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[0:00] Will Armstrong: A new interpretation of The Color Purple is coming to Los Angeles, and we're gonna talk to two of the stars, and then we'll check in with Ensemble Member Jennifer Lynn O'Hara about her trip to Simi Valley to see Guys and Dolls.

[0:23] Lara Scott: It's curtains up on another episode of West of Broadway, a celebration of musical theater in Los Angeles.

[0:29] Will Armstrong: Our radio host and theater enthusiast Lara Scott, along with celebrity publicist and theater veteran Will Armstrong. Welcome.

[0:37] Will Armstrong: Well, we are so excited to talk to some of the cast members of The Color Purple. But first, let's get into some LA Theater buzz.

[0:44] Lara Scott: For our listeners who might have a Disney dream of their own, Disney on Broadway is holding open call auditions. Disney Theatrical Productions will hold open auditions for its current and future productions of the award-winning musicals Aladdin, Frozen, and The Lion King in Los Angeles on February 15th through the 17th in downtown Dance and Movement. Visit DisneyonBroadway.com/casting for details and casting breakdowns.

[1:38] Will Armstrong: And we are thrilled to be talking to Seely and Shook, Gabrielle Jackson, and April Nixon. Welcome to West of Broadway. We appreciate you ladies. We know that you are probably just right in the thick of it right now with rehearsals because the show's opening really, really soon. How is rehearsal going, by the way?

[1:58] Gabrielle Jackson: It's great. I mean, it's just frustrating because it's so fast, you know, and it's a big, big show. But, you know, as performers, we always seem to pull it together. The last there's a thing I think about the magic of even just right before opening night. I think the week after, you know, the technical elements really settle in, everybody's together, and then that week right before opening, everything just kind of falls into place. I think that's the magic of theater. All of the elements coming together and all the people coming together as well.

[2:37] Will Armstrong: Do you feel like there's just something inside of you that kind of knows what to do at this point? I mean, you guys both have amazing bios that just sort of knows, okay, this is what we need to do. You know, it's showtime and it's happening whether we're ready or not, and you just kind of jump into it and go with it.

[2:53] Gabrielle Jackson: Yeah, I believe as long as you know the story, you know your journey, you pretty much know the characters, and you should know which way you're going down this road.

[3:05] April Nixon: Absolutely. It all will, it's like a puzzle, you know. You know the pieces, you know what the picture looks like. Now put it together.

[3:13] Gabrielle Jackson: Exactly. And that's exactly what's happening.

[3:16] Will Armstrong: Lara and I recently had the pleasure of seeing the national tour at the Pantages Theater, and it was such a wonderful, beautiful production. How does that feel?

[3:25] April Nixon: I yes, it's a period piece, but I feel like its message is so timeless. Do you feel a huge responsibility with telling these stories?

[3:39] Gabrielle Jackson: Well, personally, I feel a really large responsibility, especially since Cynthia Erivo, who is one of the most incredible performers I've ever had the pleasure of experiencing, and there's such a long line of women from Fantasia to Miss LaShawn. All of these people have made this role something incredible and powerful and something that does have the ability to speak. And of course, you know, it's such a well-written score and there's so many incredible songs like "I'm Here" is just this declaration of independence, and there's so many beautiful moments in the show that are, you know, captivating and incredible, especially with, you know, the way they're being directed now. But there's this long line of women for me that has come before me who are these dynamic performers, and so now I'm like, okay, well, I'm not gonna give you Cynthia, I'm not gonna give you LaShawn, but I'm going to give you the very best Gabrielle Jackson that I absolutely can.

[4:46] April Nixon: Absolutely. Tell me about what is different about this production. I know that the national tour that we saw, it was very stripped down. They used chairs as set pieces and in different ways. Like, how is your interpretation like for this production?

[5:03] April Nixon: Well, with this interpretation, this is April, by the way. You do, I love that sexy deep voice. With this version, I love the fact that our fearless leader, our director, choreographer Jeffrey Polk, is actually telling the story of Alice Walker's Pulitzer Prize-winning book. So you're gonna get more developed characters as you would have if you had read the book. And so for those people who actually read the book, you're gonna see the book. Like, you're gonna see the relationship between Suge Avery and her dad. You're gonna see the relationship between Mr. and Suge and why he's so in love with this woman and why she's so crazy about him and also why she keeps leaving him. And Sophia's character and Seely's character, you know, she really developed these characters in the book and that's the version we're doing. It's a combination of the shows and the movie, but it's more of the book. So even if you haven't read the book, it delves in and we sort of break the fourth wall, which has never been done.

