Donna McKechnie: One Singular Sensation

Although when it debuted on Broadway in 1975 A Chorus Line was celebrated as an ensemble musical that explored the lives of the nameless, faceless dancers who work thanklessly in the background and in unison, an undisputed star of that original cast did emerge in the person of Donna McKechnie. An exquisite dancer with impeccable technique who had stopped the show nightly with "Turkey Lurkey Time" in Promises, Promises in 1968 and again with "Tick Tock" in Company two years later, she became the "it" girl of 1976 by besting both Chicago stars Chita Rivera and Gwen Verdon for the Tony Award for best actress in a musical. A new triple threat had been born. Donna McKechnie was at the pinnacle.

Thirty-two years later, at the age of 65, the elegant and electrifying performer – who will forever be known as Cassie to anyone who saw her sing and dance "The Music and the Mirror" in A Chorus Line – is still going strong. That wasn't always the case, however. As she discusses quite candidly in her auto-biography "Time Steps," her successes since A Chorus Line have been sporadic. A combination of personal difficulties, financial woes, Hollywood misfires and a crippling bout with Rheumatoid Arthritis nearly ended her career. But thanks to lots of counseling, holistic therapies and a transformational attitude, McKechnie is enjoying life more now than she ever has. And she's working almost non-stop.

She regularly performs both her award-winning cabaret show My Musical Comedy Life and her auto-biographical theatrical show Inside the Music in venues around the world. She recently debuted her newest cabaret Gypsy in My Soul in London, and this past spring she played Amanda in The Glass Menagerie with the River City Repertory Theatre in Shreveport, Louisiana. This fall she co-stars with Carol Lawrence in a new comedy by Joni Fritz called Girl's Room that will run in LA at The El Portal Theatre in October. This week she opens in the Reagle Players (of Waltham, Massachusetts) production of No, No, Nanette, playing the colorful Aunt Lucille.

Ms. McKechnie spoke with BroadwayWorld.com from her home in New York a few days before heading to Waltham for rehearsals. Sounding youthful, upbeat and completely at ease, she was gracious and very open in discussing her past, her present, and her reasons for sharing her ups and downs in a book that marks the many steps forward and back that have shaped her musical comedy life.

JAN NARGI: Thank you for taking the time to talk with me today. I understand you begin rehearsal next week.

Donna McKechnie: Yes, we're doing a read through on Tuesday. Bob Eagle (the director) really believes in them, and I think that's a good thing. There's such an economy of time now that sometimes things like a first read through are overlooked. You just jump into rehearsal cold. I'm thrilled that he's going to do that because it makes a great deal of sense. Everyone sits down around a table and reads through the show and sings the songs. It gives everybody a sense of what the show's about and how it feels with these characters. The first time you hear them out loud is a lot of fun.

JN: Have you worked with Reagle or Bob before?

DM: No, I haven't. I've heard of him, though. He has such a great reputation. We met up when I was at Walnut Hill School (in Chestnut Hill, Massachusetts) teaching a few months ago. I did a Master Class, a book signing, and performed a few songs. It was a whole day. It's a wonderful school. Bob and I had talked about my doing No, No, Nanette, and while I was there he came over with a couple of his people and I met him essentially for the first time. I was just delighted by him and his way of producing. It's very exciting. Later he came to New York and invited me to see the (recent) Encores! version. We saw it together with his choreographer and her husband. It was a terrific production. I just love the show, and it was very inspiring to see it and know that I was going to be doing it soon.

JN: How are you going to be approaching Lucille?

DM: The way I approach it is just to listen. Today is the first day I've actually had time, so this is commemorative your calling. I've been busy working and traveling. I just got back from Michigan doing my concert at Interlaken. So I've had to cancel things. I read the script and listened to the tapes once when I first got the part, but it's been a while so now I'm reading and listening again. Today is the day where I'm just kicking back and listening to the songs. I may sing the songs with a conductor I work with tomorrow, but essentially I'm going to get everything I need at rehearsal. The staging and the choreography will happen there. We're all going to be moving really fast with whatever homework or pre-production work they've done. Reading the play every day is the important thing for me. But I don't make decisions necessarily. I just let it roll over me as I'm reading. When we get on our feet that's when everything seems to fall into place, especially with this kind of material. I really love it and identify with it. It doesn't feel foreign to me at all.

JN: Can you explain how you relate to it so well?

