Interview: One Fine Year- Tony Winner Jessie Mueller Reflects on Time in BEAUTIFUL, Working on WAITRESS & More!
By: Nicole Rosky Jan. 19, 2015
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The cast of the Tony Award-winning hit Beautiful just celebrated the show's one year anniversary. Since opening on Broadway on January 12, 2014, Beautiful has broken all box office records at the Stephen Sondheim Theatre, where it recently became the highest grossing production in the theatre's history. Leading the company is Tony winner Jessie Mueller, who has been with the show all along the way.
Mueller just chatted with BroadwayWorld about her year as Carole King, working with Sara Bareiless on her new WAITRESS musical, performing at the Kennedy Center Honors, and so much more. Check out the full interview below!
Congrats on one year of BEAUTIFUL! What has it been like spending a year with this character and with your fellow castmates?
Thank you! It's been a wild ride and a wonderful one. I've grown to love these people - characters AND castmates. There's a line in the play, "What can I say, after all we've been through?" That pretty much sums it up.
The show has announced recently that there will be a national tour and a West End production. What advice do you have to the other ladies who will get to take on this role?
They certainly don't need my advice. But if I had a wish or hope??...it's that they stay true to HER, because Carole deserves that. If they bring her heart and her humility, they'll be just fine. Oh!...that and get LOTS of sleep when you can.
You recently got to take part in the Kennedy Center Honors! What was that experience like for you?
It was kind of magical. We got to go to the White House and meet the President and First Lady! To be a part of an evening honoring those amazingly unique artists...It was quite humbling and daunting walking down the hallways backstage, seeing signs for dressing rooms of people like Bruce Springsteen and Earth Wind and Fire - it makes you want to up your game. That, and being onstage with Kelli O'Hara and Laura Benanti was so much fun and really an honor.
You also got to take part in a reading for WAITRESS! What was that like working with Diane Paulus and Sara Bareilles?
They were both incredible. So talented, so generous and collaborative. Warm, smart, engaging women. It was a great room to be in, and it's going to be an amazing project.
It's been a HUGE year for you personally- between performing with Carole King, winning a Tony, singing for the President... Do you ever get a chance to stop and reflect on how far you've come since you were starting out?
That's what I'm really hoping to do when my time at BEAUTIFUL comes to a close. Take some time to step back, breathe, take some stuff in. I am so grateful, and I try to be so every day, but sometimes the pace of this city and business make it hard to hold onto that. I'm looking forward to a bit of quiet. I've had so many amazing opportunities this past year and had the pleasure of being exposed to people that have changed my life. I feel like a very blessed woman.
Mueller's Broadway credits include: "Billie Bendix" in Nice Work If You Can Get It opposite Matthew Broderick, The Mystery Of Edwin Drood (Drama Desk Nomination), On A Clear Day You Can See Forever opposite Harry Connick, Jr. (Tony and Drama Desk nominations). NY: Carousel! at the New York Philharmonic, Into The Woods as "Cinderella" at the Delacorte Theatre. Regional: Animal Crackers (Goodman Theatre, Chicago), She Loves Me (Writer's Theatre), Guys And Dolls, Fiddler On The Roof (Marriott Lincolnshire), Meet Me In St. Louis (Drury Lane Oakbrook), and Henry IV Parts I & II at Chicago Shakespeare Theatre and the Royal Shakespeare Theatre in London.
Long before she was Carole King, chart-topping music legend, she was Carol Klein, Brooklyn girl with passion and chutzpah. She fought her way into the record business as a teenager and, by the time she reached her twenties, had the husband of her dreams and a flourishing career writing hits for the biggest acts in rock 'n' roll. But it wasn't until her personal life began to crack that she finally managed to find her true voice. Beautiful tells the inspiring true story of King's remarkable rise to stardom, from being part of a hit songwriting team with her husband Gerry Goffin, to her relationship with fellow writers and best friends Cynthia Weil and Barry Mann, to becoming one of the most successful solo acts in popular music history. Along the way, she made more than beautiful music, she wrote the soundtrack to a generation.
For more information, visitwww.beautifulonbroadway.com.
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