[6:14] Gabrielle Jackson: Nice.

[6:15] April Nixon: Right? So nobody's gonna be ready for that.

[6:17] Gabrielle Jackson: Oh, very, very intimate. I'm doing like the slow clap right now 'cause I said to Will when we saw the tour, I said, I loved it, but I feel like there's so much more that I want. You know, it's like I wanted some more time with some of those storylines and I love that we're gonna get it when we come to see you.

[6:32] April Nixon: Oh, you're definitely gonna get this because it's, first of all, it's ninety-nine feet, so it's a lot closer, it's a lot more intimate, and the set itself, which I absolutely love, is you feel like you're in a shack in the backwoods in Mississippi, you know. And it's gonna bring a certain element, the tone, the colors to the audience. You're just gonna feel like you're in the middle of a plantation.

[7:03] Gabrielle Jackson: I love it.

[7:04] April Nixon: You're in a plantation, but really you're in the heart of Los Angeles.

[7:07] Will Armstrong: I love that. What are some of your favorite things about being here and performing in the city?

[7:16] April Nixon: Well, I am here—

[7:16] Gabrielle Jackson: Oh, go ahead, go ahead, Gabby.

[7:19] April Nixon: No, no, no, go ahead, April. Go ahead, you're from New—you're all the way from New York.

[7:19] April Nixon: Well, I came out here from New Jersey. Nice. And I was doing a show at Sacramento Music, and I was pretty much led to leap, jump. Just come out here and take a chance. You should be here. I did, and then The Color Purple landed in my lap. I've been trying to do this show since 2005, all incarnations of it. And so the fact that I'm actually getting a chance to, at this stage in my life, this transition in my life, play this character who is really so close to home for me in a lot of ways is cathartic. You know, yeah, this is great that I'm doing this piece. It's beautiful music. It's well-written, but it's the story. It's the text, it's the book. It's such a strong book. It's not just a musical; the book is just as strong as the music as far as I'm concerned, and that's really why I've always wanted to do this show because of the text, because of the dialogue, because of where we are now in today's society, women being treated a certain way.

You know, how men view us, how we view ourselves, how we come together to support each other, you know, how we lift up our men, how we raise our children, how there was once a community, and you know, and we've kind of lost that. And this shows love. Love is love is love is love, as Lin-Manuel would say. You know, and it's just emotional, and I'm happy to be in LA at this time in my life. I'm just a real vitamin D, and I get to dig into something that's, you know, heavy.

[8:52] Gabrielle Jackson: It's still like summertime actually in November if you're in LA.

[8:55] April Nixon: I know.

[8:56] Gabrielle Jackson: Oh my goodness. See, Gabrielle, what do you love about performing in LA? Then we'll let you guys get back to rehearsal.

[9:01] Gabrielle Jackson: Oh, I absolutely love the fact that there is so much going on in the city and everything is so close to each other. I have always been like so anti-Los Angeles as far as like coming into 'cause I'm from the suburbs. I'm from Orange County, so I'm definitely like a suburbia girl. So coming into the city was very strange for me, and I always joke around that I'm not super into the city. It's very fast, it's very hot, there's so many people. But what I love about this is that everything's so accessible, and so now we're in the heart of Los Angeles. We've got this gorgeous theater, Greenway Court Theater. It's so small, so intimate, and it's so readily accessible for people to come and see exactly what it is that we have to present.

[9:55] April Nixon: You know, I've done shows like, you know, out in Sonora where you're in Northern California and you want your friends to come and you ask them to come and some of them do and they have like a cool wine tasting weekend. But this is like, oh, you're down the street. Every time that I say anything about the show to anybody and I'm talking about where the theater is located, they're like, oh, you're right down the street. You're right down the street. So the accessibility and especially in the area that we're in because we've been doing a couple of student previews as well. Greenway has a great arts alliance, which is why the show is so closely mirrored after the book so that the students that are reading the book can see the book live, which Jeffrey did such an amazing job of.

But a lot of the students raised their hand and were like, we've never seen live theater before. And so for a show to be of this caliber, and with this team, we've got Patrick Gandhi, we've got Jeffrey, we've got April who has got this incredible resume, you know, there and Miss Carol, who's from the original Broadway cast, and Miss Lynette, who's from the tour. Having theater of this caliber in this space right now, I think it's so important and to have it so that everyone can get to it, no matter where in Los Angeles you are. It's but a car ride, but an Uber away.

