A Quote by Vanessa Williams

Broadway is really my life. — © Vanessa Williams
Broadway is really my life.
If you don't go to Broadway, you're a fool. On Broadway, off Broadway, above Broadway, below Broadway, go! Don't tell me there isn't something wonderful playing. If I'm home in New York at night, I'm either at a Broadway or an Off Broadway show. We're in the theater capital of the world, and if you don't get it, you're an idiot.
I wanted to be a therapist if the acting didn't work. I also did a lot waitressing and odd jobs. I'd audition but couldn't get hired to save my life. I'd do Off-Broadway theatre and that was great and I was excited and thrilled, feeling like, 'Well, it's Off-Broadway, but there's still the Broadway in there.'
I have always wanted to do Broadway, my whole life, but I never knew I'd actually make it - it's a dream; it's never been in the realm of possibility. So to be doing 'Hello Dolly!,' it's not just Broadway, but it's the most joyful, sort of classic Broadway experience with the most extraordinary company.
The Broadway community is unlike any community in show business and it is unlike any community in the world. When you come into the Broadway community they open the door and they say "welcome". Not only do they do that, but when times are really tough and horrendous things have happened and really tragic things - the Broadway community shows up! And they say "how can we help?".
I never intended to go to Broadway. I was very happy being in an Off Broadway theater and having an Off Broadway life. What it did to me is try to fit a round peg - that's me - into a whole bunch of square buildings. I just didn't fit.
You hear about Broadway your whole life, and I learned what it meant to work on Broadway in 'The Phantom of the Opera.'
I was doing a Broadway play, and I was really new to this business. The Broadway play was my first job, literally. The play next door was a musical called Falsettos. The director got hired to direct this Michael J. Fox movie and was looking for a kid who could play brash and salty and mean [in Life With Mikey].
And I don't consider Broadway the acropolis of theatrical art. I mean Broadway is commercial - that's what it is. It's expensive seats and a lot of them that have to be filled every night. Off-Broadway and Off-Off Broadway, as far as I'm concerned, is in New York the pride of New York theater.
And I don't consider Broadway the acropolis of theatrical art. I mean Broadway is commercial - that's what it is. It's expensive seats and a lot of them that have to be filled every night. Off-Broadway and off-off Broadway as far as I'm concerned is in New York the pride of New York theater.
I remember telling the agent, 'I don't want to do anything but Broadway.' She was like, 'That's not really possible because there is not that much Broadway. So I'll send you out on TV and stuff like that.'
Broadway is not about surprises. It's about rewarding the putrid, formulaic crap that makes Broadway Broadway.
My last show that I did on Broadway was - I hate to say this, but - 'Cats.' There you go. So I was doing 'Cats' on Broadway, and I injured my back. It was a really tough show.
The financial side of Broadway is the easy part. Plenty of people want to put money in a Broadway show. The challenging part is finding the material that excites me enough to spend a couple of years of my life devoted to it.
I've been really fortunate to do several shows on Broadway; the longest run I've done is nine months, and that was 'Porgy and Bess.' The shortest run I've done was about a month and a half: my first Broadway lead in 'The Scottsboro Boys.'
It took me a while to figure it out, but to have a real hit on Broadway, you have to get the respected Broadway people to like it. But then the production also has to appeal to the most middle-class people who know nothing about Broadway and who come to see it later.
My aim is to bridge Broadway and the R&B world; and to bring all my Broadway experience to the R&B world; and one day, when I go back to Broadway, to bring some R&B to that.
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