Interview: Anneliese van der Pol on Heathers, Her 54 Below Show, and Finally Returning to New York

To Disney Channel millennials, Anneliese van der Pol will always be Chelsea Daniels, the kooky red-headed sidekick to Raven-Symoné on the clairvoyant comedy That’s So Raven.

Whether it took her 2007 Broadway debut as Belle in Beauty and the Beast for audiences to recognize her musical theater chops, or they managed to clock the voice that shone through the channel’s pop-infused Circle of Stars covers, van der Pol, at her core is a creature of the stage. She was raised on a healthy diet of Barbra Streisand and Judy Garland, and by the time she joined the Disney universe as a teenager, she already had starring roles in Grease, Evita, and Oklahoma! under her belt.

You may have caught her on tour the past few years in Disney Princess: The Concert singing close-harmony arrangements of Disney hits with her fellow veteran Broadway princesses, but van der Pol hasn’t stepped back into the New York musical ecosystem since her turn as Kathy in the 2009 off-Broadway premiere of Vanities. Seventeen years later, she’s finally back on the New York stage, closing out the off-Broadway run of Heathers as Veronica’s Mom/Ms. Fleming while soaking in a Manhattan fall with her husband, 1-year-old daughter, and second daughter on the way.

Heathers plays its final performance at New World Stages on October 11, and on October 13, van der Pol takes over 54 Below to perform a solo show with her Disney Princess musical director Benjamin Rauhala. She’ll be singing songs that define her career—some linked to the mouse, others highlighting the version of herself that never made it to TV screens. From dream roles to roads not taken, hear what van der Pol has on her mind for this next chapter.

The following conversation has been condensed and edited for clarity.

Is this really your first time in a New York production since Vanities in 2009?

Yes, if you can believe it, it is.

Tell me how Heathers became the show to bring you back.

Sure. I thought you were gonna ask me what the hell have I been doing since then. [Laughs]

We’ll get to that later. [Laughs]

It’s so funny because I’m doing a 54 Below show, so I’ve been going down memory lane with my music director to see what I have been doing. We found this email of me auditioning for Heathers for the role of Veronica 13 years ago, which is just crazy and so full-circle. But [director] Andy [Fickman] and I have known each other from afar for quite a while through Disney. When I got the call, I said, “Yes, of course!” I will say I’m a little more out of breath than I’d like to be—a side effect of pregnancy. But I feel like this is the best intro back to New York and back into theater.

As Ms. Fleming, you have to do a bit where you pick someone from the audience to be your ex-lover “Steve.” How are you liking the daily improv challenge?

It was the worst part about it, and now it’s the best part about it. It’s scary. Improvising is a “yes-and” exercise, and if your audience member is a “no-and” person, it can be tricky. Last night, I picked a father with two little girls on either side of him, and I sort of made fun of him for bringing his kids. I said, “You brought your kids? What the hell, Steve?!” The two girls could not have been happier. I mean, literally jumping from their seats. I have some things in my back pocket in case it’s not going well, but I really try to take it from the Steve. And sometimes I incorporate my pregnant belly. I say, “… and this is yours,” or “… and this isn’t yours.” Depends on the mood I’m in.

Most people know you from your Disney Channel days on That’s So Raven, but it’s worth mentioning that by the time you were on that show you had already played Eva Perón in an Equity production of Evita.   

Yes, I played Eva at 15. I went in for the Mistress role, and they had me just go up the scale and thought, “Well, why not her?” That was a wonderful challenge. And I was pretty damn good!

Were the folks at Disney Channel aware of that side of you as a performer, or did you have to check your theater kid at the door?

I don’t think people got it. At that time, it was really Avril Lavigne. Nobody was into vibrato or Barbra Streisand or Judy Garland like I was. So nobody knew. I think people kind of started to figure it out when we did that musical episode and I sang “Alone in the Hallways.” But I remember feeling out of place. Even to this day I have people at the stage door say, “I didn’t know Chelsea could sing like that!”

Since you’re re-introducing yourself to New York with Heathers and your 54 Below show, what’s on your list of dream roles?

I’d really love to be in Chicago. I think I could murder Chicago. Not Roxie, but Velma. I’d also love to be the Baker’s Wife in Into the Woods, [Sally Bowles in] Cabaret, Mother in Ragtime. And it’ll probably be another 20 years and I’ll be too old if they bring Funny Girl back. but I would have loved to have done that.

You were Broadway’s last Belle in Beauty and the Beast, and it wasn’t long after that you started developing the musical Vanities with runs at Pasadena Playhouse and then off-Broadway at Second Stage. What stands out about that experience?

We recorded an album, which to this day is the coolest thing. People tell me they love that album. And I know a lot of people audition with the song I got to originate, “Cute Boys With Short Haircuts.” It makes me feel like a part of the world and the youth coming up. I loved singing it, and I’ll be singing it at 54 Below!

Now tell me what you’ve been up to since Vanities.

Right after Vanities, I did a bunch of regional theater, which was great but also sort of kept me away from building a career out in New York on Broadway, and also in Los Angeles. And then of course I was young and making lots of mistakes. Doing those young things, and was a little unfocused. And auditioning for things I just wasn’t right for. I remember auditioning for Entourage and being like, “They’re not looking for a sassy funny Jewish girl for this episode.” I probably should have stayed in New York—or made a game plan.

Well, we’re happy to have you back. How are the Heathers audiences treating you?

They’re insane. They call themselves the Corn Nuts. We have people in the first and second rows who have been back, no joke, hundreds of times. You can do no wrong. I feel like I could take a massive shit on that stage and people would still clap and scream. That’s terrible to say … and gross … but you get it.

You’re in such a different phase of life now than you were back in 2009 when you were last on stage in New York. Does it feel any different this time around?

You definitely have a different perspective. I kind of wanted to go back to it because I was singing around the house and my daughter loved it so much. She just becomes a zombie looking at me, and I thought, “Oh, this is why people keep doing it.” Kids want to see their parents soar and succeed and feel productive and passionate. And being in New York in the fall with my daughter and my other daughter on the way and my husband has just been absolutely magical. I can’t wait to see what comes from it.