Headlining the most popular show on Broadway. A splashy appearance on national television. Filming scenes for two movies, including the new “Sex and the City.” A reading for a new musical.
Yeah, it was “kind of a neat week” for Annaleigh Ashford.
“Kind of kooky, huh?” said the 22-year-old Coloradan who’s taking New York by storm.
“I got recognized for the first time ever getting coffee yesterday morning,” she said. “It was so weird.”
Ashford took over the role of Glinda on Oct. 9 in “Wicked,” which generates $1.4 million a week in ticket sales. Last week, MTV aired a three- hour special presentation of the crosstown “Legally Blonde” stage musical. It prominently featured Ashford as Margot, a member of the show’s pretty-in-pink sorority Greek chorus. It was filmed just before Ashford vacated her role in September.
The cast of “Wicked” was watching the MTV special backstage while Ashford was loading herself into Glinda’s bubble.
“People were saying, ‘Hey, you are doing two different shows at the same time, what’s going on?”‘ she said. “They were teasing me all day long. But it was so cool. The show turned out great. What a great way to leave (‘Legally Blonde’).”
Ashford said her first week as Glinda was a smooth transition (“Thank God!”) and she’s starting to make the role her own.
“It was lovely to have a whole week to explore and find things,” she said. “It’s like you’re in a preview, but your show has been running for four years.”
Ashford is Glinda No. 6, succeeding Kendra Kassebaum. There is a tradition that when any Glinda exits, she pins a personal note for the next one to the scrim above the stage, where Glinda’s bubble rests.
So what did Kassebaum have to say? “It’s a secret,” she said. “Nobody sees it except for me and Kendra.”
Ashford graduated from Wheat Ridge High School at age 16 and Marymount College at 19. There are now Annaleigh Ashford appreciation threads on the Web: Yep. Kind of kooky.
“I’m getting to do what I love every night, in one of my dream roles,” she said. “It’s amazing. You are so tired when you get home at the end of the day, but then you put your feet up, and you are like, ‘Wow. All right, Lord, my dreams have come true. I am working as an actor, and making a living. Thank you.”‘
And what then?
“Then I eat my soup and watch the Colorado Rockies.”
How cool is that?
Theatre “Off” Broadway
The resuscitating Theatre Group no longer performs at the Theatre On Broadway, but it made a wise marketing move last week by deciding to embrace “Theatre Off Broadway” as the new moniker for its Phoenix Theatre space on Santa Fe Drive.
The clever rebranding allows the company – and its longtime audience – to connect past and present dots. For years, the city’s only gay theater company has been known as much for the name of its theater space as for the name of its company.
Theatre Group opens “Tiny Tim Is Dead” Nov. 23 at the (new) TOB. Its 2008 season will include “Jeffrey,” “The Last Session,” “The Play About the Baby,” “When Pigs Fly,” “The Gay Deceiver,” “Dracula” and “The Who’s Tommy” (303-777-3292).
Briefly …
Here’s a major clue that the Denver-born “The Little Mermaid” won’t be changing all that much in story, structure or design before it opens for previews on Broadway next week, despite mostly harsh reviews here. Disney Theatricals chief Thomas Schumacher told Variety the extent of the changes will be limited to costumes and some rewriting …
Russia’s Theatre Shkidy premieres the U.S. tour of its nonverbal drama “Starry Stories” at 7:30 p.m. Tuesday, Thursday and Friday at the Lakewood Cultural Center. Theatre Shkidy combines Russian theater traditions with mime, ballet, dance and “philosophical clownery” (303-987-7845) …
Su Teatro’s “A Bowl of Beings,” which closed Saturday, will return for five performances Nov. 9-10 and 15-17 (303-296-0219) … Broadway legend Patti Lupone (“Evita,” “Sweeney Todd”) headlines Opera Colorado’s 25th anniversary gala concert Saturday at the Seawell Ballroom. Tickets start at a cool $400 (303-698-2334) …
And finally, a new park was christened the Jared Jensen Park last week in honor of the slain Colorado Springs police detective. Jensen was married to Natalie Jensen, who frequently performed at the Country Dinner Playhouse.
John Moore: 303-954-1056 or jmoore@denverpost.com
This week’s openings
Thu.-Nov. 18. TheatreWorks’ “Doubt.” Colorado Springs.
Fri.-Dec. 1. OpenStage’s “Noises Off.” Fort Collins.
Fri.-Nov. 16. Mercury Motley Players’ “An Evening with Penis” (at Mercury Café)
Fri.-Jan. 26. Boulder’s Dinner Theatre’s “The 1940s Radio Hour”
Fri.-Nov. 17. Red Rocks Community College’s “Jimmy Shine.” Lakewood
Sat.-Dec. 15. Curious’ “For Better …”
This week’s closings
Today. National touring production of “Dirty Rotten Scoundrels” (at Buell Theatre).
Today. Theatre 13’s “Savage Love.” Boulder.
Today. Fine Arts Center’s “Brighton Beach Memoirs.” Colorado Springs.
Today. Festival Playhouse’s “The Werewolf’s Curse.” Arvada.
Today. Modern Muse’s “Thom Pain (based on nothing)” (at the Bug Theatre).
Wed. Thin Air Players’ “Dr. Jekyll’s Medicine Show.” Cripple Creek.
Sat. Hunger Artists’ “An Evening with Edgar Allan Poe” (at Victorian Playhouse).
Nov. 4. Arvada Center’s “Defiance.”
Nov. 4. Heritage Square Music Hall’s “Too Old to Be Loud.” Golden.
Nov. 4. Backstage’s “Cannibal! The Musical.” Breckenridge.
This week’s podcasts
Video: The fourth in a series of short interviews with the cast of Listen Productions’ “Macbeth” features John Moore talking with “The Fight Guys,” Jeff Bull, Benaiah Anderson and Seth Maisel. Watch at .
———-
Audio: John Moore talks with Amanda Earls, star of the Arvada Center children’s theater production of “Miss Nelson is Missing.” Listen at .
