Pre-Show Ponders: Interview with Liz Callaway
Liz Callaway is an Emmy-award winner and a Tony nominee. She made her Broadway debut in Stephen Sondheim’s Merrily We Roll Along and received a Tony Award nomination for her performance in Baby. In addition to her work on stage, Callaway is known for her animated voice work, including providing the singing voice for the titular character in Anastasia (as one who has discussed her thoughts on Anastasia, this interview was especially meaningful) and the singing voice for Princess Jasmine in the Aladdin sequels. I had the opportunity to speak with Callaway about her career, solo albums, and her upcoming performance at Pinecrest High School on Saturday, April 29, 2023 as part of Sandhill Repertory Theatre’s new Broadway series.
Tell me about a little bit about yourself and your background.
I was born and raised in Chicago, although I did live in New York for five years when I was a kid. My dad was a journalist and was transferred to New York. My mom was a singer and a voice teacher, and my sister, Ann Hampton Callaway, is a brilliant singer-songwriter, and we often perform together. So I came from a pretty musical family, but I was very shy growing up. I wouldn't sing in front of people. I'd only sing when my family left the house. I loved to sing, I just was very, very shy about it. I actually didn't start doing theater until midway through high school, and then I just fell in love with it. That was it. That was what I wanted to do.
Can you talk a little bit about your time on Broadway?
I moved to New York when I was 18 with my sister Ann, and I had gone to college just very briefly, but we moved together. I had a goal for myself when I moved to New York. I knew I had potential, but I thought it was gonna take me a while. I wanted to get into the chorus of an Off-Broadway musical in three years. I thought that was a sensible goal. I didn't realize of course, there were no courses in Off-Broadway shows. But then I surprised myself, and after being in New York for a year, I landed my first Broadway show, which was Stephen Sondheim's Merrily We Roll Along. At first, I was hired as a swing, but eventually I was put into the show in the chorus, and I understudied the female lead. The show actually closed after two weeks, which was very difficult. But it also, in a way, it really gave me knowledge that would help me my whole career in that success is fleeting. I was working with the best people in the business on something that wasn't a success. So it's helped me in having a really long career and knowing that you're going to be in shows, you're going to have success, and then you're going to have harder times, and that's been really helpful to me. Then I went on to do Baby on Broadway, which I absolutely loved. That was my first big role on Broadway, and I got a Tony nomination, which was really very cool. I met my husband from doing that show. And then I did some of Broadway's longest running shows like Cats and Miss Saigon. The highs have been very high, and the lows have been low. I consider myself to be so incredibly fortunate to have had such a varied career. Theater is my number one love and I love all the other things I get to do, like recording and movies and concerts. So I'm very fortunate. My life is not boring!
You mentioned Cats. That show is just in a category all its own. Can you just talk about what it was like immersing yourself in that world?
Callaway as Grizabella in Cats
I loved doing Cats and ironically, it was before I had my own cat. My kitten Oliver – someone's fixing our air conditioning – so my kitten Oliver is like running all over the place like a maniac. I’m sitting here like “Boy, the physicality, there’s probably more I could have drawn on!” But I loved doing the show. I got to sing “Memory,” which is one of the greatest theater songs ever written. I had about 15 minutes of stage time as Grizabella. I danced in the opening number as another cat, and then I played Grizabella. And I remember I used to feel guilty because the dancers were so incredible and they worked so hard. At the end of the show during the curtain call, they would be doing their bows and get wonderful applause. But then I walked out for my bow from “Memory” and get all this applause. I went “Oh, no, no, no, no, this isn't fair. They worked so much harder than I did!” In fact, I saw on Facebook today that someone I did Cats with on Broadway is coming to my show on Saturday night, so I'm thrilled. I haven't seen him in so many years, so I'm just delighted that he will be at my concert. And of course, I will be singing “Memory” in my show!
Of all of the Broadway shows that you've done, is there a particular moment or experience that stands out above the rest? Something you’ll never forget?
