House Mother

Playing mothers has turned out to be a very good career path for Phylicia Rashad. She gained international fame for her role as no-nonsense attorney and devoted mother Clair Huxtable on NBC’s The Cosby Show, proved herself a Broadway star as the Witch (mother of Rapunzel) in Stephen Sondheim’s Into the Woods, and, two years ago, picked up a Tony Award for her performance as matriarch Lena Younger in the revival of A Raisin in the Sun.

Now, Rashad is taking on what may be the toughest mother of them all: the title role in Bernarda Alba, Michael John LaChiusa’s musical based on the classic Federico Garcia Lorca play The House of Bernarda Alba, now in previews at Lincoln Center’s Mitzi Newhouse Theater. A mom of two in real life, Rashad says she doesn’t necessarily relate to the steely Bernarda, who refuses to let her five daughters marry and essentially makes their lives hell on earth. “Well, she’s very different from me; beating up one’s children is something we definitely do not have in common,” Rashad says with a laugh. “The funny thing is, my mother always says that I’m playing her. Let’s see what she says after seeing this!”

Even though Rashad doesn’t agree with Bernarda’s behavior, she has come to understand the character: “When I was in college at Howard University, I got very upset when someone said something I found offensive. Then this instructor pulled me aside and said ‘Phylicia, when someone is being an S.O.B., you just have to remember that they think they’re right.’ The simple fact is Bernarda thinks she’s right, and that’s all that matters to her.”

Rashad is thrilled to tackle the role, even if it ends up coloring some fans’ views of her. “We were choreographing this fight scene one day — it’s really rough stuff — and I turned to Graciela [Daniele, the show’s director/choreographer] and said, ‘Well there goes my Q rating!’ But seriously, this is such a wonderful project. Graciela and Michael John are truly a dream team, and I am having such a great time working with all these women,” she says. The show’s all-female cast includes Broadway veterans Judy Blazer, Candy Buckley, Sally Murphy, Daphne Rubin-Vega, and Saundra Santiago. “Even our technical rehearsals were a laugh-in,” Rashad adds. “Graciela says we need to have that kind of release.”

Indeed, laughter is certainly not a word associated with Lorca’s tale of domestic tyranny. “When we usually see this play, everything is so drab and deadly, but this is alive!” Rashad comments. “Michael John’s music is such a vital part of the piece; it reveals all the unspoken thoughts and longings of these characters. And the way Graciela has investigated the relationships among all these women — the mother, the sisters, the housekeeper — is remarkable. And she’s just as concerned with what’s happening outside the walls of the house. The care she has invested in understanding what isn’t written or spoken informs what is written and spoken, in a beautiful way. And I love the stylized aspects of the production. I think it looks like an El Greco painting on stage.”

Getting to sing LaChiusa’s score, which is heavily influenced by the Spanish dance form known as Flamenco, was another plus for Rashad in accepting the role. “It’s been a secret dream of mine for years to be a Flamenco dancer, ever since I saw a little boy do it on an episode of The Danny Thomas Show,” she confesses. “Of course, there wasn’t a lot of opportunity to do Flamenco in Houston, where I grew up.” (The true dancer in the family is her Tony-winning sister Debbie Allen, with whom Rashad remains quite close. She’s also thrilled that Allen’s daughter, Vivian Nixon, has the lead in the upcoming Broadway musical Hot Feet.)

Bernarda Alba marks Rashad’s return to musical theater after a surprisingly prolonged absence; her younger fans may not realize that she was in the original Broadway productions of The Wiz and Dreamgirls, under the name Phylicia Ayers-Allen. Later on, she starred on Broadway in Jelly’s Last Jam as Anita, replacing Tonya Pinkins. “I’ve never stopped taking vocal lessons, and I’m very lucky to be able to study with Joan Lader,” she says. “And I sing with the Broadway Inspirational Voices, which is the most stellar group. We did a great concert at Town Hall in the fall.”

The LaChiusa show also continues Rashad’s streak of playing “older” women, which she has been doing for decades. “I relish it,” says the actress, who turned 58 last year. “But I remember that, on one of The Cosby Show episodes, we were celebrating some birthday of Clair’s that was older than mine, and Bill was so polite to ask me if I minded. I couldn’t understand why, but then he pointed out that everyone — especially casting directors — would think I was really that age. It’s not something I spend too much time agonizing over. People can think what they want when it comes to my age.”

Even with her many stage successes over the years, Rashad says that certain casting directors have ignored her because they considered her a TV actress. “It never occurred to me when I started out as an actor that people would make that kind of distinction,” she says, “but it turns out that there is a pool of great actors who have been excluded from getting roles on film and stage because they were on TV.” Rashad’s own profile as a stage actress has increased because of her Tony Award: “Yes,” she remarks, “there has definitely been a change in perception in the community, which does bring increased opportunity.”

Some theatergoers believe that Rashad deserved to win another Tony the season after A Raisin in the Sun for her work as Aunt Ester, the 287-year-old matriarch of August Wilson’s Gem of the Ocean, which had a surprisingly brief run. “Aunt Ester really means more to me than any other character I’ve played,” she says. Rashad still chokes up when she talks about the late playwright, who did from liver cancer at age 60 in October: “It was surreal when August passed. He was the most unusual human being. Even though we didn’t talk a lot during rehearsals, I felt I understood him. He could tell an entire story in three words, and it was amazing the way he was always watching us even when we thought he was asleep. He used to doodle every day and then throw them away; I always had this impulse to go to the trash and take one, but I never did. I wish I could go back and get one! But I do have his scripts, and the joy of having known this rare genius.”