I grew up in musical theatre and love to perform on stage.
I always say I write my own novels and the characters don't take control of me, but in fact, I look at the characters in the early stages and I think, 'What is he or she like,' and they slowly come together and they become the person they are.
I began to work the stage and get the audience into it. I also learned how to have fun out there. It is something I will never forget.
I was singing in a mall, and I picked a girl to come up onstage with me. As I was grabbing her hand, I fell off the stage. It felt like I was in the air forever, flying like Superman.
But I'd say recording and playing on stage are two completely different things. Being up there in front of all those people is like jumping off a cliff into icy water. The recording process is a totally different energy.
On the PBS recording of 'The Light in the Piazza' backstage, you get to see me doing some sweet lunges down the hallway of the Vivian Beaumont.
It was surreal to play opposite Angela Lansbury and Elaine Stritch, Bernadette Peters and Catherine Zeta-Jones. There was so much to learn just from watching them, and it was an honor to share the stage with women who have accomplished what they have.
For 'A Little Night Music,' I did try to get little bit more beefed up for that because I thought that would help me carry myself around the stage in that character.
Viola Davis, she does have a lot of TV acting jobs, and she's also a very, very accomplished stage actress.
Being onstage is just a feeling that you cannot duplicate anywhere else because the energy that the audience is giving you forces you to give more energy. It's such an output and exchange of energy. You can't do that anywhere else.
