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[0:00] ♪ Musical number: "When Lightning Strikes" — performed by Unknown artist ♪

[0:25] Jeryl Brunner: Hi, this is Jeryl Brunner, and you're listening to When Lightning Strikes, where we talk about the tingly mic drop moments that led you to becoming an artist.

[0:37] Valisia LeKae: Valisia LeKae stars as LaVern Baker in Rock and Roll Man. The hit musical is now playing at New World Stages. Valisia was nominated for Tony and Grammy Awards, playing Diana Ross in Motown: The Musical. Some of Valisia's other Broadway and Off-Broadway credits include Three Penny Opera, 110 in the Shade, Ragtime, Book of Mormon, Superhero, and Almost Heaven: The John Denver Musical. On TV, she's been seen in The Marvelous Mrs. Maisel, FBI: Most Wanted, The Blacklist, and Blue Bloods. On March 15th, Valisia will be making her Carnegie Hall debut in the show Hittsville: Celebrating Motown with the New York Pops. Welcome!

[1:35] Jeryl Brunner: Thank you so much.

[1:37] Valisia LeKae: I sometimes forget what I've done, but thank you for reminding me.

[1:43] Jeryl Brunner: What an epic, epic career.

[1:46] Valisia LeKae: Yeah.

[1:47] Jeryl Brunner: And it's only, I mean, it's and you're still very young.

[1:52] Valisia LeKae: Yeah, I'd like to think.

[1:54] Jeryl Brunner: I mean, this business may say otherwise, but I'd like to think so.

[1:58] Valisia LeKae: So you're young. What is the joy for you of being in Rock and Roll Man?

[2:04] Valisia LeKae: Well, the joy for me for being in Rock and Roll Man is it's gonna all end just for performing period, it's gonna always go back to the people. I think the work that we do as artists is very purposeful. You know, I get to use my voice as an instrument of love and healing. And every night that I get to go on stage in order of service to the people is a moment where we get to be reminded of togetherness, of how we connect with each other, of how we can take two hours and thirty minutes and just forget about all of our troubles and just laugh and just be reminded of why we are human, but why we celebrate each other in the fashion of love and joy and honor and music.

[2:45] Jeryl Brunner: Oh, that's so wonderful. What a gift to the audience. And for people who might not know Rock and Roll Man, which tells this wonderful story and an incredible inspiring story of Alan Freed, and then LaVern Baker, and how all these artists, you know, fit into that world, you know, of the 50s and 60s, right?

[3:14] Valisia LeKae: I'll let you tell it.

[3:15] Valisia LeKae: Yeah, so Rock and Roll Man is essentially the story of sort of Alan Freed, who was this local DJ out of Ohio, who got the opportunity to play black music on the radio. And the way our story takes place is that we're gathering on the day of Alan Freed's last day, and he sort of has this fever dream, this sort of nightmare where he's now represented by Little Richard as his attorney, and the opposing attorney is J. Edgar Hoover. And so, in the midst of this trial to which he has, he now goes into this sort of world to which we now be, we're now becoming introduced to all of these characters in his life. That goes from myself as LaVern Baker, Chuck Berry, the wonderful Coasters, Jerry Lee Lewis, Bo Diddley, along with some personal people in his life, like his wife and his daughter.

And so we sort of get to relive this nonfictional story or fictional story in sort of with a historical context, because Alan Freed was a local DJ. He was one of the first to play black music on the radio. He was sort of one of the first to bring this music to the masses to integrated audiences, and he was a rule breaker. And so we sort of get to see this story evolve over the amount of two hours and fifteen minutes.

[4:38] Jeryl Brunner: And your character LaVern Baker, oh goodness. I mean, she is incredibly talented, sings these beautiful songs that we all know, like "Tweedly D" and "Jim Dandy," and she for people who like what would you like people to know about LaVern Baker? Because she was, I mean, she was inducted into the Rock and Roll Hall of Fame, what the second woman and yeah, she was she was one of the second solo women. I think Aretha Franklin was the first, which was after the second year that the Rock and Roll Hall of Fame was started, but she was inducted the same year that Ike and Tina Turner were inducted. So she I would say she would be the solo, the first solo artist who was alive, or the second solo artist who was alive to be inducted as far as females.

