GYPSY OF THE MONTH: Renée Klapmeyer of 'The Producers'

Pool halls. The stereotypical image is a place that's smoky, dimly lit, frequented by hustlers and truants—not a place where dreams come true. But that's just what it was for Renée Klapmeyer.

One evening in 2001, while Klapmeyer was cocktail waitressing at Amsterdam Billiards in Manhattan, she heard her cell phone ringing continually behind the bar. She took a bathroom break to check the messages. "It was my agent saying, 'You got 42nd Street. You're going to be on Broadway,'" says Klapmeyer, who had auditioned for the show that afternoon. "I was bawling in the bathroom. One of the regulars was standing outside of the stall and she's like, 'Are you okay?' I was like, [in tears] 'Yeah, I just got a call, I'm gonna be on Broadway!'"

As if making her Broadway debut just two years after graduating from college wasn't enough, Klapmeyer was also selected to be a face of the show's advertising campaign. She was featured, in costume, with an inset of her as a child, on posters that went up on phone booths around the city. Echoing a line from the title tune, the poster read: "Come and meet Renée Klapmeyer, one of the stars in the chorus." She was one of only three chorus girls chosen for the ads.

She also got some television exposure during the show's run. The 42nd Street cast performed on Rosie O'Donnell and David Letterman and opened the 2001 Tony Awards by dancing out of a subway station and down the aisles of Radio City Music Hall. Another side project that arose from 42nd Street: Klapmeyer sang the national anthem (and the seventh-inning-stretch "God Bless America") at Shea Stadium. "I felt like Britney Spears. The crowd was going wild."

Good fortune has followed Klapmeyer into her next show, The Producers. Last year, after 12-plus months in the Producers tour, she decided she wanted to be back in New York. Within days of her giving her notice for the tour, a slot opened up in The Producers' Broadway ensemble. That's where she is now, appearing—among other guises—as a royal blue-clad theatergoer, a hooker, one of Max Bialystock's randy little old ladies and a pretzel singing the praises of Adolf Hitler. When the little old ladies return for Max's trial late in Act II, she sits in the front row of the jury box and, in a bit of improvisation, stealthily paws at Leo (Hunter Foster).

She also understudies Leo's bombshell paramour Ulla—a role she played to much acclaim on the road for a few months, after nearly a year in the tour's ensemble. One Detroit review raved about her "leggy vivaciousness and expert comedic timing"; another called her "tall, leggy, altogether magnificent" and said she "lights up the stage."

There was one stumbling block—or, more precisely, one very scary stumble—on her way to Ulla. A couple of hours before her first performance as Ulla, in Chicago, she and Andy Taylor (Leo) were rehearsing "That Face," which contains a lift that had given previous Ullas trouble—one of them even broke her ankle on the landing. "I'm a little bit smaller than the girl who was doing it before me. This may be why I was so far above Andy's head that when I came down to land I couldn't get my foot down [properly]. I just twisted over on my ankle. It wasn't broken, because I could walk on it, but it was swollen out to there." She was allowed to decide for herself whether to go on that night. "I was like: Honestly, you're going to have to tell me to sit out. So I iced it and wrapped it and went on that night. We had to put more holes in the strap of my shoe because it was so swollen."

At the doctor's the next day, she learned she had torn three tendons and chipped a bone. But she refused to have a cast put on, and she never missed a performance. Descending the stairs in high heels during "Springtime for Hitler" was especially painful, as was sitting on the desk with her legs folded beneath her in "When You Got It, Flaunt It." The suffering literally built her character. "It helped me because I had never played the role and I was so nervous," Klapmeyer says. "When this happened, when I went out there, I just had to focus on my ankle, so my nerves were out of the picture. It helped me get in the role and be grounded."

She had received the best coaching possible on playing Ulla even before she was slated to take over the part on tour. "When we were in Boston teching the show before it opened, the girl that was playing Ulla was still on Broadway covering Cady [Huffman], so I got to step in during tech and work with Susan Stroman. I was lucky, because I could bring my own things to it but she gave me a lot of instruction on what she wanted from the role," Klapmeyer reports. "The direction I got from her was to play it very innocent and sweet. It was almost like she wanted me to not be so knowing about a line, and it could get a better laugh. 'You hung up your coat while you were still in it' [what Ulla says when she finds Leo hiding from the cops]. I think I was saying it like 'Oh, my gosh! I can't believe you did that,' where she wanted me to be like 'Omigod, what are you doing?' He's not an idiot; just say it like you have no idea [why that happened]."

