Interview: Miriam Shor Preps for a Wild, Wild Party at Encores! Off-Center
By: Nicole Rosky Jul. 10, 2015
Next up in the Encores! Off-Center series is Andrew Lippa's The Wild Party, starring John Ellison Conlee, Brandon Victor Dixon, Sutton Foster, Joaquina Kalukango, Talene Monahon, Steven Pasquale and Miriam Shor. Running July 15 - 18, 2015 at New York City Center, the production will be directed by Leigh Silverman, with choreography by Sonya Tayeh.
Adapted from the Jazz Age narrative poem by Joseph Moncure March, The Wild Party is the story of one tragic, decadent night in a Manhattan apartment shared by Queenie (Sutton Foster) and her menacing lover Burrs (Steven Pasquale). The couple decides to throw the party to end all parties, where Queenie meets a handsome stranger (Brandon Victor Dixon) who wants to lure her away. The show opened at Manhattan Theatre Club on February 24, 2000 and played 54 performances.
Right beofre her first day of rehearsals, Shor, who will play Madelaine True, checked in with BroadwayWorld to chat about preparing for her return to the stage, teaming up again with Sutton Foster, what she's working on next, and so much more. Check out the full interview below!
This is not your first Encores show, correct?
It's not. I did Hair 152 years ago. I mean I'm not 100% sure of the dates but I think it was 152 years go. Sounds about right? It was an illustrious production. It was brilliant. I loved it.
So, how did you become involved in this one?
Well, Lea Silverman is directing it and I'm a huge, huge, huge Lea Silverman fan. I don't think we've actually ever worked together. We may have done a reading or two together. She asked if I would do it and I was like, 'What am I going to say no?' Because Sutton [Foster] is doing it and lord knows I will pretty much do anything Sutton is doing. That's apparently who I am. What I love about Encores! is that it's a tremendous amount of work in a short amount of time, but it's just so festive and so celebratory and fun. It harkens back to the old days of just getting together and putting on a show.
And I think that's how they get so many amazing people to do these productions...
Yeah it's kind of like summer camp in a great way.
So,The Wild Party. Were you familiar with it before you said yes?
Oh god yes! I saw it when it was Off-Broadway. It had such an incredible cast and I saw both of them. It was so bizarre how that happens. It's such an obscure poem and they were both so different and that was truly fascinating and I'm kind of fascinated by that.
It still blows my mind too!
So good! It's crazy, right? It was pretty superb. So, Alix Korrey whose role I am trying to step into, it was a little daunting. Alix Korrey is pretty sensational at her. I was like, 'I don't have to do it like her right?' They were like, 'You can go at it and be you.' Great. Great. 'I don't have superhuman vocal cords.' Okay, fantastic. She's just spectacular.
Speaking of vocal chords, you must be so excited to sing all of these songs!
Yeah I mean, you are catching me at such a good time because I'm right about to meet all the kids in school for the first day. There's that excitement of we are going to sing the songs and what parts am I going to be in and what parts are other people going to be in. As long as they don't have me doing any incredibly difficult dancing, I'll be fine. And so will the audience. Yeah, I'm not a dancer. I can get down but it's not anything anybody wants to witness without a drink in their hand.
I would think that the quick turn around time is obviously a challenge with these kinds of shows, right?
Oh my god right? It used to be like it was a concert and I remember holding books for some numbers you know? And I don't think that's how they do it anymore. I think the kids just put the show on all the way.
Yes, they've evolved so quickly...
I mean and then there's costumes and wigs and it looks spectacular and I was like, 'We are just doing five performances, right?'
So how ready are you at this point? Have you already been preparing or are you just going to fly by the seat of your pants?
You know, I've been looking at the material but I have two small children. So, my answer to that is that I am never ready for anything, like ever. So, I'm as ready as I can be when you are kind of sleeping and interrupted by having avocado smeared on your face. It's a little distracting, just a wee bit, to have a two year old barreling 40 mph in your face with avocado. So, it's harder to concentrate now than before. That said, I'm always singing in my life now so, I've been preparing that way. But, I haven't done a musical in a long time so this is an exciting opportunity to, to just get to like step in and do a musical, which I haven't done for a while.
One of my favorite things about this series is how it brings attention back to these shows that maybe people didn't see the first time or aren't totally familiar with. Does that excite you? Getting to bring this kind of material to a new group of people?
Yeah! It is! And particular this show, which you know because of the other show happening at the same time, you know may have not gotten the attention it would've otherwise. So, to give this show an opportunity to shine (and they've actually done some work on it) which is so exciting too. So for the writers to go back and tweak things here and there. Like, 'What if we tried this? Because we didn't get to last time.' It's gotta stick in your mind when you've written something, like 'You know what if we'd tried?' And it's so exciting that the writer is given that opportunity with a full cast and orchestra to try it. It's just like artistically such a great and fun thing. And just as an audience it's a great thing to get to go and re-visit these shows in a beautifully orchestrated production, you know? It's so nice. It's such a gift. And now to be doing the Off-Broadway series too, which I am a Downtown, Off-Broadway girl, so.
Are there any other favorite, little-known shows of yours that you would like to do in the future?