But yeah, she was one of its early inductees. But what I would love for people to remember about LaVern Baker, not only is she this dynamic performer with loads of personality, but she used humor to allow herself to navigate through many different audiences. A lot of times, if you go on YouTube and see her perform, she's performing in front of white audiences, and they love her. And what they love about her is that she was able to not just make them smile but make them feel really comfortable in their own skin, but comfortable being around her, but comfortable listening to the music. But more than anything, LaVern Baker was resilient. You know, she died at a very young age, and I would say a young age of 67 after having both of her legs amputated.

And she would say, "Listen, I don't have my legs, but I still have my voice. I can still get out there and sing." And for her, it was a ministry. Like she was not going to allow any person, anything, any illness to stop her from using her voice as a gift to the world. And she died doing so.

[6:38] Jeryl Brunner: And what's extraordinary is I read that what was it she sang she was such a trailblazer. I mean, she sang Elvis, she sang songs that other people went on to sing.

[6:51] Valisia LeKae: Absolutely. I mean, yeah, like you know, when Elvis records her song, you know, you obviously have done something right. Because, you know, she recorded, you know, like in the world of Big Mama Thornton with "Hound Dog," Elvis did that, you know, LaVern Baker, he did "C.C. Rider," you know, and so like, yeah, like she had a lot of these prolific songs, but she had this amazing sound that came out of this little voice that was full of soul, full of rhythm and blues, full of rock, full of gusto, full of fire that she was able to do it. She was able to sing anything, you know, and that's one of the things that I loved about her.

[7:34] Jeryl Brunner: Is there something you wish you could ask or tell her in a parallel universe, you know, if you could talk to her?

[7:42] Valisia LeKae: Absolutely. I mean, a parallel universe, two simple words: thank you. Thank you for just never giving up. Thank you for your grace of how you navigated audiences, but also how you stood for your people, black people, people who loved music. For women, she was full of power, she was full of might and dignity and grace and joy. And I would just simply just honor her by just letting her know that I'm simply grateful to just be able to step into her shoes, even for two hours and thirty minutes, eight shows a week.

[8:19] Jeryl Brunner: And you do so so exquisitely, and I think about how courageous and fearless she was. And that's talked about in the show, you know, where like you said, she's going in front of white audiences, sometimes hostile audiences, and yet she did it.

[8:39] Valisia LeKae: She didn't back away.

[8:41] Jeryl Brunner: She didn't back away, nor did she bat an eye.

[8:44] Valisia LeKae: You know, I think for her, she's like, once I put on this dress, I'm going on stage. So, like, you're not gonna get me to this theater with my lashes and my hair and my dress on and not let me perform. And then all of those people are out there waiting for us. You know, she just did not, she was fearless, she did not allow anything to stop her, and so we see that resilience and that grit about her on stage, and it's just a wonderful thing to tap into.

[9:13] Jeryl Brunner: Talk about fearless. I think about your journey, yeah, and from what I've been researching and what you've gone through. I want to start though with your lightning strikes moment when you knew you had to be an artist. You were raised in Memphis, right?

[9:35] Valisia LeKae: Tennessee. I was raised in Memphis, yeah.

[9:38] Jeryl Brunner: And say in church, but I'll let you tell it.

[9:41] Valisia LeKae: Yeah, so for me, you know, my mother and my grandmother always talked about like how I did not speak as a child, like I was very, very quiet. And my grandmother was a little concerned about why I wasn't saying anything. But I like to think that I was just a really in-tuned listener, and really being in tune with connecting with the people and sort of finding my way towards helping people heal. But the moment I went to church and heard members of the choir sing, that was going to be the way that I was going to communicate with the audiences that were around me. So I probably became more fluent in song than I did in speech first. I mean, obviously, gradually, obviously, when I went to kindergarten and stuff, I learned to speak, but I knew for me in the sixth grade, like singing was going to be my thing.

