Courtesy of Max & Louie Productions
Songs for Nobodies
From December 2-12, Debby Lennon will return to The Grandel to step back into the shoes of five ordinary women and five legendary divas in Max & Louie Productions’ Songs for Nobodies. The one-woman show is an exploration of many voices and stories, all of which fall on the shoulders of Lennon, who must navigate across genres, styles, and even dialects in order to give voice to the divas and the “nobodies” who encounter them. We sat down with Lennon to discuss the show, the characters, and what it’s like to take on so many iconic roles.
For those who aren’t familiar with the production, tell me a little bit about Songs for Nobodies.
Songs for Nobodies is a play written by an Australian playwright named Joanna Murray-Smith, and it was actually a vehicle for a particular artist in Australia, who was a wonderful impersonator of many celebrity voices. And so these stories were written around her gifts and her talents and her ability to throw her voice and become these wonderful celebrity divas. But Songs for Nobodies is about five “nobodies,” five everyday women whose lives intersect either directly or indirectly with five great divas – Judy Garland, Patsy Cline, Edith Piaf, Billie Holiday, and Maria Callas. So it encompasses a very wide range musically. Judy Garland’s theater and Hollywood movies, Patsy Cline is more country western, Edith Piaf's French cabaret music, Billie Holiday is obviously jazz and blues, and Maria Callas in the great opera world. So it's a mountainous piece.
This isn’t your first time taking on these roles. What’s it like stepping back into the characters and music of this show?
For me, a second chance to revisit this piece is extraordinary because it's an opportunity to even go deeper into the work. We just started rehearsals, so it's been wonderful to revisit the music and to sort of fine tune what's going to happen. Embarking on a project like this is terrifying. It’s overwhelming thinking about the heights and the stakes. So I just tried to have a plan. I think last time I thought I knew what I was doing, and then I kind of thought, “What the hell are you doing? Why did you do this, Debby?” But I guess I've always loved the challenge of leaving myself. What's so charming about this piece is that each of the women have a chance meeting with these divas, who become sort of a source of strength, a guiding force, or a beacon of light in their life. Orla McDonagh, the nanny in the last monologue, says “an ordinary life turned.” And that's what I think about. This is an opportunity for me, a second chance.
What is it like for you stepping in and out of all these roles?
It is a lot of fun. While it was written for a marvelous impersonator of many celebrity voices, who made her living doing voices in a cabaret setting or in a stage version where she was just singing as artists, I think for me personally, rather than doing impersonations, it's sort of a memory play for me. That's how I carry this piece in me. These are most importantly the stories of the “nobodies” and how their lives intertwine or intersect with these women through fate or destiny, whatever you want to call it. I feel like I just sort of slip away temporarily into these moments of memory for the nobodies, the everyday people.
I get to use different dialects for each of the ladies, too, which is really fun. We're moving from Minnesota influence to a country, Southern girl, and then an English woman, and this girl from Brooklyn who works for the New York Times, and the last one is the nanny on a yacht for Aristotle Onassis and Maria Callas, and she's from Ireland. So I get to do all of these great dialects, and I have a phenomenal dialect coach. I got to work with her last night, and it was illuminating.
Do you feel connected to any of the women in particular?
I love the first character, Beatrice Appleton. She's a lavatory attendant and, not to give too much away, but she almost becomes a caretaker of sorts of the great Judy Garland. Being a mom, I have a kinship with a caretaker, and I just love taking care of people. I love Pearl Avalon, the one who meets Patsy Cline, because she's so bubbly and charismatic, and she's just an eternal optimist. Although she's very grounded, and I wish I was as grounded as she was. She just seems to really have her feet on the ground. But I would say probably my very favorite is Too Junior Jones. She's the one who meets Billie Holiday. She interviews Billie Holiday, and I love the writing in the monologue. I love the pace, the way she speaks.
How do you prepare to tackle this many characters by yourself?
I was telling somebody, I said, this is familiar to me, but the second time around you can go deeper, because the language is familiar. Each monologue is quite detailed, but I felt like I started working on it quite a while ago, and I'm really examining the text and really trying to create a more cohesive process. It's reading and rereading the monologues ad nauseum, continuously examining the text and the timeline and the history of each character, and finding a voice and physicality that fits each character. I'm listening to, watching, and transcribing footage, listening to audio and repeating that over and over. Memorizing, recording, writing things down, anything to keep the context, just to make sure that it's not just by rote, that it's really contextualized.
What’s it like working with your crew and production team as the only actor in the show?
It's a lonely road when you're in this process alone, because so much of the energy comes from the audience response and how they're reacting to these stories. But my director, Pamela Hunt, the first time I worked with her was last year, and she was wonderful. She's funny and encouraging, and she has great comedic timing, and she was so nurturing and wonderful throughout the process. And this time around my old friend, Monica Dickens, she's a world-class stage manager in the business. And she's at the helm of that this time. It's wonderful to be reacquainted with her. My onstage partner who runs the band, Nick Valdez, is amazing. He’s an excellent collaborator and a graduate of the Webster University music theater directing area, our first graduate of that new program that was established a few years ago. He's brilliant and young and has just a wonderful perspective and is very smart. It’s just great. I'm telling you, I'm really lucky.
What do you want audiences to know before they come to the show?
Fasten your seat belts. I think they're going to love it. I really think they're going to love it. There's something for everyone in this piece, there really is. And I feel like we can all relate to these “nobodies” in some ways. And of course, we all love the divas. Who doesn't love a diva?