DM: Well, it's just that it's that musical form that is done with real intention but with a twinkle. It's that beautiful balance where it's all singing and all dancing all the time but it's grounded in the reality of the situation. It's charming. I remember seeing the Broadway revival production in 1971. I was there opening night. I just loved it. I was singing and dancing then on Broadway and just starting to get roles. And I remember Helen Gallagher and Bobby Van doing this incredible spin number from upstage center all the way down to the front of the stage. It was this wonderful ballroom spin and it was just electrifying. That's the first image I have of it. It excited me so much that I've always wanted to get up there and do it myself. It's one of those book musicals with a terrific score. It sits very well in my voice and my expression, and my vocal range. It's just a lot of fun.

JN: It's interesting to hear you talk about 40 years ago sitting and watching Helen Gallagher and Bobby Van and how it's still etched in your mind. That's my reaction to you. My very first Broadway show that I saw was A Chorus Line with the original cast. I mean, what an introduction, huh?

DM: Wow! I think that's great. That had to be amazing!

JN: It really was. But the visual that still sticks in my mind today is "The Music and the Mirror," your incredible dance. I can still picture it – the fluidity and the grace and the energy and the technique. My jaw dropped open when I saw you do that number.

DM: Oh, thank you. Thank you so much for saying that. Those moments in theater aren't necessarily filmed but they are indelible in your brain. I remember performances and images, sometimes not even the whole scene, such as James Earl Jones in Great White Hope. I remember one image of him in this emotional scene with Jane Alexander. It just made me transcend. I forgot I was in the theater. That's why I love theater.

JN: Certainly A Chorus Line is such a milestone in American musical theater…

DM: Oh, yes.

JN: I read your bio and you operated on two such disparate levels at that time. It seemed you had this wonderful historic, or soon-to-be-historic, experience with A Chorus Line but other things in your personal life perhaps didn't allow you to enjoy it maybe as much as you were entitled to…

DM: That's why being able to go back to it 10 years later for eight months was an amazing gift that life gave me. The first time around – I don't know – I was still a struggling young, not even that young, actor. I had already done shows but I was struggling with a lot of elements of making my life work professionally and emotionally. I was fragmented in my feelings. I wasn't the whole person I became 10 years later. I always felt bad about one of the most important things in my life. My most acknowledged successes had that bearing of taking place during such a sad time when I was uncomfortable or unhappy. It was not enjoyable. That was a terrible thing to think about when I looked back on A Chorus Line. It was such a shame that I didn't want to go back there. It's hard to go back anyway when you're always frightened for work, but the sweetness of some of those memories can make life even sweeter. So to go back into the show 10 years later after recovering (from Rheumatoid Arthritis) was a real gift. That was the reason I wrote the book. I thought, okay, this may not be a miracle, but if I can do this, if I can turn this around, then anybody can. It was such a happy time for me and such a personal victory to get back on that stage with an entirely different cast. And by the way, I'm still very close to many of the original people. It's like we were true siblings. Everyone that I've been communicating with over the past 20 or 30 years I love like brothers or sisters. I would do anything for them. The putting together of that show was so agonizing at times and so fraught with tension. Michael (Bennett) was going through difficulties because it meant everything to him. His conflict was between his need to be up there but not be there. He would be directing it but he really wanted to be up there. And everyone was tearing themselves inside out to come up with the goods. Wow. I see it now much more clearly.

JN: As you look back in perspective relative to your total life and career, where does A Chorus Line sit now?

DM: Well, it's one of those rare experiences that one hopes to have once in a lifetime where you are experiencing in a commercial vein and commercial theater that pure creative expression. I had already worked with quite incredible people who taught me along the way, but this is where we really were creating. Even then I knew this doesn't happen all the time, this doesn't happen every day. Shows struggle even if there are a book and songs already written. But this was coming from us. It was a rich and rare experience to be making the most out of a creative situation. When I look back I go, 'Thank God,' that I could realize that ideal. It was a situation where all the circumstances and all the people came together. It was Michael's dream to create that seamless musical, and we did it.

JN: I want to talk a little about your sense as a dancer. Certainly you're a triple threat and one of few who could work exclusively as an actress, exclusively as a singer, or exclusively as a dancer. But you've got it all together. I was struck by the way Chita Rivera described you as an actor-dancer and the way you bring your interpretation of a character to your dance. Do you see yourself as an actor first?

