Kathy Griffin Bets on Broadway!
Kathy Griffin is one of the world’s funniest women, as anyone who has seen her many comedy shows, TV specials, and her Bravo series, My Life on the D-List, can attest. But now, she’s taking her live act to a whole new venue, Broadway’s Belasco Theatre, where she’ll perform her new show, Kathy Griffin Wants a Tony for a 10-show run, March 11-19. TheaterMania got to briefly talk to Griffin about what she has in store for New York.
THEATERMANIA: Where would you put the Tony if you won it?
KATHY GRIFFIN: I’d have to put it with the girls — I mean my Emmys. But when you read my bio in the program, it will probably lose me the Tony — or at least cause some arguing on the committee — because I just didn’t take it very seriously.
TM: Why is doing Broadway important to you?
KG: (using her Janet McTeer voice) I’m an artist, who loves the theater. After all I was trained in Brecht. I love her; she’s a really good singer. Seriously, I’m just anxious to see what Broadway audiences are like. I really don’t know what to expect!
TM: What should audiences expect from you?
KG: I am going to be worse than I’ve ever been. You should be afraid! You should almost feel like Charlie Sheen’s goddesses — you wanted to be there, but now that you are, you’re thinking “why was this a good idea?”
TM: I figured we’d get a Charlie Sheen joke. Just how topical is this show going to be?
KG: So topical. I’m the kind of person who wants to talk about things immediately after I hear about them. The first part of most of my jokes is just telling you what happened 10 minutes ago. I’m like a roving reporter. There will be every internet device imaginable in my dressing room. And I might even get Christian Bale in his old Newsies cap to run on stage to give me the news, shouting “Extra, Extra.”
TM: A lot of your act also comes from your personal run-ins with celebrities. That should be easy to do in New York, right?
KG: it’s true — who knows who I’ll run into before Friday, or between Friday and Monday, or Monday and next Sunday. That’s the beauty of being on the D-list. I run into people, but I’m not always behind the velvet rope. I’m one of the common folk. And I promise you, celebrities will not be coming to my show. Uma Thurman will not get your seat; Oprah is not taking your seat, Ryan Seacrest is not buying your seat. That seat is for you!
TM: And one thing that’s great is that audiences are “safe” in their seats — because you don’t really do audience interaction, do you?
KG: I am not sure when I got the notion into my head that an audience should be able to just relax when they come to a comedy show. When I trained with The Groundlings out in LA, we used to go into the audience every night, and I think I decided after that my shows should be a different experience. This is your time to truly mellow in dark anonymity — and trust me, there will be plenty of people in the audience hiding in dark shame — and to just listen and laugh. I think I also feel like I badger so many public figures that I don’t have the heart to do it to regular people.
TM: A lot of your fellow comedians, like Robin Williams and Chris Rock and Dane Cook, are actually playing characters on Broadway this season. Is there a famous role in theater that you’ve been dying to play?
KG: A lot of people don’t know this, but I was just Al Pacino’s understudy in The Merchant of Venice. Now, I think I would like to be Secretary Number 2 in How to Succeed. Or I could be the hooker with a heart of gold in any play — because that’s what I am in real life — or I could be the nosy neighbor. But only as the understudy. Actually I think I could understudy 10 shows at once!
For tickets and information, click here.