[11:21] Will Armstrong: Well, I know it must be just take everything you have to go on this journey every night as these characters. But thank you, April, and thank you, Gabrielle, for bringing Seely and Shook to life and telling this incredible story in this production. We have some friends that are gonna be there opening night on the 10th, and so they're gonna call us after they see it. So we'll get to talk about your amazing performances. So congratulations and thank you for joining us today. We really appreciate it.

[11:46] Gabrielle Jackson: We thank you really so much. Take care. Have a beautiful rest of your Sunday.

[11:50] April Nixon: Thank you.

[11:52] Will Armstrong: Thank you so much, ladies. Bye. And those of you listening, tickets are available online at Greenway Theater.org/slash the color purple.

[12:02] Will Armstrong: You're listening to West of Broadway with Will Armstrong and Lara Scott. We are so happy to welcome a member of our West of Broadway ensemble back to the podcast. And it's fun because we're building a whole wonderful group of theater lovers to help us cover shows here in Southern California. And actress and author Jennifer Lynn O'Hara is our very first one, my friend JJ. Welcome back to West of Broadway.

[12:20] Jennifer Lynn O'Hara: Hi, yay! I'm so happy to be back. Fresh off of seeing Guys and Dolls last night, we're recording this. I was like, what day is it? Sunday, November 4th. But you saw last night, right?

[12:32] Will Armstrong: Yeah, I saw it last night, November third. It was opening night for Guys and Dolls at the Simi Valley Cultural Arts Center. Um and it was presented by the Actors of Repertory Theater Simi Valley. Wonderful. What was your initial impression of the production?

[12:46] Jennifer Lynn O'Hara: 'Cause they're like they're going classic with this one. Yeah, right. I mean, this is a classic. This is an old favorite. And my first production my first thought was, you know, I'm always a little hesitant when I go see a classic because it has some pretty big shoes to fill from previous productions, including a production of my own history, which I have a secret to share. Um hopefully we'll fill that in today. Um and so that was my first I'm always a little leery going, okay, how is this gonna play out? But let me tell you, it was great.

[13:15] Will Armstrong: Yay. That is so great to hear.

[13:18] Jennifer Lynn O'Hara: Yeah. And you have these expectations of the characters because we know them so well because Guys and Dolls, it's one of the it's like it's part of the Great American songbook as far as musical theater goes. And but these guys did not disappoint. Uh the um Miss Adelaide, oh my goodness, this woman should be on Broadway, she's amazing. Sarah Brown, she's you can see her on TV, but she's also one of those that should be on Broadway. She was literally amazing and they're just playing right up the road in Simi Valley.

[13:48] Will Armstrong: How were her hot box girls?

[13:51] Jennifer Lynn O'Hara: They were adorable.

[13:53] Will Armstrong: Excellent. And how was how was the choreography for the entire like for like all the gangsters and whatnot?

[13:59] Jennifer Lynn O'Hara: It was fantastic. And the interesting thing about this venue is that it the venue itself is gorgeous. It's got a history all in itself. And the stage is actually very small. So I was wondering how are they were gonna launch this big production on a really small stage. So the choreography it was done very well. It's kinda they kind of do it in shifts, and so they'll they'll bring three or four dancers up while the other dancers are are going towards the back, and then so they kind of it looks like the entire stage is dancing when only three or four people are dancing at a time. Super. Um it's very lively.

[14:32] Will Armstrong: Okay, uh a scale of one to Marlon Brando, how hot was Sky?

[14:38] Jennifer Lynn O'Hara: You know, Sky was tall and handsome.

[14:42] Will Armstrong: Excellent. Cool. That's that's how I like my skies. All right, good. Like that's worth driving to see Simi Valley.

[14:46] Jennifer Lynn O'Hara: Yeah, I wanted to ask you, JG, because that is the drive for you. How did you hear about the show and what was it that prompted you to make a long drive on a very busy weekend for you?

[14:57] Jennifer Lynn O'Hara: Well, because I was looking for musicals that were out of my normal area, and if that meant I had to drive a little bit, uh then great. I was actually filming in LA yesterday, so I figured it would be perfect for me to just drive up, you know, a little bit further up north and and see this in Simi Valley. And Guys and Dolls, I have kind of a special attachment to Guys and Dolls. So here's the secret part that I kind of teased in my social media. Um Guys and Dolls was my f one of my very first big musicals. I was a hot box doll. Uh-huh. And it was also the musical that gave me my very first real boyfriend.