That’s a great question. Well, it wasn't really something that happened on stage, but when I was doing Baby – I mentioned that I met my husband – he actually was in the audience of the first preview of Baby and pursued me during the run of the show. It was amazing. He was very persistent, thank god, and here we are, many, many, many years later. That show also was also the best part I ever had. It was just an incredible role, incredible music, but then to have my life change personally because of that show. When we get together with people, or when people hear the whole story – the whole story of how we met could take hours. There's the short version, and then there's the long version, which is a doozy, so at holidays or dinner parties or whatever, that is probably the story that I've told the most in relation to being in a Broadway show.
Other than the obvious difference of performing on a stage versus in a recording studio, what is the biggest difference in how you either sing or prepare for the different types of work that you've done over the years?
Well, in terms of recording either an album, or, let's say doing the voice of an animated movie, when you're in a recording studio, it's almost – and this is one of the reasons I think I love recording so much – it's almost like you're singing in the shower. You're usually in a small booth, and it takes enormous concentration. You use your imagination. I've learned that you don't want to sing 100 percent – You never want to sing 100 percent – but you want to sing less. Not quite as loudly, not quite as big. It's like film acting; it's subtler. There's a certain pressure in the recording studio that I love. I don't know quite how to describe it.
Another very big part of my career is performing in concert and cabaret style, and that is very different too. When I first started doing cabaret and concerts and I would perform with my sister, I was like, “Wait, we have to look at people when we sing?” Whereas what I loved about doing theater, as someone shy, is when you have a spotlight on you, you don't see anything. It's black out there, so you're just the character. You play opposite whomever you're doing a scene or a song with. And yet, with concerts and cabaret, now what I've grown to love is that I want to see the faces. The audience is now who I’m playing opposite. I've been saying this to people lately, especially after coming back from two years of not being able to sing in person, I don't know if the audience appreciates how important they are to all of us who perform. I get so much from the audience. It's a two way street. It's not just me doing a show or a concert, it's a two way street, and I missed that so much during the pandemic while I was singing into my phone and my laptop. I think people are so happy to be able to hear music. For me as an audience member and as a singer, live music again is just the greatest thing.
How did you transition from Broadway into voice work?
Liz Callaway
You know, it actually came to me similar to how it would for doing a show. My theater agent would get a call from me to audition for a movie. The first one I auditioned for and didn't get was The Little Mermaid. And then for Beauty and the Beast, I would get called back and got closer. I started singing in the chorus of animated movies first, which I loved. Then eventually, I was asked to do the singing voice of Jasmine in the Aladdin sequels and The Swan Princess movies. Those came originally from auditioning, but the main difference in auditioning for an animated movie versus the show is that they gave you a song to sing. They gave you the story, and the “this is what's happening,” and then you recorded it, as opposed to doing it for people and performing it. You’re using your imagination trying to create the character in your mind.
And then Anastasia happened and I actually didn't audition for that one. I did some demos for Lynn Ahrens and Stephen Flaherty kind of as a favor and never thought that I would be asked to do it. I thought I was doing them a favor! I just did, last week in New York, this big concert celebrating their 40 year collaboration. Lynn Ahrens is the lyricist and Stephen Flaherty is the composer. Lea Salonga was there, who did Jasmine in Aladdin, and then I did it for the sequels. We did Miss Saigon together, and Christy Altomare, who did Anastasia on Broadway, was there and we sang a duet of “Journey to the Past” together.
So this isn't really what you asked, but something like Anastasia – something that I did so long ago – I had no idea the effect it would have on people and that it would still be such a huge part of my life now. Anastasia was one of my favorite jobs I've ever had, and I'm always so happy to sing from it and to hear how much people loved it.
That actually is a perfect lead-in to my next question. It seems like the notoriety and excitement around Anastasia has grown as time has passed. Did you ever think that 25 years later, it would still be having such an impact on people?