Like, I would go to church, I would see how these women and these men would transcend the audience, but also like put them in sort of a state of mind that took away everything, and people really reacted to it, and it made them feel something. They were able to connect with the parishioners, with the ministers, with the other members of the choir. And I knew if I was able to just really honestly take away the pain, take away the fear, take away the sorrow, even if it was just for like three minutes, I was like, I'm going to be doing that. And then as I got older, I realized I could get paid for it. So then there was then there was a whole different story. But that was sort of my lightning strike moment for me.

It really was in the church. And it really comes back to like allowing music to be a vehicle for healing and allowing, you know, the voice to really sort of serve in that capacity. That's what it was for me.

[11:35] Jeryl Brunner: Do you remember some of those early songs you sang? And were you part of a choir? Were you doing solos? How did that?

[11:42] Valisia LeKae: Yeah, like you know, in the church, like you had to, you couldn't be in the adult choir. So there was like the sunshine band. And those who will listen of the black church will probably know what I'm talking about. So that was just for like teeny bots like myself, five, six, seven, eight years old. And I don't think I got to really be integrated into like the adult choir until like maybe the teens, early teens, early adolescence, where we would get to join in with the adult choir. But you know, like "This Little Light of Mine" will always be a number one hit for any five or six year old in a black church. You know, "Jesus is the Light of the World." I think this is another one. God, I'm trying to think.

And then, you know, Easter Sunday was also a moment to perform as well. And so on Easter Sunday, not only did we get to sing, but we got to say our Easter speech. And I think my first one was like "Jesus wept," and that was it. And so, like, you see like this four-year-old, these tiny bot children get up and speak in front of the choir and say "Jesus wept," and everyone would just cheer and like yay, and so you know, I responded to like the cheering of it all.

[12:55] Valisia LeKae: And so it really just made me just really think, like, wow, it's amazing what we could do as human beings just to lift joy and bring happiness to people.

[13:04] Valisia LeKae: And so that was sort of the moment for me in church.

[13:08] Jeryl Brunner: So, how did you go from singing in church to do I have this right? Working professionally, like at Dollywood, right? You were a performer there.

[13:18] Valisia LeKae: Yeah. So for me, it just went from one vehicle to the next. So whether it was when I wasn't singing in church, my grandfather, who's a barber, who's a licensed barber, who still is a barber to this day at 91 years old, he would have hair shows. I would ask if I could perform at the hair shows. Anytime anybody had a funeral, I was asked to sing. Any wedding that I could perform at, I was asked to perform anywhere, anywhere, anywhere possible, and also at the local theme park when I was a teenager in Memphis. It's no longer in existence, but it was called Liberty Land. I actually, I hope I don't go to jail for this today, but I actually changed my birth certificate so that I can get a job to help out my family when I was 14 years old to work in their food and beverage department.

Then I heard about the fact that they were hiring singers for their little theaters within the theme park. And I auditioned and I got it. And they told me, okay, we know you changed your age, but we still love you. We want you to perform. And so I started performing at the theme park at 15 years old. I think 15 and 16 years old. I would do it every summer in high school. I came back to do it my second year or first year of college. And I was also performing as like a mascot in college. And when I couldn't do that anymore, that's when I decided that, oh, here's Dollywood, like 45 minutes from my university. Let me go and audition there. And so I was there my last two years of being in college. I absolutely loved it.

[14:55] Jeryl Brunner: What did you do there? What kinds of shows?

[14:58] Valisia LeKae: Get this. What kind of shows? 50s and 60s shows. So a lot of the music that I performed there, honestly, you know, even at the local theme park in high school, I was singing, I played Diana Ross and Michael Jackson. Um, yeah. So like there was a moment where I would go off and sing, I'm gonna make you love me, and then I'd leave the stage and come back and sing um stop the love you say as little Michael Jackson. And then at Dollywood, I too sing Stop in the Name of Love. I was if not the only black girl in the show at the time. So a lot of that music sort of was graced upon me. And I got to do, you know, Diana Ross music. I one year I got to perform with Dolly's brother, Randall, uh Randall, who's now deceased, um, where they featured a lot of the singers at Dollywood, and I got to do some Cassie um God, I can't think of uh Cassie's last name, but she died in her 30s. I got to do weight in the water and different soulful music like that.

