Interview: Here She Is, Boys! For 3 More Performances, Montego Glover Is Rose

Montego Glover has always brought depth, intelligence, and power to the stage—whether in Memphis, earning a Tony nomination for her performance, or stepping into the roles of Angelica Schuyler in Hamilton and the Witch in Into the Woods. But even with that resume, her latest turn, Gypsy, might be her most unexpected challenge yet.

Currently appearing as the Sunday matinee alternate for Audra McDonald at the Majestic Theatre, Glover brings her own nuanced take on one of the most iconic roles in musical theater. It’s her first time being an official “alternate,” and as she tells it, her journey to Gypsy was as surprising to her as it might be to her longtime fans.

This conversation has been condensed and edited for clarity.

How many shows do you have left now before the production ends?
Three more performances.

Don’t worry, you’ll get the hang of it eventually. [laughs]
[laughs] I feel like I just sort of never stop [figuring it out]. Even years later, I’m like, “Oh, that’s an idea for Angelica Schuyler.” Things keep coming. But Rose is a big one. She’s a bear.

When they asked you to do this, did you see yourself as a Rose?
It never really crossed my mind! Not because I didn’t think there was access, not because I didn’t have an interest in it as a piece. I just had my eye on other things. No one was more surprised than I was when the phone rang and it was about Gypsy.

It’s funny, I heard about your casting, and I kept thinking—and I hate to put it this way—that Rose is like a grande dame, a Patti LuPone, a Bernadette Peters, an Audra McDonald. And you don’t occupy that space in my brain. You know what I mean?
Totally. They’re, like, grown-up ladies. While I feel that I’m on my way to grownup-ness, I’m not quite as grown-up as those ladies. That was the other piece. Did I have a vantage point at this place in my life that would allow me to even try? I had to sit still and get quiet about it, and I was like, “I think so. Give it a shot.”

You had the full week of shows earlier in the month to sort of test the waters before you were announced to be the official alternate. Tell me about the experience.
I’ve never been an alternate. I’ve been a standby, a swing, an understudy, a cover, all the things. This is a very different space. But there something about being in the position to assist both Audra and the play and letting her get some rest. Every person needs to take some time off, and that aligned with my values. We work very hard, and we have to have time off like everyone else.

That only fed my enthusiasm and my desire to do my best work while I was there for an entire week, plus a ninth show. It’s a big lift. It gave me an opportunity to just keep working and working and working. I was picking up speed and agility as I moved through the week.

Is it a hard sing for you?
I very much saw my voice inside her. The palate of Rose’s music in Gypsy is varied, which allows an artist to use different textures and colors of her voice. Our music director, Andy Einhorn, was receptive and encouraging about using all the weights of my voice, which makes it a fun sing.

It was necessary to start with text inside the music and then build out from there. Whether we realize it or not, we all know the songs in Gypsy. For me, it was a matter of going from the outside to the inside, so I could actually learn it note for note, bar by bar. What’s interesting—this is going to sound odd—is that it’s not a lot of music. I sang more in Hamilton and Les Mis, because they’re sung-through. What’s there in Gypsy is very substantial, and “Everything’s Coming Up Roses” and “Rose’s Turn” are big, meaty plates that have to be pulled apart so I can put them back together.

How do you view Rose? Is she a monster?
No, she’s not. She’s a vastly complex human, like all of us. She had big dreams, big hopes, big trauma, and everything that happened to her and around her she absorbed and carried and passed on.

Are you modeling her on anyone in your life?
That question is still not completely answered, which I love. What I’m discovering is that she is a combination of four women in my life, and me in some other universe somewhere. But the first time I saw myself with the wig on, I was like, “My, God, that’s my grandmother.”

Rose is so many people’s Lear of musical theater. Does it feel like an accomplishment in your life knowing that you’re scaling the mountain?
I don’t know that I ever thought of Mama Rose as the Lear of them all; like, the mountain top. I’m still processing people saying to me, “Is this the grail?” She feels as important and as exciting as all of the other extraordinary women that I have been so lucky to play, you know?

I am just so glad and I’m honored to be having an opportunity to pick her up. Because I truly did not see it coming.