No, not at all! When the movie opened, it got a couple of Oscar nominations, but it wasn't a huge hit and it didn’t necessarily run forever. And also, this was pre-internet. So of course, everything has changed so much! It wasn't until I started performing concerts and I would sing a song – or if I do a masterclass at a college and at the end, I might sing a little bit from Anastasia – and then people would just burst into tears like, “That's the soundtrack of my childhood!” So I had no idea until I kind of went out into the world and was singing it that I realized what a big deal it was. And then when Anastasia opened on Broadway, it was this completely whole new audience. I went to the first performance of it out of town, I went to the opening, and then I got to know Christy who played Anya. We performed a duet of “Journey to the Past” and I said, “Hey, we really should record this, this will make a lot of people happy.” So I produced a single of it with Stephen Flaherty, the composer, at the piano. Christy and I sang it last week together! It's made me very happy for a whole new generation to learn my music now. That's an important part of my career. While I'm recording, I want all generations, if I can, to know my music. That would be a wonderful legacy to have. So Anastasia has been a huge part of me connecting with the younger generation. It’s like Instagram. It’s why I do all this social media. Instagram is really great for me to connect with people.
I was actually going to ask you about that duet with Christy! It’s beautiful and so much fun.
We did a video of it when we were recording it, which was really fun. I have a YouTube channel that's kind of fun, and that has a bunch of Anastasia videos. I even found a cassette of my original demo of “Once Upon a December” that I put up so people could hear how the melody had changed. It’s really cool to hear.
You’ve spoken in the past about your relationship with Stephen Sondheim. Can you talk a little bit about that?
Well, as I said, my first Broadway show was Merrily. He was just a very important part of my career and his music is very important to me. He was an incredible genius. The first Broadway show I ever saw was Company when I was like nine or 10 – this is when my family moved to New York. And the fact that I got to work with him many times over the years. . . Since he passed, I put together a tribute show to him and I made an album of it called “To Steve With Love” that just came out in November. It's so hard – it's so funny, here I've been doing a show talking about it – but it's hard to put into words what he meant to me. I think he meant so much to so many people. He changed my life, certainly changed my career. If it wasn't for doing Merrily We Roll Along, I wouldn't have done Baby. You know, I have so many moments of “If I didn't do this, I wouldn't have gone there.” He was a wonderful teacher. I wanted to pay tribute to him. I never thought I was going to do an album of the show, but so many people that saw me do this show the first time were like “You have to record this!” I first met Stephen when I was 19, and I feel like his last gift to me was all these songs he wrote for older women. There's so much rich material that I said “Well, I'm not gonna sing that, I'm not old enough. I can't sing that song, I don’t have enough life experience.” And now I go, “Oh, wow. Oh, I can sing this now.” As an actor, it doesn't get much better than Sondheim music. Not just to sing, but to act. I've always said that when I sing Sondheim, I get to be smarter than I am because his lyrics are so brilliant.
Sometimes it's hard to put into words what one person means to you, you know? One of the things that is going to be really important is that I'm going to just keep singing his music, keep putting it out there in the world. I'll never tire of singing it. It’s interesting, there are songs that I sang very early in my career, and to sing them now with much more life experience and true understanding of what the songs mean. One of the good things about getting older is there's so much more you can understand and bring to your performances.
Do you have a favorite (or a few) pieces of his to sing?
Oh gosh. You know what? I love them all. I'm definitely going to a little Sondheim section at the show on Saturday. God, I love all his stuff, and I love all his songs for different reasons. So ask me on any given day, and I'll tell you something different. Next month, I’m doing a couple of symphony concerts of Sondheim with the Indianapolis Symphony. It's me and several other singers, including Beth Leavel. She’s a good friend who I adore. We're doing some group songs, and one of the songs we're doing is “Your Fault” (Into the Woods), and I'm doing Cinderella. And I'm telling you – that's one of the things I'll be doing after we speak. I'm going to be cooking dinner and trying to learn that. I've been learning it very slowly and trying to get up to speed a little more. Boy! It's so amazing. It's such an incredible song. But that's a mouthful.
Liz Callaway
How do you prepare for something like that? What is your process like?