Um, I got to do the songs like Johnny Angel, Where the Boys Are, like all of that classic pruner soulful music of that time. And then in the holidays, we would do, you know, 50s and 60s holiday music. Um, but it was a wonderful production. There's still wonderful productions going on to this day, but it was really a great vehicle and a great avenue for me to showcase my talent.

[16:28] Jeryl Brunner: Absolutely. And so here you are. Then you ultimately graduate with a degree in psychology and um child and family studies from the University of Tennessee, Knoxville, right? And how do you get to New York?

[16:44] Valisia LeKae: Well, I remember seeing an ad, people when people used to look at the papers, I remember seeing an ad in the paper about the USO of Metropolitan New York. And they were looking for singers, and I just remember thinking, okay, I, you know, I knew I was going to New York, I just didn't know how I was gonna get there. And I went to audition. They were looking for, I guess first, second, and third runner-up, Miss USO, and two other women. And I didn't get the place of Miss USO, but I did, I was asked to be in the trio. And so I remember leaving school, uh leaving my job at the end of the year at uh Dollywood and getting the opportunity to perform at the USO, but I did not have any place to stay.

I was I didn't have money. I think I might have had the $200 for my last unemployment check, and then no place to stay, no real plan. And I just remember one of the women who was also cast with me in the USO was a theater girl. And uh she said, Hey, listen, I have a one-bedroom apartment. You're free to sleep on my couch, because we're gonna be doing this thing together anyway. And so that's really where I spent my first year in New York City in Queens, sleeping on her couch, performing with the USO.

[18:03] Jeryl Brunner: And what was one of the first most memorable jobs you had in theater with the US?

[18:11] Valisia LeKae: I mean, oh after the USO.

[18:13] Valisia LeKae: Oh, I must I must add that I I was a USO member right after 9/11. So that's been some of the most rewarding work that I've ever done. But um, but the only reason why I bounced into theater, honestly, because I I wanted to be a professional recording artist, like Whitney Houston. But the only reason why I bounced into theater is because once again, one of those women in the USO, they were both into theater, they both graduated with theater degrees, and she said to me, I can't go to my audition. She used the term at the time, they're looking for ethnic women, you know, women of color basically. And uh, so why don't you go? And I was like, okay, so I went. The audition was for Charles Randolph Wright and Nona Gay for her show Skin Diver.

And you know, he was like, Well, you're not really right for what we're looking for, but I'm gonna send your information on to this other person, and that other person was Richard Maltby. I did not know who he was, I did not know anything. I just remember having a conversation with him and saying, So, what is it that you do, and what do you want with me? And you know, I got this really important gig with the USO, so I really don't know if I have time for you and your thing. But, you know, I'm here doing big things with the USO. So he was very gracious and sort of laughed at me, you know, in my I didn't know a lot. And so he just was like, Oh, I sort of created this show and that show, and you know, Miss I Gunn and all these theater things.

And I was like, okay, you know, whatever. And then I ended up doing a workshop of his reading called The 60s Project. Another, again, another world of the 60s. It was called The 60s Project, and uh T. Oliver Reed was in it, Anika Noni Rose, Cass Morgan, a young Alice Lakamore was uh the like the musical director. Um, we had a lot of people from Fairly Modern Millie in it at the time. And I just remember being in that room and being like a sponge and just soaking up everything that I needed to know about theater. Um, and that was sort of my sort of big introduction to the land of you know, musical theater.

[20:31] Jeryl Brunner: Gosh. What a what an introduction with all those incredible talents. So, how did you get what was one of the first Broadway shows you did?

[20:43] Valisia LeKae: You know, the first Broadway show I did, once again, you know, it's a lightning striking continuously, and God just continually saying, I'm going to bless you. Um, I was doing Randall Myler's Almost Heaven, uh, the John Denver musical. I was in the show with Jim Newman, Ali Morgan, Jennifer, I can't remember Jennifer Alston, I think, and the great Terry Burrell. And the Terry, the great Terry Burrell, being the wonderful woman that she is, said to me, Do you have an agent? And I was like, No, not really. She's like, I'm she was like, just basically stick with me, kid. Now I'm just gonna take care of you. Well, she had her agent come see me, come to the show because she had the agent had two other clients in the show.

