ACTRESS reflects ON SCARLETT JOHANSSON, STUDENT LOANS, the tv hit ‘glee’ AND TENNESSEE WILLIAMS

By Angela Barbuti

Debra Monk has a résumé most actresses can only dream of—with roles on Glee, NYPD Blue and Grey’s Anatomy—and those are just her television credits. The 63-year-old has just opened on Broadway in Cat on a Hot Tin Roof along with Scarlett Johansson, a production that runs until March. A self-proclaimed late bloomer in the industry, Monk represents a true New York success story. After stints waiting tables and working as a secretary, she finally made a name for herself and eventually won both a Tony and Emmy for her work.

How did you get started as an actress?
I had never even seen a play; my family didn’t have that kind of money. I grew up in a suburb of Washington, D.C. After graduating from high school, I became a secretary and didn’t know what I was going to do. I hated working as a secretary, so I thought I should go to college. Somebody suggested I get grant money, so I did. I went to Frostburg State, a small liberal arts college, but was already two years behind everybody. We all had to take speech class, no matter what our major was. The man who taught the speech also taught theater. I did a speech in his class, and he said I should audition for his play. I said, “I’ve never even seen a play.”

You were in your first play in college. How did that lead you to pursue a career in theater?
I was just enthralled with it. My family was all blue-collar, so the idea of working and having fun was something I never experienced as a child. You went to work because it paid the bills. My teacher told me to go to graduate school, so I went to Southern Methodist University, which is really where I got my training. Then I came to New York and for four years worked as a waitress and a secretary. While I was waitressing, I met up with a gal named Cass Morgan, and we started writing. I didn’t have an agent, and was paying off all of my student loans. I was very frustrated. We began writing this piece, which eventually became Pump Boys and Dinettes. We did it Off Broadway and then on Broadway. We are thrilled that Pump Boys is going to be revived on Broadway after 25 years. John Doyle is directing it; it opens April 10.

What is this new role in Cat on a Hot Tin Roof like for you?
It’s one of the greatest roles and plays ever written, I think. I have the privilege to say Tennessee Williams’ words and listen to them every night. It’s something I will never forget. I’m thrilled, honored and thankful every single day.

How did you prepare for it?
I read the play over and over again. I can never read it too much, to hear things in the language. Then it’s really about getting together with the director and the company and seeing where we’re going as a collaborative group.

How is working with Scarlett?
The best. She is totally the best. She’s a great girl, and so talented. She’s a good person—generous and fun. We’re really, really lucky to be with her. And the whole company is like that. It’s a truly fabulous time—every minute of it.

What is your favorite Broadway song to sing onstage?
I have to say “Everybody’s Girl,” because it’s one of the greatest songs ever written. It’s an incredible number by John Kander and Fred Ebb. I still sing it a lot—at benefits and things. It’s a timeless, funny, great song. And I’m thrilled every time I get to sing it.

You won an unexpected Tony Award in 1993 for Redwood Curtain.
Our show closed early, and the papers were writing who they thought would win—and I wasn’t even listed as a possibility. It was a big surprise for me, and everybody, that I won that year.
You also won an Emmy for NYPD Blue. Where do you keep your awards?
They’re in my office.

You guest-starred on Glee. What was that like?
Yes, in the very first season, Victor Garber and I played the parents of Will. This was before it became a monster hit. It was really fun and fabulous to be there. Everyone was great on the set and worked really, really hard. I don’t know if they had even started airing it when we shot that.

You’ve been on television, Broadway and in film. Which do you like best?
I like them all. It’s all fun. My heart is in Broadway, and always has been, which is why I live here in New York. Sometimes television and film help pay the bills, which is great. I had a great time doing NYPD Blue and Grey’s Anatomy. I loved being on those shows with all those great people.

Any funny stories from you career?
I shot a movie called Milwaukee, Minnesota, which, believe me, you can’t even find. I think it showed for one night in New York. We were shooting an ice-fishing scene way up in Canada. I had to get back to L.A. to shoot NYPD Blue. It was a very low-budget movie, and in order to get me back, they sent a cargo plane. They dropped me off at this airport. I meet this pilot, and we get in this two-seater cargo plane. He said, “You have to help me fly it.” It was so scary, and yet so thrilling. He is an incredible pilot, and during 9/11, I got a call from him asking if I was okay.

For tickets, and to learn more about Cat on a Hot Tin Roof, please visit www.catonahottinroofbroadway.com

By Kat Harrison for New York Family Magazine

Born in the tragic wake of 9/11, the Tribeca Film Festival (TFF) shows its true colors with consistently fresh programming. Now in its 11th year, the festival—which takes place April 18-29—received its highest number of submissions yet (almost 6,000!). And after combing through the finalists, we’ve hand-picked five choice films (and perhaps you’ll find a few other gems yourself)—showcasing especially strong in fields like sports and high school dramatics. So the question remains: why should you expose your tween to a primarily adult-focused film festival? Because going to the movies should not only be about escape, but also about growth. Here’s what we think you can learn from this year’s line-up.