I get piano tracks done, I make lyric sheets for myself, and the lyric sheets are the most important thing. Whenever I can, I try to learn lyrics first before the music. When I teach master classes, I try to get the students I work with to understand how, to me, it's the key to really know what you're singing about. You can always add the music afterwards, but learn the lyrics first.
So I have lyrics, I have piano tracks, I love to sing in my car. If you go to my YouTube channel, I have a series called AutoTunes, which is me rehearsing in my car. Repetition, repetition, repetition. It’s just over and over and over. For “Your Fault,” it’s very tricky because there are so many characters in it. I learned some and plunked out my part so I could sing it really slowly. But I'm singing along to the cast album, and actually, the movie version is a little slower. So right now I'm practicing with the movie and singing along just because there's so many other people involved. It’s different, so I can't just do what I normally do if I'm learning a solo.
How did you get involved with the Sandhills Repertory Theatre?
Michael Pizzi contacted my agent and said that his theater was starting a Broadway series and asked if I would come down to Pinehurst. I was like “Sure!” I've actually never been to Pinehurst, so it just came up as a “Hey, would Liz come down?” I'd love to, and it turns out that I have more fans in the area than I knew. On Facebook, it's like “I'm coming, I'm coming,” which is like, “Oh, great!” I'm still choosing songs. I tend to be very indecisive about what I'm singing. Alex Rybeck, who's a brilliant pianist and my longtime musical director, is coming down with me. The show is called Broadway and Beyond, which basically means it’s going to be a lot of Broadway songs, a lot of movie songs, and then – I love 60s and 70s pop music – so some pop music in there too. It's very eclectic. It just gives me license to sing all different kinds of songs.
Can you walk me through the process of putting a show together?
Liz Callaway in Sunset Boulevard
I've done so many solo evenings like this, so there are certain things that I know. I love to tell stories about my career, so my goal at the end of the night is for the audience to have enjoyed an evening of great music, but also I want them to feel like they just had dinner with me. I love to talk to the audience and share stories. As you probably can tell, I'm not a super formal person. I like to have fun and really connect with my audiences. I know there are certain songs that people are going to want to hear. I like to sing a lot of songs that people know but then sprinkle in some unfamiliar songs, which I think people appreciate hearing. There's a whole arc to putting together a show. One of the things I talked to Michael about is how sometimes people want two 45 minute sets, versus one long 85 to 90 minute set. I kind of prefer the one act version. It's a little easier to take the audience on a journey. It's almost like acts of a play. And so it's like, “here's this section” and these four songs here. This is this moment. And now we move on to this moment. I discovered after many years of doing this that there's sort of an art to creating an arc in an evening. So I'm still figuring that out.
I will definitely do something from Anastasia. I haven't sung from The Swan Princess in an evening like this, but I'm doing a new show of all movie songs. So in that, I talk about The Swan Princess and that may morph into doing more of my animated songs. But definitely Anastasia.
What is your favorite Anastasia song?
I think my favorite song to sing was “Journey to the Past.” But I love “Once Upon a December.” I was recently a special guest of this incredible cellist, and she did a show for cello and piano. We did like six songs together and we did “Once upon a December” with this beautiful cello. So I was like “Oh my god, this is the most beautiful song.” So I'm loving that song more and more. I mean, I always loved it. But having just sung it recently, it was the first time I had sung it just in its entirety by itself. I was like “Oh, this is incredible.” It's an incredible score. It really is.
Can you talk me through the process of putting out an album?
So many albums I've done have been completely different. The Sondheim album that I just released is a live album, so that was capturing the show. The last four or five albums I've done, I produced myself. I discovered my entrepreneurial side about 10 years ago, which has been a lot of fun. A lot of work, but I love recording and I love the idea of putting more and more music out into the world. Some albums I've done have had a theme, like a Christmas album, or my first album was Frank Loesser, and then I go and I try every song I can think of. One of my favorite albums I've done is on Spotify and it’s called The Beat Goes On, which is music from the 60s. It's mostly pop songs, but also a few Broadway songs in it. That's one of my favorite albums I've done. And again, I like to just try every song. I record everything I try, and then I work with either Alex or whomever I'm working with on the album, and then I go back and I listen. And then if I go, “Oh, that's interesting. I want to hear that again,” then that narrows it down. It's harder to do an album without a theme, and it’s the same thing with putting together a show. There's so many possibilities. So it kind of starts like that. With my shows and my albums, I ask for song suggestions on social media, which is always really interesting. Someone always comes up with something that I hadn't thought of before, so I like to get ideas from people. I'm just trying to figure out what my next album is gonna be.