And she said, I want you to meet with my agents. And that was back in 2006. I met with her agents, probably like on a Wednesday. I had an audition for Broadway Show on a Thursday. I think I was offered the show that day. So it was just that quick. And the show was Three Penny Opera. I remember them calling my uh my agents and saying, Well, she can do so many things, play so many characters because she's, you know, she's sort of waif-y, you know, thin girl, and she could probably play a guy or a girl. And uh yeah, I was offered the show. I was offered the role as the swing for Three Penny Opera. And that was my first Broadway show experience. It wasn't like eight million auditions, 12 million dance calls. It was like she's got a voice, she's sort of interesting, she's unique, she can, you know, act, she can do anything. She's a chameleon. Let's put her in this show.

[22:25] Jeryl Brunner: Do you remember how you felt that that first night that you went on?

[22:30] Valisia LeKae: Oh my god, who I can't even remember which character it was. I didn't need to go on to feel a spark. I was in the show with Cindy Lauper, with Alan Cumming, with Jim Dale, with Nellie McKay, and just watching them perform gave me enough fire to be like, yeah, this is where I'm supposed to be right now in my life. And being, I've always been used to being on the stage, so you know, even swinging and just watching it was a visceral experience for me. But I just I just knew from the first moment that I got to connect with the audience that, like, wow, this is something magical.

[23:08] Jeryl Brunner: That's so extraordinary. Let me think about how you went on to do 110 in the Shade with your Audra McDonald, right? And Ragtime, Book of Mormon. And you get the motherlode role of Diana Ross of Motown. Did you talk about that? How that came into your life. And I know you workshopped it.

[23:39] Valisia LeKae: Yeah. Oh yeah. Very much so. I mean, you know, that process, the show didn't come to Broadway until 2013, but the workshop of that process started for me and my co-star Brandon Victor Dixon back in 2011. And so I remember when that audition came about, I had heard through the Grapevine that they were going to be doing a show about Motown and they were looking for a Diana Ross. And I remember being on the corner of I think it was like 58th and 8th Avenue and calling my agents and was like, I need to be auditioning for this show, and I need to be auditioning for a Diana. So do what you gotta do. And I remember my first audition, ironically enough, it was with Charles Randolph Wright, the first ever theater audition I had 10 years previously.

[24:33] Jeryl Brunner: Because you sound just like her.

[24:36] Valisia LeKae: And I was like, this woman is just in me. You know, she's been in me for so many years. And I remember showing up in my 50s dress and my 50s hairstyle with my lashes and all there is. And I think I may have had one other audition. I don't remember there being like a number of auditions. I think there might have been one or two. And then I was offered the role. And when I was offered the role, Charles called me. He was like, Okay, you're playing Diana Ross, and you need to be Diana Ross. And I said, That's no problem for me. I've been collecting vintage clothes for 20 years. I have the wardrobe, my mother's a hairstylist. I know how to style a wig. I know I have the shoes, and I'm very familiar with makeup. So every day during those workshops, for over a few years, I would come in as a different era of Diana Ross from head to feet. So like it was it was very natural for me to show up like that. Like I didn't, it wasn't doing extra work.

[25:36] Valisia LeKae: Like the clothes were already in my closet. I just absolutely loved honoring her. And how beautifully you honored her. I remember, yeah, that's what was it reach out and touch. Yes. And and how you motivated the audience. I mean, it was like a spiritual experience. It really is. And I'm glad you I'm glad you noticed that because being one with the audience really is we're in a relationship with each other for that time frame. And so to be able to be fully present in those moments is an unbelievable experience.

[26:17] Jeryl Brunner: Yes.

[26:18] Valisia LeKae: And so here you're with the show. You get nominated for Tony. You get nominated for Grammy. And then do you mind sharing what happened next?

[26:33] Valisia LeKae: Yeah, I live. I absolutely. I um I actually, yeah, after being nominated for a number of theater awards and the Theater World Awards. Yes, and winning exactly. And so and towards the end of that year, I was diagnosed with ovarian cancer and needed to fully step away from the show. This was sort of like, you know, uncharted territories for me. Um I never really knew about ovarian cancer. I just remember receiving a phone call from my doctor saying that I was diagnosed with clear cell carcinoma and not really even understanding what that was. And you know, at the time, not many, not many organizations were talking about young women with ovarian cancer, let alone black women with ovarian cancer.