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Related Links Jai Rodriguez Joins 'Producers' as Carmen Ghia on Nov. 1; New Max as of 10/25 'The Producers' Closes Las Vegas Run with Danza Feb. 9 The Las Vegas production of Mel Brooks' 12-time Tony Award-winning musical, The Producers is announced to close at the Paris on February 9, 2008. Tony Danza will continue to portray down-on-his-luck theatrical producer Max Bialystock through the remainder of the production's run. Marriott's 'The Producers' Keeps It Gay How do you keep The Producers fresh after a 1960's movie, a hit Broadway musical and a movie of the musical? Well, it is all in the "coesting," as Ulla would say. The latest production of Mel Brooks mega hit, which opened Wednesday at the Marriott Theatre in Lincolnshire, certainly has not made any missteps in the casting departing, starting with Ross Lehman and Guy Adkins as Bialystock and Bloom... 'The Producers' Arrive at Chicago's Marriott, Begins 9/5 The Marriott Theatre is proud to present the Tony-award winning smash hit comedy, The Producers. Previews begin September 5, press opening is September 12, and runs through December 2 at the Marriott Theatre,10 Marriott Drive, Lincolnshire. This outrageously funny musical from the incomparable Mel Brooks won 12 Tony Awards, more than any other show in history - and is based on the 1968 Academy Award-winning cult film classic of the same title. Tony Danza Set for Las Vegas' The Producers Tony Danza will once again star as the irrepressible Max Bialystock in the Las Vegas production of The Producers. Purchase Tickets Click Here to Purchase Tickets to The Producers On BWW.TV

Adrienne Onofri, one of BroadwayWorld's original columnists, created and writes the Gypsy of the Month feature on the website. She also does interviews and event coverage for BroadwayWorld, and is a member of the Drama Desk. Adrienne is also a travel writer and the author of Walking Brooklyn: 30 Tours Exploring Historical Legacies, Neighborhood Culture, Side Streets, and Waterways, published by Wilderness Press. Past Articles by This Author: GYPSY OF THE MONTH: Logan Keslar of 'La Cage Aux Folles' BWW Interviews: Shaun Taylor-Corbett, HEIGHTS' New 'Sonny' BWW at the Movies: 'The Extra Man' GYPSY OF THE MONTH: Barrett Martin of 'The Addams Family' BWW at the Movies: 'The Kids Are All Right' GYPSY OF THE MONTH: Ben Thompson of 'American Idiot' GYPSY OF THE MONTH: Ashley Amber of 'Promises, Promises' Q&A with Jonathan Cake: U.S.-Dwelling Brit Who's Playing an Italian GYPSY OF THE MONTH: Kristine Bendul of 'Come Fly Away' Interview: Stephen Kunken, One of ENRON's Corporate Baddies GYPSY OF THE MONTH: Joseph Medeiros of 'Yank!' and 'Anyone Can Whistle' Marsha Mason: A Conversation for Women's History Month Judy Collins Speaks: Of 'Rainbow', 'Clowns' and All Sides Now BWW Interviews: Stage & Screen Star Judith Ivey GYPSY OF THE MONTH: Adrienne Jean Fisher of 'Banana Shpeel' GYPSY OF THE MONTH: Jeffrey Page of 'Fela!' GYPSY OF THE MONTH: Michael X. Martin of 'Ragtime' GYPSY OF THE MONTH: Devin Richards of 'Finian's Rainbow' Photo Coverage: The Broadway Musical's View of NYC GYPSY OF THE MONTH: Tracee Beazer of 'Memphis' GYPSY OF THE MONTH: Dustin Sullivan of 'Little House on the Prairie, The Musical' AVENUE Q 'Exit Interview' with Ann Harada: We Ruv You, Christmas Eve! AVENUE Q 'Exit Interview' with Robert McClure, a.k.a. Princeton, a.k.a. Rod AVENUE Q 'Exit Interview' with Jennifer Barnhart, Its Longest-Running Star Chatting with Anika Larsen, AVENUE Q's Final Kate Monster More Articles by This Author...