Do you have one in the works right now? Or is this a future project?
Liz Callaway (right) and her sister Ann Hampton Callaway
There's a producer in Nashville I'm going to be talking to. I don't know quite what it is yet, but I know if I'm going to produce another album, I'm going to be buying some lottery tickets! We'll see how that goes. I've done some singles too, which is a lovely thing about this era of streaming and downloading. It doesn't have to be a complete album, although there's something about a full album. Like, for my Sondheim album on Spotify, I also made a 16 page booklet. I made CDs, and I sell autographed CDs on my website. But there is a 16 page booklet with more photos and stories and things. People can buy the PDF for $1.99 on my website. I wasn't able to put the booklet on iTunes, but people can get all my digital music or CDs on my website. But doing an album is different. The problem with Spotify and streaming is maybe people listen once, and then they make their own playlist. But with the order of songs on an album, sequencing is a huge part of it. You want to tell a story, even if ultimately, people won’t listen to it that way. You still want to create, and your favorite pop albums are sequenced for a reason. It tells a story, musically. And so that's the only bad thing about shuffle!
A little birdie told me one time that you have performed with Stephen Schwartz. Can you talk about that?
Yes, many times! He's great. He's a great guy. I've done concerts with him for years. We also play tennis together. Besides being a brilliant composer, he’s a lovely person. I also really admire how much he works with up and coming composers and lyricists to help new generations. He's a really good guy.
Do you have any plans to return to Broadway in your career?
I would love to! I’m just waiting for the right show.
Is there any show in particular you'd like to do?
I always say it hasn't been written yet. I'd love to do something new. But I would love to do Follies. There's some shows that as I get older I go “Ooh, I'd like to do that part.” Follies and playing Sally is on my bucket list.
Is there anything you'd like to do in your career that you haven't done yet?
That's an interesting question. There's so many things I would be interested in doing. And I like to think that life changes with a phone call. So I'm open to anything. I feel like I have so many different areas of music and theater that I get to do. I'd like to write music and I'd like to write a cookbook.
Any particular genre of music?
I haven't figured that out yet! I have music inside of me! I have music inside of me, and I may just write music for myself, not to share. I feel like that's something that I haven't explored, writing my own music yet. I have a little bit, and that's something I want to do more of, whether it's for fun, or whether it's something I'll share someday. But I do believe there are songs in me.
You mentioned you perform with your sister. Can you talk a little bit about that and what it means to you to get to perform with her?
Liz Callaway and her sister Ann Hampton Callaway
There's nothing more fun for me than performing with my sister! We've done several shows together, and we're going to be in Palm Springs on Memorial Day weekend doing our show “Broadway, the Calla-way!” She's my best friend. She lives in Tucson now. She used to live in New York, so we don't see each other as often as we would like, so when we get together and do shows, it's very special. And we're very, very different. We look different, we sound completely different, but when we join forces and sing, there's something magical that happens. One of the greatest joys of my life is singing with my sister. Of the many more albums I would like to do, we need to do another sister album. So we have some ideas about that.
Liz Callaway will perform in the Lee Auditorium at Pinecrest High School in Southern Pines on Saturday, April 29, 2023 at 7:30pm. Tickets cost $30 for regular admission or $95 for premium seating in the first three rows of the center orchestra. Tickets can be purchased at the Sunrise box office, by calling Sunrise, or at www.sandhillsrep.org. Ten percent of the profits will be donated to the Food Bank of North Carolina.
Responses have been lightly edited for length and clarity.
All photos courtesy of Liz Callaway