KNUCKLEBALL! – Documentary
Two men, Red Sox veteran Tim Wakefield and the Mets’ own R.A. Dickey, made the unpredictable knuckleball their own. Find your seats for this inspiring sports story of two MLB players and their struggles and triumphs with the rare pitch.
FOR FANS OF: Major League Baseball

STRUCK BY LIGHTNING – Narrative
Let the “Please, can we go?” beg-a-thon begin for this coming-of-age indie written by Glee‘s ever-endearing Chris Colfer. From blackmail to high school cliques, the superstar smarts of Allison Janney, Christina Hendricks and Modern Family‘s Sarah Hyland bring a series of flashbacks to comedic glory.
FOR FANS OF: Glee; Mean Girls; Saved!

To read the full article at New York Family click here.

Once the Giants won this year’s Super Bowl, it was time for another New York story to unfold on TV screens: Theresa Rebeck’s Smash, a behind-the-scenes look at Broadway that includes Steven Spielberg on its laundry list of executive producers. Ratings for the overhyped series were anemic to begin with, and five episodes have only continued to decline.  I’m all for the increased exposure of theater, as it can only help the industry and the players within it, but Smash has hit too many wrong notes. What went wrong?

Caption: Katherine McPhee in NBC’s Smash.

It isn’t Glee. Rebeck, Spielberg, and whatever other creative powers at be who convinced NBC that the success of the FOX show had pulled the rip-chord on a mainstream musical television audience throughout the country missed the point. The songs on Glee are almost entirely covers of pop songs past and present. They’re evergreens, songs with a built-in audience, chosen the way a wedding band picks which songs to perform and which ones to avoid like the plague. Some may be dramatically arranged or choreographed, but audiences applaud them because of their familiarity.

Smash does shoehorn in occasional covers as well, but composers Marc Shaiman and Scott Wittman, have endeavored to write original show tunes for the show’s Marilyn Monroe-themed show-within-a-show (which, in a wily act of commercial desperation, Spielberg, et al, hope can become a real Broadway musical). Some (“Let Me Be Your Star,” “Let’s Be Bad”) are better than others (“Mr. and Mrs. Smith”), but few tap into the contemporary sensibilities that send Katy Perry and Flo Rida up the charts. Are they more qualified than those guys to do so? Yes. Should show tunes dominate airplay and downloads? Yes. There was a time when singles like “And I am Telling You,” “I Am What I Am,” and “Memory” were top-selling, Grammy-winning pop hits. But that day ended before most Glee fans and cast members alike were even born.

Moreover, while Glee features a bunch of theatrical teenagers, the focus is on their relationships. Creator Ryan Murphy’s skill in engineering the show is that the music is a conduit to the characters’ stories, which – inane and inconsistent as they can often be – are ultimately universal.  Glee is about the tentative connections the characters have with each other. It’s about their vulnerabilities; their unchecked ambitions and the fear that any of their dreams might not come true. People feel all of these sentiments more acutely in high school, when they are still coming to terms with who they are, than they do as professionals in adulthood. The characters in Smash, on the other hand, are mostly already established and rich. Their dreams have come true, and their bitterness is already inherent by the time we met them. The characters in Glee look forward to their future; the ones in Smash have a past.

That’s why when any of the students in Lima rejoices at the thought of eating out at Breadsticks, even those carb-counters in the audience can embrace the notion of going out to family-friendly chain restaurant. When Eileen (Anjelica Huston) gets her table at Bond 45, though, it’s a tell-tale elitist tag. These characters are rich and enjoy a lifestyle (I mean, those townhouses? Come on!) most people in any industry, let alone show biz, cannot. It’s also a reference that only a tiny fraction of the national audience might get. Murphy has opened up the world of Glee to celebrate and embrace all of its watchers, while Smash essentially closes the doors on its own. Its world remains hermetically sealed.

There’s one more problem with Smash: they picked the wrong girl. Broadway baby Megan Hilty’s Ivy got cast in the lead role of Marilyn in and on the show, but Katharine McPhee’s Karen is the series’ protagonist, as well as presumptive eventual replacement for Ivy as Marilyn. Karen is the underdog, though many have scoffed at the “Introducing Katharine McPhee” treatment Smash has laid out for her, as she’s been in the public consciousness since coming in second place to Taylor Hicks on American Idol more than a half-decade ago. This is the same treatment Bill Condon gave to Jennifer Hudson in Dreamgirls, but that worked because she played opposite Beyoncé Knowles, a bigger star playing a bigger star the whole time. Smash looks to synergize McPhee the star with Karen the character, but the parallel is disingenuous: Hilty is the real underdog here, and in having the audience root against Ivy, the series subverts its main plot, making whatever turns come in between now and season’s end feel like moot filler.

Still, a show could have all of these flaws and still be a hit. Maybe, for better or worse, the most alluring venue to catch a show about Broadway is…on stage.