And so I found myself like a fish out of water trying to navigate these websites, these organizations where my face was just nowhere to be seen, let alone black faces, nowhere to be seen. I'm, you know, going on the website, seeing older women, Caucasian women, and hearing their stories and seeing the education and everything sort of targeted to them, and it really lit a fire in my belly to just say, like, wow, you have an opportunity, Valisia, to educate not only women of color, but black women, but also women who are younger. Like I was in my 30s, early 30s. I never had a child before, I you know, hadn't experienced a lot of things, and so it really just it really encouraged me to just use my voice once again as an instrument of love and healing and advocate for women who are like myself who were in their early 30s, 20s, who were who were now enduring ovarian cancer, but any cancer for that matter. You know, there was a world for us. There was there was a place for us to say that we're experiencing this and and how do we go about doing this?

[28:24] Jeryl Brunner: I saw a beautiful video you did where you spoke about your journey with ovarian cancer. Uh it's uh for look good feel better, and you say something that was so profound. You said my immediate response was to go out and tell the world that little girl who did not speak when she was four or five was ready to roar.

[28:52] Valisia LeKae: Yes. I think you know, Amen. That how beautiful is that that you wanted to share in this most vulnerable moment.

[29:03] Valisia LeKae: Absolutely, absolutely. It was, you know, I think God saves us for the most precious moments in life. And I think as a little girl, as I was listening, I'm getting my master's in psychotherapy as I'm currently in the show. So I'm full circling every single moment of my life. That a little girl who was born who did not really speak, but really clearly had her listening skills up to up to task. Now is in mastery. Now I'm getting my master's as a psychotherapist, specifically as marriage and family therapy, and using my voice and my listening skills to help serve others. And so, yeah, it was certainly an opportunity for me to get out there and roar and tell people about this disease because it's not as public as breast cancer.

There are not many run walks every year. There are not much, you know, people aren't wearing the teal whip ribbons at the basketball games, at the baseball games. They're not doing that. But here was here I was with an opportunity to sort of break the mold of like what ovarian cancer looks like and when you get it. They don't care if you have a Grammy nomination or Tony nomination or you're on Broadway eight shows a week. Cancer doesn't care. Cancer comes after us all. And so here I had an opportunity to really speak about that.

[30:20] Jeryl Brunner: What got you through that time? You know, what helped you?

[30:26] Valisia LeKae: What really helped me first was that I needed to surrender. You know, I think I'm a very particular person. And I, you know, I'm organized, I'm scheduling, I'm all of those things. But you can't schedule life. You can't schedule cancer, you can't do any of those things. And I just really needed to surrender to the process of like what this healing journey was gonna be like for me. And I really needed to allow others who wanted to help me also go through this process to allow that to happen. But more than anything, having the grace to allow myself to just speak positivity into my life, feed myself with the healing that I needed, take the time to encourage myself to say that you can do this, but also if you if you don't feel okay today, it's okay for you to rest.

Because I think as black women, we're so used to women, period, okay, are used to multitasking. We're used to taking care of everybody else. We're mothers, we're sisters, we're grandparents, we're caretakers, we're friends. But here I was a patient, and as a patient, I needed to love on myself like I've never loved on myself before. And I just think the surrendering of it all taught me how to do that.

[31:49] Jeryl Brunner: I see. I saw that there was a be a beautiful video. Was your cast created for you? A song that they made.

[31:56] Valisia LeKae: Absolutely. They were so they're they're just a bunch of we still take care of each other to this day because we've had so many people in our shows who've now had cancer who've either passed away. But they wrote a song called I Am Here for Me. And it is beautiful. And I'm so honored by such a gift of an archival gift to me that I can always go back to to remember to remind me who I am and the life and the purpose that I'm here for.

[32:29] Jeryl Brunner: And then you you got back to work, right? I know you had the recovery, and you played Lorraine Hansbury.