If I could go into a time machine and be in my 20's again and do Flora the Red Menace I would. That was always the one. I mean, have they done that? I don't think so. No one's done that show. That was sort of a dream role of mine. Although there are opera singers that are like 90 playing 13 year old Madame Butterfly, but I don't think they would want that. That would be one I would like to see anyway. I don't know. I am always living in the now, so I like what fate brings to you. That's always fun for me. To have a process and someone be like, 'How about this?' And you just grab onto that and see where it takes you.
Well, we've been watching you week after week on Younger. What that whole experience was like for you this year?
It was fantastic. There are so many things that were awesome. I loved working with Darren [Star]. So I got to work with him again and that was great. I've known Sutton [Foster] for years and years, so I get to finally work with her, which is really, really fun. And I can't say enough how much I love shooting a series in New York. I mean it's all that you want, right? It's so fun! It's just a blast. I love the writers, I've known some of the writers for a long time too. Dottie Zicklin in particular and we've known each other for years and years and to finally get to work with her. And Pat Field. Getting to work with all of these people that I've known for a while now and working as a group. It was just perfect. And the character is so fun and so not me. I get to like shlump out of my house looking like a dishrag and get to have 55 people spruce me up and play this person who gets to say whatever she wants. It's just great. It's pretty fabulous. So, it's a dream come true. And I'm so excited that people like it and we get to do it again. That was so exciting for me. I get to do it all over again! Who knows what will happen? I don't! They don't tell me anything. They don't! They are just like, 'Just show up! Learn your lines. Put on your necklace. Just show up!'
Do you have any idea yet when you will be filming Season Two or is that far in the future?
Yeah we start in September. I don't know the exact date but yeah! So that's great. Yeah we shoot for the same time frame we shot for last season and it was great. Fall in New York is pretty superb. You are just holding onto the beauty before the winter. Before you are just punched repeatedly with winter.
And until then you get to spend the summer back on the stage with Sutton!
Yeah I mean, it's pretty funny! Sutton's got the hard work. She's got like 5,000 numbers of dancing and I've got like a couple numbers. It's like, 'Hi it's me! Okay bye guys!' And like, 'Look at Sutton! Working her ass off. Isn't she great?' It's pretty exciting. She's so good. I'm so glad that I got to see her in Violet, which Lea Silverman directed as well because that was such a different thing for her and she's such a good actress and I guess she just makes what she does look so easy that you forget how ridiculously difficult what she does is. And then on top of that when she came in and did a role like Violet, which is just such a different role. And I am VERY excited to see her play Queenie because there is something really raunchy about that and I know that Sutton has it in her. She's just so gorgeous and her smile is so radiant that people forget that she is a class act and it will be exciting to see her kind of tell the dark side.
You've had so much success with your film and TV work, but I know your roots are in theater. What would it take for you to get back on stage for something more long term?
Again, because I have the little ones and because they are so little. They are 2 and 5 1/2 it's been hard to find a project. A, I've been doing a lot of TV, which is great and I've been working with really great people as well. I've been really, really lucky in that way, but of course I miss the theater so much. It's hard to kind of marry your personal life with the theater. It always works so well for my life and then I had kids and the thought of missing putting them to bed is a tough one for me. You know, I'm there a lot for them. I'm very hands on with my kids and so is my husband and we are both theater people so, it's kind of hard for us to make that adjustment because we really do miss it, which is why I love Encores so much! They are giving me the opportunity to do work on stage, but it's not like I have to stay away from the girls for too long. You know? So, that's been a tough one. With that said, you know obviously the right project. There is bound to be a project that would come along and just make me say, 'Okay. Girls. Daddy can put you to bed for a couple of months and Mommy will do everything else.' But it's really hard to find that balance. That's the whole thing is trying to find that balance in your life, but Hedwig and the Angry Inch came back around and that was so interesting to re-visit what I was like when I was doing Hedwig and what it's like now. Creatively. I'm not eating as many late night waffles at 4 am. Those were the reasons really. And dressed like a drag queen. It's not twice the same as it was, but I'm really glad I had that life.
So as you're about to start your first day of rehearsal, what are you most looking forward to about this whole experience?
Just to have fun. That's what we look forward to in life, just having a good time with really fun people and that it's challenging. This is all challenging when you have such little time and you just get together with a group of people and how that it fits. That's kind of a little bit scary, which is great. You always want to be a little scared. As you get older you begin to do things that are a little safer and it's always good to have a little bit of fear and excitement in your life, or a lot of it. So, I'm just looking forward to jumping in and seeing what happens. You know? It's an adventure.
Shor began her career with several acclaimed Off-Broadway productions, including Hedwig and the Angry Inch by John Cameron Mitchell. She reprised her role of Yitzhak in the critically-lauded 2001 film adaptation. Miriam has appeared on television in "The West Wing," "Damages," "Mildred Pierce," and "The Good Wife." She can currently be seen as Diana Trout on TV Land's "Younger" (created by Darren Star) and she'll next appear in the film Puerto Ricans in Parisopposite Luiz Guzman when it makes its world premiere at the LA Film Festival.
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