Interview: From Sally Bowles to Leonard Bernstein, Helen Schneider Talks About Her Distinguished Career in the US and Germany

For over 40 years, Helen Schneider has found success on both sides of the Atlantic. In her native New York, she starred in such plays as Ghetto and Frida (for which she earned a Drama Desk nomination) and was a celebrated fixture in cabarets and concerts. In Germany, where she has resided since 2002, she gained widespread acclaim for her starring roles in productions of Cabaret, Evita, and Sunset Boulevard.

Now, Schneider is returning to New York in Peter Danish’s new play, Last Call, inspired by the last meeting between famous frenemies, American conductor and composer Leonard Bernstein (to be played by Schneider) and Austrian conductor Herbert von Karajan (played by Lucca Züchner), which begins performances at New World Stages on March 12.

Schneider recently talked to TheaterMania about what attracted her to the play, the advantages of a woman playing a man, and her feelings about working in English again and returning to New York after two decades.

This conversation has been condensed and edited for clarity.

Tell me why you decided to do this project?

I received a phone call from the director, Gil Mehmert, who I’ve worked with numerous times. He told me he was sending me this script, and I should please read it. I thought it was deep, and its themes were interesting. I knew politics had to come up, because Bernstein was Jewish and Von Karajan chose to stay in Germany during WWII, even though Herbert was not a Nazi. But at the end of the play, we discover everything is gray, there is no black-and-white in politics or music. Plus, it has a lot of humor. Above all, we celebrate the idea of friendship. Peter managed to keep this story on a human level; it’s ultimately just two old men sharing their stories.

How do you think audiences will react to you playing Bernstein and Lucca Züchner playing Von Karajan?

The interesting thing about casting women as these two men is we don’t have to represent them accurately. Yes, I will be wearing a wig, a fake belly, and I will speak with a deeper voice, but we’re dealing with these men in an impressionistic way. We are asking you to recognize the soul and atmosphere of the person, not their appearance. I also believe by taking out the obsession with physical exactitude, people will really hear what we’re talking about and not focus so much on what we look like.

Given your success in musicals, are you excited about doing a play?

I have done a lot of what I call small-character work over the years. I find plays, as well as musicals, wonderful to do. In fact, I originally studied acting at HB Studios; I really thought my music work would be separate. But at one point, my agent, Ronald Mutchnick, said to me, “You’re being ridiculous, you sing, go do musicals.” So, I got my first musical at the Coconut Grove Playhouse, Side by Side by Sondheim. It was a success, and word got back to Germany, where I had already had enormous success as a singer. I got invited to play Sally in the first German production of Cabaret, and the ball just rolled from there.

How do you feel about performing in English again?

It’s so thrilling to work in my mother tongue! I have always found working in German to be a bit of a struggle, I could never take anything for granted, not even an article or preposition.

What are your feelings about returning to New York after such a long absence?

Honestly, it hurts to come back to this country in this atmosphere. But I still identify as a New Yorker; I am actually a fourth-generation American. And I still believe in New York as its own little island. Anyway, I hope and pray we can all get through what’s happening in the world together.