She’s an accomplished singer and actress.
She’s recorded gold records and received numerous accolades.
She’s performed in prestigious venues all over the world, so
it’s only fitting that coloratura diva Maureen McGovern will
make her next concert appearance at Brooklyn Center for the Performing
Arts, as part of its 50th anniversary season, on Jan. 29.
This Saturday’s engagement, part of the center’s "Celebrities
Series," is a coup for the borough because McGovern is currently
starring as Marmee in "Little Women: The Musical,"
which opened on Broadway Sunday. While normally expected to perform
eight shows a week at the Virginia Theatre, she’s been allowed
a night off for her Brooklyn gig.
"This show [at Brooklyn Center] had been booked a long time
ago and I sing the praises of the [’Little Women’] producers
to the hilt for letting me fulfill that obligation," McGovern
told GO Brooklyn in a phone interview Monday. The Grammy-nominated
singer’s cabaret-style show at Brooklyn Center will be a tribute
to composer Richard Rodgers.
"It’s an early Valentine’s Day show," said McGovern,
promising an "elegant evening."
"I’m concentrating on music he wrote with Larry Hart and
Oscar Hammerstein. As a singer and an actor, I believe he’s one
of the strongest voices of the musical theater. He wrote the
most glorious music ever written."
Rodgers (1902-1979) is probably best known for his musical collaborations
with Hammerstein – "Oklahoma!" "South Pacific"
and "The Sound of Music."
"I did a show for his centennial a couple of years ago,
and I fell in love with his work all over again," said McGovern,
who recorded the Rodgers songbook album, "With a Song in
My Heart" with Skitch Henderson and The New York Pops. "I
was astonished by the vast amount of things he wrote and had
to whittle them down to 100 of my favorite songs. He wrote the
wry, witty sophisticated things with Hart and the wide-open Americana
things with Hammerstein. He’s one of the greatest melody writers
that our country as ever known, and I’m just scratching the surface
with this show."
McGovern will be performing at Brooklyn Center with pianist Jeff
Harris, her musical director.
"He has an amazing orchestra with his 10 fingers,"
she said.
Her director for "Little Women" is Susan Schulman,
and the new production was a reunion of sorts between the artist
and the director who made her theater debut possible.
"Susan directed me in my one week of summer stock in Pittsburgh
as Maria in ’The Sound of Music,’ and three weeks later I replaced
Linda Ronstadt in ’Pirates of Penzance’ and there I was off and
running," recalled McGovern. She made her Broadway debut
in 1981 as Mabel from "Penzance," has starred in the
original production of "Nine" and opposite Sting in
a version of "The Threepenny Opera." McGovern has recorded
more than 25 albums, but is perhaps best known for the Academy
Award-winning theme song from the movie "The Poseidon Adventure,"
"The Morning After." (She even played the nun, Sister
Angelina, in the 1980 comedy "Airplane!")
"Susan and I always talked about doing a project together
on Broadway and I’m very honored and so proud to be a part of
[’Little Women’]," said McGovern. "I call it a three
hanky musical. But it’s also joyous and funny and ultimately
hopeful and life-affirming."
In "Little Women," she plays Marmee, the wise and loving
mother of the four March sisters who are struggling to get by
while their father is away as a Union Army chaplain in the Civil
War. McGovern’s performance of "Here Alone," when Marmee
pines for her husband, and "Days of Plenty," when she
sings through the loss of her daughter, are two heartbreaking
moments in the musical. In "Days of Plenty," in particular,
some in the audience can be heard sniffling back tears.
McGovern said she was moved when a little girl in the audience,
who had lost her brother, was helped by the message of "Days
of Plenty."
"I believe so strongly in the power of music to aid in the
healing process – both physical and mental," said McGovern.
"It’s a masterful song about going on in honor of the person
you lost. I lost my father this past summer, and you can imagine
me in the beginning of rehearsals – I was a waterfall. But that’s
the power of this song. What do we learn from this? I go on in
honor of him with everything I do and with every breath I take."
"Little Women," based on the 19th-century novel by
Louisa May Alcott, centers on the daughter Jo (played by Sutton
Foster, Tony Award-winner for "Thoroughly Modern Millie"),
an aspiring writer who longs to break free from Victorian society’s
constraints. In her research for "Little Women," McGovern
said she visited Orchard House, Alcott’s Concord, Mass. home.
"I could see Sutton as Jo bounding down the stairs,"
recalled McGovern. "I do believe Louisa May Alcott had her
in mind in 1868. She’s the embodiment of that colt-like, kinetic
energy with a million ideas. She’s imaginative and stubborn and
strong and caring and loving – all of these strong attributes.
Wonderful characteristics that are very much Sutton."
McGovern said Alcott’s story is still relevant for contemporary
audiences.
"As Marmee I’m a woman raising my four daughters on my own
with my husband away at war, and now there are men and women
raising their children with a parent away at war," said
McGovern. "It’s a timeless story in that regard. Louisa
May Alcott has written the quintessential family story. You see
a bit of yourself up there on stage. I look at these kids that
play my daughters and see my nieces when they were young. I miss
those little girls who also used to put on shows just as Jo did."
McGovern, 55, is originally from Ohio and is now based in Los
Angeles. While in "Little Women," she is temporarily
based in Manhattan and grateful for the change of scenery.
"I’m a New Yorker at heart," confessed McGovern. "In
L.A. they talk about who they know, and in New York they talk
about ideas. L.A. is always onto the next thing, but New York
has a reverence for all the things that have come before us."
Maureen McGovern will perform at Brooklyn
Center for the Performing Arts at Brooklyn College on Jan. 29
at 8 pm. Tickets are $50. The performance takes place at the
Walt Whitman Theatre on the Brooklyn College campus, one block
from the junction of Flatbush and Nostrand avenues in Flatbush.
For more information, call (718) 951-4500.
"Little Women: The Musical" is now on stage at the
Virginia Theatre (245 West 52nd St. between Broadway and Eighth
Avenue in Manhattan). Tickets are $60-$100. Performances are
Tuesdays at 7 pm, Wednesdays through Saturdays at 8 pm, Wednesdays
and Saturdays at 2 pm and Sundays at 3 pm. For tickets, call
(212) 239-6200. For more information, visit www.littlewomenonbroadway.com.
