Corine Cohen: Hi Natalie, congratulations on the MAC nomination. Are you excited about it and what do you plan to do if you win?
Natalie Douglas: Thank you, Corine! It still makes me so happy
to be recognized for something I love to do. Hmmm, if I win…well,
I imagine the evening will be much the same win or lose. I’ll
spend it with my husband and good friends and if I’m lucky
enough to win, we’ll maybe have more champagne! (or maybe
we’ll need it more if I lose…hee!) Seriously I’ve
been nominated many times before and have been fortunate to the
tune of 6 MAC awards, so I know the vote can go either way, but
it doesn’t have to ruin your night, if it’s just not
your turn to take the statue home.
Corine: Let's plug your new show at Birdland. Tell me all about
it; and tell my readers how they can get tickets ! I adore your
work and need to alert them about this show. What songs will you
sing? Have you written any of the music?
Natalie: I’m awfully excited about my new show at Birdland.
It’s coming up this Monday night, April 14th @ 7:00PM. It’s
called Café Society and it’s a celebration of the
Greenwich Village nightclub Café Society from the 30s and
40s, so that’s the era of music we’re choosing from.
Café Society was the first nightclub in the U.S. to have
integrated audiences and that was certainly groundbreaking 70
years ago! Billie Holliday was a regular performer there, and
it was in this club that she sang “Strange Fruit” for
the first time. So, we’re talking about beautiful songs by
Porter, Ellington, Gershwin, Berlin, Weill etc., but we’re
also talking about politics and race relations and World War II.
It’s all a part of the time that made these nights legendary.
I haven’t written any of the tunes, but we are doing one song that was written in this century. Café Society is the name of a song about the club written by Lorraine Feather – a contemporary jazz singer and the daughter of Leonard Feather, the noted jazz journalist/producer/all around expert! I think it captures the sentiment many of us feel who wish we could spend just one night listening to the cats in that room playing!
Corine: It sounds fabulous! I have heard you sing many times
at Birdland. You have a gorgeous voice! Do you have a favorite
song that you consider to be your calling card or signature?
Natalie: Ooooooooooooh, what a lovely compliment, followed by a really tough question. Ha! I have a zillion favorite songs. I always say that it changes constantly, because my favorite is usually something I’m working on right now. In general, it would be something that lyrically sums up my current mood and that can mean it could be anything from “After the Gold Rush” to “Mood Indigo”. One of my dearest friends use to say that the lyrics you find running through your brain at random moments are a message from your subconscious or the Universe…scary, when I find myself humming “The Muppet Song”!
Corine: Well, "The Rainbow Connection" is one of
my favorite tunes! When did you realize you wanted to become a
performer? Have you ever thought of doing a two woman show? I
would love to see you and Capathia Jenkins do a show together!
Natalie: I’ve known what I wanted to do since I was 4 years
old and my mom taught me to sing in the kitchen. The deal was
that I could perform the song for Mom and Dad at dinner, if I
went to my room and learned it while she was cooking. (It kept
me out of her hair while she cooked and it taught me the value
of being prepared!) It was a couple of years after that when my
parents took me to see the Count Basie Orchestra with Joe Williams,
that I discovered singing in front of an audience was an actual
job that I’d been in training for the last 2 years! I also
wanted to try it in front of an audience like this, much bigger
than my usual dinner crowd of just Mom & Dad!
Theatre became part of the equation a little later when my mother
sent me to drama classes on Saturday afternoons when I was around
6 or 7 years old. I had that same “gotta do this” experience
and it never left. Of course, my mother was devastated when I
told her the acting bug had bit, and wished she’d never encouraged
me…hee!I would love to do a two woman show with someone as
gifted as Capathia Jenkins. I’m a huge fan of hers. I’ve
seen her do a lot of work, but her Hattie McDaniel last year Off-Broadway
was astonishing! I am totally devoted to crazily talented people
and I always jump at the chance to work with any of my favs.
Corine: I loved her in The Hattie McDaniel Story and also loved her in Martin Short, Fame Becomes Me. She stole the show! If you could have 10 wishes what would they be and why?
Natalie: Ten is soooooooo generous. All the other genies stop
at 3! Let’s see, I would use the first one for the pageant
answer: World Peace (we humans have such trouble with that one
– eradicating racism, sexism, homophobia, ending world hunger,
poverty and disease.) 2.Fix the Ozone Layer 3.Another 10 minutes
with my loved ones who’ve passed on, just to say, “I
love you” and “Please tell me there’s good food
& good music in heaven?” 4.Good Health to all my family
and friends 5.Finding my birth parents 6.Good, challenging work
to sustain me and help me grow 7.Make some dreams come true for
my husband and closest friends 8.Free time and money to visit
all the people I love 9.A beautiful and spacious New York City
apartment! (this should really be #1!) 10.The ability to be in
two places at once!
Corine: I loved your answers. Everyone wants a nice apartment!
If you could not sing what would your purpose be?
Natalie: No idea. I assume I would still act, but if I couldn’t be a performer at all, perhaps I’d be a psychologist. I’ve trained for it and people do fascinate me.
Corine: If you could be any role in any Broadway show what
would it be and why?
Natalie: (Hee) This is a most interesting question, because there’s a specific role on the horizon that I’d really love to tackle, but I’m one of those superstitious actors, so I don’t want to say it out loud. Let's just say, people I don’t even know have been asking me if I’ve been seen for it – I think I might really be right for it!
Corine: No clue what that meant but whisper it to me on Monday!
Who do you admire most and why?
Natalie: Well, it’s not fashionable, but I stand in awe of civil rights leaders of every kind. Dr. Martin Luther King, Jr., of course, but also Harry Hay and the Mattachine Society, Barney Josephson (who opened Café Society), Rosa Parks, Paul Robeson, Larry Kramer, Mahalia Jackson, Susan B. Anthony, Nelson Mandela, Romaine Patterson, Judy Shepard, Eleanor Roosevelt, Margaret Sanger, Betty Friedan, among many others – not the least of which are the unsung everyday heroes (male & female) who make the time to value others for who they are not what they are.
Catch Natalie Douglas on April 14th at Birdland.
Photo from http://www.birdlandjazz.com/
Info on the show and to get tickets:NATALIE DOUGLAS in "Cafe
Society"
(Info from the Birdland site)
Monday, April 14 @ 7pmMusic Charge: $25
Critically acclaimed six time MAC & 2008 Nightlife Award Winner,
Natalie Douglas will make her 9th appearance at Birdland with
a brand new show, Café Society! Natalie welcomes her fans
to this new celebration of the songs of the 30s and 40s and the
legendary New York City night club that bore the name, Café
Society. Seventy years after the doors opened on this Greenwich
Village basement, Natalie, with her longtime musica director and
arranger-Avenue Q’s-Mark Hartman and her band of Broadway
all-stars, will revisit the era, the atmosphere and the music
in a not-to-be-missed evening of Cole, Lena, Duke, Ella and of
course, Billie.
Thank you, Natalie! Congratulations on the MAC nomination!
Interview conducted by Corine Cohen