[32:36] Valisia LeKae: Absolutely. Just another magnificent woman who also passed away early from cancer, from pancreatic cancer. I got to tell her story. I got to be a part of building uh the show about the Little Rock Nine, uh, early workshops of that. I got to do television in the process, but the most important role I had to play was survivor. Uh that was the most important role I had to play. And advocate, you know, there's that's gonna be the greatest work that I've ever done because I've gotten to educate people about this disease, but also share my journey, letting people know that there is a way to move forward in this, and regardless of how your journey ends up, you too are a part of the process that educates others along the way. And so it's been it's been many things: hardships, uh headaches, trials, and tribulations, but there's been plenty of love, joy, and laughter along the way, and I'm just really grateful to be here to tell the story.

[33:37] Jeryl Brunner: It's so wonderful. And now, when Rock and Roll Man came into your life, when you heard about it, what went into your mind?

[33:45] Valisia LeKae: Well, you know, it's so interesting how life just continually brings the same people in my life because Randall Myler, who I did almost heaven with, was also the director of Rock and Roll Man. And he's done a number of beautiful shows about the music of the South and rhythm and blues and different things like that. And there was something about Laverne specifically that drew me to this project that said, okay, I I I'll go audition for this. And uh I had an audition. I honestly, I think, I mean, like, truth be told, I found out that day that like I had the job. I think the casting director at the time told me, like, it's yours. Um, but but um, but you know, doing the show in the Berkshires and really honestly working with Rose Cayola, you will never find another producer as loving, as kind, as generous, as human, as much of a caretaker as you will, like Rose Cayola.

She is the reason why I like continually want to like push forward this show in a way that so many people need to see it because she is so she is such a like she is such a ball of fire. She is such an advocate for the theater. She is such an advocate for humans and artists that you can't help but want to get behind her, and so, like, I want to honor Rose in the best way I know how, which is me performing in the fashion that I do, but it gets, you know, I guess to also honor the audience. But she really is a fantastic producer. And she loves what she does. And she's also a writer on this piece. And so, you know, I get to work for someone who I know respects me, but also loves the artists and the people that she works with.

[35:38] Jeryl Brunner: That wonderful. And you were extended. So if somebody to work to ask, why should I see rock and roll man? What would you say?

[35:46] Valisia LeKae: Well, because everything old is new again, right? So we're now living in a time where people are trying to find their way in life, but like certain liberties are being questioned, right? Certain certain rules and regulations are being questioned, certain uh certain rights are being taken away from us. And rock and roll man talks about a show that brings people together who were not supposed to be together. They're bringing the people together in the name of love, in the name of music, and they're breaking some rules along the way. And so what they're saying is that what I really want people to know is that it doesn't take you to be big and famous and rich in order to change the world. Here was a man straight out of Ohio who came up with this who had a lightning strike moment and said, I want to do something to bring people together.

And so, and it didn't cost, I mean, listen, it didn't cost him anything financially necessarily, but it cost him a lot of things throughout his life, but he had a purpose. He really believed in his purpose and wanting to change the way we commune as people. And so if you want to, if you want to come to a place where you not only do you get to hear some fantastic music, some some excellent acting, some great artists, come here to be inspired, entertained, and educated. We're ready for you. Go to rockin' man the musical rock and rollman the musical.com, get your tickets. We're here for you eight shows a week, and we're ready to rock.

[37:13] Jeryl Brunner: Yes, yes. How does singing make you feel? Can you put it into words?

[37:19] Valisia LeKae: Yes. It is, and I don't want to get emotional, but singing for me is my greatest connection to a higher power. It is it's the greatest love making, it is the greatest caretaking, it is the greatest level of nurturing, it is the greatest gift to the human soul for me. And I get to do that. I am blessed to be able to do that.

[37:45] Jeryl Brunner: Well, it is a true gift to hear you say and watch you perform and see all your light. So thank you so much for coming on the show.

[37:51] Valisia LeKae: Thank you so much for having me, Miss Jeryl. I appreciate you and your time.

[37:59] Jeryl Brunner: I appreciate you.

[38:02] Valisia LeKae: It's Valisia.

[38:04] Jeryl Brunner: Thank you.

[38:10] Jeryl Brunner: The theme song was written by Tom McGovern. This episode was edited by Kyle Moore. This episode was produced by Alice Strauss. When lightning strikes.