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DIVA TALK: Chatting with Katie Clarke and Ashley Brown
by Andrew Gans Source: Playbill.com ASHLEY BROWNAshley Brown, the current Belle of Broadway’s Beauty and the Beast, is living out a childhood dream each night at the Lunt-Fontanne Theatre. “I saw the Beauty and the Beast tour when it came to Atlanta, Georgia, when I was probably about 12,” the singing actress told me earlier this week. “I was such a Disney baby. I watched those movies over and over again. I basically had ‘Beauty and the Beast’ memorized. [To be in the show now] is just a dream come true — you never think it’s going to actually happen to you!” Though she is only 23, Brown, a native of Gulf Breeze, FL, already has a bit of a history with Disney Theatricals. Upon receiving a BFA in musical theatre from Cincinnati College Conservatory of Music, Brown was cast in the national tour of the Disney revue On the Record, an experience she relished. “It was great,” says Brown. “The role I was playing I got to sing every Disney heroine song you can even imagine. And you’re touring the country for free. You’re getting paid to see all these wonderful cities and theatres. We had a great group of people — I really had a lot of fun.” And, it was during the On the Record tour that the chance to play Belle arose. “In the middle of the tour,” Brown explains, “Disney approached me and said that they wanted to bring me in for the role of Belle. We were in Detroit, Michigan, at the time, so they flew me in on my day off, which is a Monday. I actually went in twice for the role. It wasn’t until about two months after that that I actually found out I was going to be Belle.” Brown wound up making her Broadway debut as Belle on Sept. 20 after a rather quick rehearsal period. “That was the weirdest thing for me,” Brown says. “We only rehearsed for three weeks, and it wasn’t every day. I was off on Mondays and Wednesdays. We only rehearsed for five hours at a time. That was the shortest amount of time that I’ve ever rehearsed for a show. In college,” she adds with a laugh, “you rehearse for three months and then only do it for one weekend! And, for On the Record I was part of the workshop and the rehearsal process, so we rehearsed for a couple months for that show, too.” Despite this short rehearsal period, her first performance — viewed by her family, the On the Record cast and several Disney executives — was “amazing. I was like, ‘I want to remember this. I don’t want it to be an out-of-body experience.’ My opening night was my first night with lights, first night with orchestra, first night with sound. I had been in costume before, but I had never been in costume with everybody else in costume. My put-in rehearsal, I was the only one all Belled up! Everybody else was in jeans. . . . The cast was so great, and I just trusted them so much I knew that if I slipped up, they would be there for me, so that pressure was off. Deep down, I knew that I knew [the role], and I knew I’d be fine. The show is so well written that it was so easy to memorize.” Brown says her favorite moments onstage include singing “Change in Me” and dancing up a storm in the “Be Our Guest” production number. She also is especially fond of the reactions of the young children, who make up a large portion of the Beauty audience. “They get so involved,” Brown says. “We call them Belle screamers! As soon as I’m lit up in the very beginning, they’re like, ‘Ah, Belle, over here, Belle.’ They think I’m going to be able to stop and [say], ‘Hey, what’s up?’ Obviously I can’t, and it’s just so funny. Whenever I ask questions, they answer them for me. I’ll say, ‘Who’s there?,’ and they [answer], ‘It’s the Beast, it’s the Beast!’ They definitely get really involved!” Brown believes the show’s longevity — Beauty and the Beast is now the sixth longest-running show in Broadway history — is due to the fact that it “caters to every age and every different type of person. I know it’s one of the quotes on the side of our building, but I really think it’s true. It’s something that the kids will enjoy and the parents will enjoy, too, because there are mature jokes that won’t offend the children. We’re all dressed up, and there’s candlesticks — that will entertain any child!” The young performer, who began singing in church when she was six, names Academy Award winner Julie Andrews as a particular inspiration. “I watched all of her movies,” Brown says, “and sometimes I would sing in an English accent when I was little. My mom would be like, ‘What are we going to do with this child?’” Brown began studying voice during her freshman year of high school. “That was the same time I did my first musical,” she adds. The role? Tiger Lily in Peter Pan. It wasn’t until she attended the Broadway Theater Project in Tampa, FL, however, that she realized acting would be her career. “Ann Reinking [runs the project]. I was taking dance classes with Gwen Verdon, Gregory Hines — these huge people would come and teach these workshops. It was just for three weeks, and you had to audition to get in. . . You’d take classes all day, put together a show at night and perform the show at the end of the three weeks. It was then that I realized that this is exactly what I want to do. I loved the intense classes — the acting, singing and the dancing. That’s when it came together for me.” During college she had the chance to play a wide variety of roles — Maria in West Side Story, Cunegonde in Candide and the title role in Violet — all of which she enjoyed but none so much as playing Belle in Beauty. In fact, Brown, who is scheduled to stay with the show until May, hopes she will be able to extend her contract. “Unless they make me leave,” she says, “it would take a huge, huge other opportunity to make me leave. It’s such a rewarding show for me, and the cast is amazing. I truly look forward to going to work.” [Beauty and the Beast plays the Lunt-Fontanne Theatre, Broadway and 46th Street. Call (212) 307-4747 for tickets.] |
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