[15:38] Will Armstrong: Aww.

[15:39] Jennifer Lynn O'Hara: And he was a gambler. So of course it was doomed to the stars.

[15:44] Will Armstrong: In real life, or just in the play?

[15:46] Jennifer Lynn O'Hara: Yeah, in in real life at well, yeah, in in the play he was the gambler, but um he took a gamble on me and he was my very first boyfriend and so uh a little fondness in my heart for Guys and Dolls.

[15:58] Will Armstrong: I was gonna say, yeah, a little trip back down memory lane for you probably watching that last night.

[16:03] Jennifer Lynn O'Hara: Yeah, very much so, yeah. Well what is uh you know, was there a standout moment or actor or you know, something about this that you know, maybe somebody's thinking, okay, that sounds kinda good, but you know, why should somebody go see this?

[16:15] Jennifer Lynn O'Hara: I would say just to see the her name is Dawn Michelle, she plays Miss Adelaide. Just to see her is worth the drive alone. Whenever she's on stage with other people, she um she is a standout. But when she's on stage alone, she's captivating and you fall in love with her and she has a voice that fills the entire venue without and it doesn't even look like she's trying. And you just you just want to be her friend and and help her, you know, get over her cold.

[16:50] Will Armstrong: Exactly. Well I mean, uh when I think of Guys and Dolls, I think of um the revival with Lorna Luft and like in the n she was so incredible and such a uh such an iconic star and that role is so hilariously wonderful and fragile and beautiful and and so it's that makes my heart sing that we uh that she doesn't disappoint. So good for her.

[17:11] Jennifer Lynn O'Hara: Wonderful. Yeah. And they they really of course the the show itself, you they uh it's really Sarah and Skye's story as far as, you know, who's the lead and who's the supporting characters, but in reality it's it's Miss Adelaide and Nathan Detroit that you just fall in love with because of their who they are, their characters, and then how these actors portrayed them. Gosh, they were amazing. They were standouts.

[17:34] Will Armstrong: Oh, I'm so glad to hear that. That always makes my heart happy to hear about a another one that's just a smash, like a home run when you go see it and you love it. It's called the Simi Valley Cultural Arts Center. The show opened last night, November 3rd. It's running through December 9th, so plenty of time to get tickets to see it. And uh tickets are at Simi-Arts.org.

[17:56] Jennifer Lynn O'Hara: Wonderful. And JJ, congratulations to you for your role on The Kids Are All Right, which is like smash hit of the new fall TV season.

[18:04] Jennifer Lynn O'Hara: Thank you. It was so much fun, and everybody connected with the show is amazing. So tune in, ABC.

[18:10] Will Armstrong: That is fantastic. All right. Well, we can't wait to hear what you see next and what you do next. And uh we'll keep an eye out for you on Instagram at Jennifer Lynn O'Hara. Have a beautiful afternoon.

[18:19] Jennifer Lynn O'Hara: Thank you so much.

[18:21] Will Armstrong: Thanks, JJ. Thanks, JJ. Talk to you soon. I'll text you later. Bye.

[18:25] Jennifer Lynn O'Hara: Bye bye.

[18:26] Will Armstrong: I love her. Is that fun? I feel like we get to live vicariously through all of our friends that we're sending out to see all of these different shows. And uh it's great to hear about them, but there's nothing better than talking to someone who is there in the audience that vow Oh, I should have asked her like what the audience reaction was, because that's really fun too to hear if they're into it.

[18:42] Lara Scott: Right. But it it it's so I just love that we have to resort to leaning on our friends who love musical theater because there's so we forget how much there is in the city. And that you can't like for us to have our day jobs and to do that, it's near impossible. But to but to share the love of musical theater with all these friends is so incredible. It's really wonderful. We're gonna have an ensemble of hundreds at this rate.

[19:04] Will Armstrong: That's a very well thank you so much for joining us here on West of Broadway. You can catch up on previous episodes at West of Broadway Podcast.com. We hope that you will subscribe on iTunes. Thank you for doing that. Uh, reach out to us anytime if you think there's a show we should check out or talk about. You can reach out to me on Facebook, Twitter, and Instagram at Lara Scott Media. And I'm Will Armstrong, PR across all social platforms. Thank you so much for joining us here on the podcast. And if you are looking for us, you can find us just west of Broadway.