DM: Yes, it's always acting based.

JN: Even when you go back to when you were young and taking dance class? Was there something else going on there for you?

DM: Oh, yes, always. I never maybe knew how to verbalize it – it's hard to verbalize it even now. But I actually started out acting doing what they call 'dramatics' and children's acting at a theatrical school that put on productions. I was acting first and then started dance lessons. I loved being on the stage and having that expression from within. I never knew what it was and I was very shy, so it wasn't always easy for me. I wasn't like one of these kids that's really out there and eager to mimic. But I had a great desire and great sense of knowing that I wanted to express myself from within, and when I heard music in dance class that really satisfied that desire. That imagery to express myself and my feelings through movement was always there, but then when I got to New York I realized that I had to study acting if I wanted a career. I had to really learn technique because I didn't have the same kind of affinity for acting as I did with dancing. Dancing was like second nature. Even though I had to study technique, it was in me. As an actor I needed to be able to find my voice with that same kind of expression and allow my emotional life to be free and accessible, which was not always easy for me. So I became this professional student. I studied voice, too. I remember my first voice teacher saying, 'Sing If I Loved You.' It's not an easy song, so if you sing the first line of it anyone who knows technique can see if you're breathing right, if you know how to pronounce, if you have sound and overtone. So I sang it and he said, 'Oh, good. That's great, that's great. You have no bad habits and you can't sing!' When I teach master classes I tell my students this story to encourage them to study. If they don't feel like they were born to sing, they can still learn. I tell them how my voice teacher could barely hear me and he said, 'Your voice is like a butterfly's fart in a windstorm.' (Laughs) I hadn't heard that expression before and I haven't heard it since, but he was trying to give me the idea that it's okay to start with nothing as long as you don't have any bad habits. Taking class was one of the best things I ever did for myself. I took my $160 a week and put it into acting classes and voice lessons. I still do take classes. Not so much acting but I still study whenever (vocal coach) Marge Rivingston comes to town.

JN: You've stayed in theater most of your career. You haven't been back to television in almost 20 years…

DM: Well, I live here now and that changes a lot, although I am going out there (to LA) to do a play in September. When I came back to New York I had a house out there – houses, actually. It was just awful. At one point I finally had to look at myself and go, 'What are you doing? You've got all this responsibility. Are you in the real estate business?' So I came back and really had to be honest with myself and not live up to what I thought were the expectations. It was imaginary, really – the 'should be's' and the goals that we give ourselves or that we think other people give us. I just looked in the mirror literally and said, 'What do you want? And, whatever it is, do it.' And I thought, 'I just want to do theater. That's what I want.' So it gave me a new focus and a new beginning.

JN: So you've been touring, doing a lot of great roles in regional theater…

DM: Yes, I've been working in London almost every other year in something. I tried out my new cabaret show there and I've been doing that all over the country. And I've been working in wonderful theaters, too. I feel like I discovered the River City Rep in Shreveport, and I had a great, great time doing The Glass Menagerie there. Now I'm following up with Bob at the Reagle where the productions are always well thought of. Plus they are such nice people. They just go out of their way and we all believe in the same thing. We all just want to put on a show! It's a great collaboration. Then in October I will co-star with Carol Lawrence in a three-character play about three generations of women called Girl's Room. I'm happy and very excited about that because it's by this terrific writer named Joni Fritz. And it's being directed by Lynne Taylor-Corbett, a good friend and a wonderful director and choreographer. She was 'the flying Cassie' as we used to call her. Michael had a lot of regard for her and if somebody was out he'd just fly her in from all over the world. I forget when she first played the role, but she still knew it and she'd just put on her shoes and do it.

JN: I wanted to talk to you a little bit about your Rheumatoid Arthritis. Believe it or not I have RA. I had a flare up very similar to what you describe in your book. Then a couple of years ago I was referred to a holistic health center and I went on a diet that sounds almost identical to the one you went on.

DM: The elimination diet.

JN: Yes, the elimination diet. And within 3 weeks I was out of pain.

DM: Well, see, that's why I wrote the book. I don't mean to make it sound as simple as that, but it almost is that simple. There are 130 kinds of arthritis, and RA is stress related. There are always exceptions with other complications, but today I have no reading of it in my blood.

JN: So your sed rate is not elevated anymore?

