, very quickly right now but if you are listening and you would like to go see Betty Buckley at the, um, Samueli Theater down at Segerstrom Center for the Arts from October seventeenth to the nineteenth tickets are available at SCFTA dot org.

[16:42] Betty Buckley: Thank you.

[16:43] Lara Scott: My pleasure and so much you're an inspiration and an amazing role model and we are just so honored to have spoken with you today.

[16:51] Betty Buckley: Thank you. I promise you whoever comes to the concerts, um, you know, some beautiful, beautiful music played by some of the most exquisite world-class musicians that I have such good fortune to work with. I'm so thrilled to, I haven't worked with them, uh, for like a year and a half because of the whole Hello Dolly and before that I was shooting Preacher in New Orleans. So it's been a while since I've done a concert and, and so I'm anticipating just standing on a stage again and luxuriating in the music that they all create and being at, um, the girl singer in the center of them is amazing to me. But it's, it's such a blessing. But the songs we're picking are truly really beautiful songs and the new arrangements Christian has done, um, are just exquisite. So I'm, I'm excited to share them.

[17:41] Lara Scott: And we can't wait to hear them. We look forward to it, not just in Costa Mesa, but also at the Saban Theater here in LA. And Betty, thank you so much. Give your beautiful animals a big hug from us, and we will see you out here in Southern California soon.

[17:54] Betty Buckley: Thanks so much, Lara. Thanks, Will.

[17:56] Betty Buckley: Thank you. Take care.

[17:57] Lara Scott: Thank you.

[17:58] Betty Buckley: Bye-bye.

[17:58] Will Armstrong: Okay, how sweet is she?

[18:00] Lara Scott: Okay, so humanitarian. She loves animals. And I also love that she loves her musicians and gives them the credit that they deserve. That means so much to me. Didn't you just feel that she was so excited to be working?

[18:11] Will Armstrong: I'm sure they're freaking out and so honored to be working with her.

[18:14] Lara Scott: But I mean, you could just tell how much she enjoys working with them. What an amazing professional and what a just a bright, beautiful light. I think she called somebody a beacon of light just a moment ago, and that's her for sure.

[18:25] Will Armstrong: Well, whether you're a performer or a movie director or politician or whatever, these are all acts of service. You know, it's about doing things for other people and changing and affecting lives. And I feel like she's done that on film, on stage, on television, you know, and it's just so incredible that we had an opportunity to speak with her.

[18:44] Lara Scott: That's so cool. We've got to get to one of these shows for sure.

[18:47] Will Armstrong: Well, we're gonna coordinate our calendars because, yeah.

[18:49] Lara Scott: And the Saban Theater is this beautiful art deco jewel of a theater in Beverly Hills, right down the road from where we're taping, kind of in this mid-Wilshire area.

[18:56] Will Armstrong: Exactly.

[18:57] Lara Scott: Uh, it's beautiful, and that's another great intimate setting where every seat is a good one. So that's a fantastic place to see a show. And then for the Samueli Theater that Betty was mentioning at Segerstrom Center for the Arts for tickets for those shows, you can go to, as Will mentioned, SCFTA.org. You can go to the box office, and you can also call 714 556 2787.

[19:19] Will Armstrong: That's 714 556 2787.

[19:23] Lara Scott: And if you go and you're having a great time, uh, tag us and let us know how you enjoyed the show. Will, where can we find you?

[19:27] Will Armstrong: I am Will Armstrong PR on Instagram, Facebook, and Twitter.

[19:32] Lara Scott: And also the Fresh Clean Teas.

[19:34] Will Armstrong: Oh, yeah. This is a t-shirt subscription company called Fresh Clean Teas. They are awesome and their colors are great and the fit is great. And I bought some and they had a contest where you just, you take a picture and you post it and tag Fresh Clean Contest. And I got it, yeah, and I won.

[19:53] Lara Scott: But yours were like model quality photos.

[19:55] Will Armstrong: Well, like you with a cup of coffee gazing into the distance with a really cute dog.

[19:59] Lara Scott: I'm not gonna phone it in.

[20:00] Will Armstrong: I told you I was gonna complain if you didn't win.

[20:03] Lara Scott: I'd be like, get me somebody for Fresh Clean Teas.

[20:05] Will Armstrong: Uh, but congratulations, Will, on that.

[20:07] Will Armstrong: So yes, at Will Armstrong PR.

[20:09] Lara Scott: I am at Lariscott Media on Facebook, Twitter, and Instagram. And if you're looking for us, you can find us just west of Broadway.