Interview: Kathy Voytko Takes On Mrs. Potts in BEAUTY AND THE BEAST National Tour

Kathy Voytko takes on the iconic role of Mrs. Potts in the BEAUTY AND THE BEAST national tour. She reflects on the production, her history with Chicago theater, and working with Stephen Sondheim on THE FROGS. 

How did you get involved with this tour? 

About a year ago they started auditions in New York, and I was so tickled when my agent said, “Hey, they'd like to see you for Mrs. Potts. And I said, “Really? I finally graduated into the mom characters. I'm delighted.”

I went and auditioned, and I loved the energy in the room. I loved their direction that they were giving me for Mrs. Potts, and I went on my cruise [to Alaska] thinking, “That's it. I'm just gonna throw it out in the universe and see what happens.”

It was awhile [before I heard back]. They had a dance call. They had other callbacks. and I said, “Oh, well, I guess it didn't go my way.” And then when I got back from Alaska...I went to my final callback for the whole team.

And when you audition for Disney, it's not just five or ten people in the room. It was 40 or 50. There were so many people who have to give their stamp of approval, and I was fortunate enough to get the job, and I am so tickled. 

This is a really beloved Disney title, so how do you balance audience expectations with making the character your own, in particular because Angela Lansbury has such a legacy [the original voice of Mrs. Potts in the 1991 film] and her original voiceover from the movie features in the show?

I'd like to think I am as big a fan of Angela Lansbury as anyone who possibly comes to see our show, so I had to give myself the license...to figure it out for myself. Matt West, our terrific director, and Sam, his associate director, were so encouraging along the way to say,“We want her to be a mom; we do not want her to be a grandmom. We want to lean into the mom part of Mrs. Potts.” 

Because she is not only the mom to Chip, but she's a surrogate mom to the Beast. Since I have two kids myself, I thought, “That's where I'm gonna lean into when I'm trying to figure out how I'm going to be Mrs. Potts.”

I watched the animated film at least a thousand times. I saw it in the theater when it came out. Then I saw the Broadway musical at least three or four times on Broadway because I had some friends in it. And I was hook, line, and sinker.

This is such a beautiful musical on its own, and it is also a faithful nod to the movie. If you're a fan of the movie, you're not going to be sad to see this version of the musical... Yes, a lot of pressure, certainly, but it's an honor and a privilege to be able to play this beloved character. 

How did you find your way into the physicality of the character, and did you have to do any sort of special strength training, given that essentially you have use of only one of your arms for the vast majority of this show? I can imagine the teapot spout might be quite heavy in your costume. 

My left deltoid is definitely screaming by the end of the night! I have been doing a lot of yoga on the floor to try and keep my body symmetrical with balancing my own body with my own body weight against it.  There is nothing in the steam arm [in my costume] to help me hold it. I do hold it....Holding your arm that way all night is definitely not for the faint of heart. 

We do have a physical therapist who travels with us, and we all do appointments with her weekly or sometimes twice a week or as needed to keep our bodies in shape. She certainly helps me keep my arm from falling off. 

Obviously a huge part of this show, and in particular your role, is the ensemble work, as and Cogsworth, Lumiere, and Mrs. Potts as “the three caballeros.” How did you go about during the rehearsal process building a rapport with the other actors in the cast?

There are five objects in the show. There's Lumiere, Cogsworth, Babette, and Madame Lamour [in addition to Mrs. Potts.] Danny [Gardner], Javier [Ignacio],  Cameron [Monroe Thomas] and Holly [Ann Butler], respectively. [I knew Danny and Javier] because we have both performed together before, and Holly I met through a mutual friend, so we had basis for a friendship to begin with. Then Cameron was brand-new because she just graduated college. But we got super lucky in that. They are all fabulous humans offstage, and it helped so much because they are so funny and so much fun on stage. It is a great joy to be friends with them on stage and off. I've had several people ask if we knew each other previously...They're wildly gifted all four of them. And I can't wait to do our scenes every night.

You have quite a long history of performing here in Chicago! I know you've worked with Nick Bowling a couple times at Marriott both on RAGTIME and BRIDGES OF MADISON COUNTY. You did SUNDAY IN THE PARK WITH GEORGE at Porchlight Music Theater. And then I know you also worked with Gary Griffin in the lead role of Clara in PASSION at Chicago Shakespeare. You really know your way around Chicago theater. Tell me more about that.

I love the Chicago theater scene. I love it.  I come almost every time they ask, or every time I'm available. It is such a vibrant theater community, and I feel like the friendships I made here almost 30 years ago now have lasted. That's very telling to what kind of strong, amazing folks work here and thrive here. 

I was very fortunate to work with Nick [Bowling] twice up at Marriott. BRIDGES OF MADISON COUNTY remains one of my favorite experiences with the lovely Nate Stampley. It was an extraordinary vocally gifted cast that was up there. 

You’ve performed in a lot of Sondheim. Sondheim is thematically complicated, but I'm sure as a performer, also really challenging. How do you approach it? And what's your favorite Sondheim piece? 

I was very fortunate to do the production of THE FROGS at Lincoln Center. I played Ariadne opposite Nathan Lane. I feel fortunate that I actually got to work directly with Sondheim because Nathan Lane and Sondheim were making it a full-length show.

To watch Sondheim come in every day with a new set of lyrics or a new suggestion was thrilling. I could never have dreamed that I would do that. That was high on the bucket list.

I feel comfortable approaching his work because I saw directly how he works. It was fascinating to watch him because he was so ready and willing to say,  “I don't like those lyrics. Let's scrap them and start over,.” He wasn't precious about his material in that way. As an actor that was really neat to watch. I think that was a lesson right there.

Any time I approach something in the Sondheim world, I do think about that, and I think about how if my first attempt doesn't work, I'm just gonna give it another shot and find another direction to go because I learned that from him. 

To bring it back to your current show, what do you hope that audiences take away from this particular tour and reimagined version of the Broadway production of BEAUTY AND THE BEAST? 

Linda Woolverton, the book writer (who also wrote the screenplay for the animated film), was there in the rehearsal room with us. Every now and again, she would change a line or she would just freshen it up, and that is always delightful as a performer when you can say this doesn't serve quite the story...and we’ll change the line in such a way that it is fresher and more poignant today. It was exciting to watch her work. 

I hope what people see in this show is that you can make a terrible, awful mistake in your life [like the Beast does at the beginning], but it's not too late to change and have a better outcome. 

We're telling the story now of [two people meeting each other and Belle going,] “Oh, I’m an outcast too in a way. I understand where you’re coming from.”

[Belle and the Beast] understand each other, and that is something that Linda wrote well.

This production celebrates that [Belle is] odd, and that's what makes her cool and unusual and interesting. She and the Beast find each other and [discover they’re] special and unique in [their] own way. I think that that is something that Linda and Matt as a team were able to lean into.