DM: That's right. I think because mine happened so quickly I was able to turn it around. That's why in the book I don't write exactly what I did. I simply want to be an example. If I can do it, then it gives hope to someone to maybe try alternatives and not go to drugs as the first thing. Drugs are so dangerous. I mean, the medical profession is important and I believe in it, but you know yourself. You hear on the news about how all of a sudden this drug that was used for all these years is now taken off the market. So if there is the possibility of eliminating pain by doing it with food or diet and other forms of emotional work, then it's just a no brainer. That should be the first thing you try. But because from my own experience I was in so much pain, I understand how it's hard to believe that anything as easy as eliminating things from your diet is going to take that pain away. You just want that pill, that drug or whatever. That's why in the book I don't give specific details. For me a lot of it was vitamin therapy. I had to take a lot of vitamin pills initially and get my ph level back to normal. That's a big part of it, and everyone's chemistry is different. I have a book that talks about 'Alkaline or Die' which is really a terrible title but it's true. I had to think of it as cleaning out my blood and getting my metabolism balanced and getting the high toxic condition out of my system. Now I eat everything I want. I sometimes drink too much coffee, but I'm very conscientious about eating whole foods and vegetables and fruit. It's also the head, the body, the heart, the mind. Whenever I get stressed I can feel it, so more than anything I'm very conscientious about the acidic level in my blood. But I really feel great. Of course I'm aging. You won't see me do jumps on the stage. I have some creaks in my knees, but I started with a new trainer and once I started working on my quads all of a sudden the pain went away. It all works together.

JN: So if you keep working at it and keep the instrument tuned…

DM: Yeah, our body wants to be healthy. In spite of what we do to it, it will try to be healthy. So I try to give it what it needs, like rest. I don't kill myself with 14 classes a day like I used to – it's more appropriate, suitable exercise now. And I do take naps. I never did that before but it's good. You know, some people (with RA) call me for advice and I just talk to them. I'm not a counselor, I'm just me, but they say, 'You understand the black beast, the pain,' and I say, 'Yes, I do, but it's like we have to each find our own way out.'

JN: In a way this sort of made you face the question that was posed in A Chorus Line.  'What would you do if you couldn't dance anymore?'

DM: Right.

JN: Had you fully come to answer that or were you just on a mission to make it not happen?

DM: Oh, yeah, I was on a mission to make it not happen. But you know dancers are in denial anyway. They have to be to a point. But I am also a realist. I'm more of a realist now maybe, but that experience taught me. It's a terrible way to learn a lesson, but it taught me that I could no longer continue my life without loving myself. That was the most important thing for me to learn because from that acceptance and forgiving I could see the world and I could find compassion in a way that I never had it before. When I teach I try to emphasize that with students. I try to remind them to eliminate the criticism in their thinking. I talk quite openly about self love. I say to them that the most important relationship you'll ever have is between you and you. That intimacy is much of what I was missing in my own life. Before I got sick I would just push it under the rug or not deal with it or not respect my feelings – my conflicted feelings especially. So this is something that's very much a part of my teaching. I'm from that era of Jerome Robbins, who was the greatest, but there was this attitude that dancers were masochists. It was tough love or something and Michael had a little element of that, too, because he admired Jerome Robbins. That doesn't work for me. I go where the love is. That's what gives me the encouragement, not the criticism. I had too much of that. So that's a very important element of my teaching. Yes, I had to go through that horrible experience, and like I said, it's a terrible way to learn a lesson. But it was a great lesson.

JN: Well, it certainly sounds as if, despite all the hardships that you went through and so openly describe in your book, you're enjoying yourself now.

DM: Oh, yes. I am. I really am.

JN: It must be wonderful to be free of the demons.

DM: It is, but you know they're still there looming. It's funny how they can come back. This is why I love acting so much. I don't know anything where you can take whatever neurosis is there – and we all have our version of it – and use it artistically and creatively and play these crazy characters. Yes, it's a very healthy way to use it.

The Reagle Players production of No, No, Nanette will run Thursdays through Saturdays, August 7-9 and 14-16 at 7:30 p.m. and Saturday and Sunday, August 9-10, at 2 p.m. Tickets are $35 to $49 with youth and senior discounts available and may be purchased by calling 781-891-5600 or online at www.reagleplayers.com. The Reagle Players perform at the Robinson Theater, 617 Lexington Street in Waltham.