More than a bit hearty in manner—indeed, at times evoking the director of a backstage tech crew instead of the show's star—actress-singer Sharon McNight states it outright: She chose Sophie Tucker as the basis for her solo theatre piece, "Red Hot Mama," because, quite frankly, Mae West and Ethel Merman had been done and taken.
None of this is to suggest that Sophie Tucker isn't a great vehicle in her own right. In fact, she may even be more interesting than those other two legends, asserts McNight, a 40-something Modesto, Calif. native, in her dressing room before a performance. One thing is certain: Sophie paved the way for Mae and Ethel who are, in fact, Tucker's cultural heirs. (Consider Sophie's dates: 1884-1966).
More important, "I think Sophie was the best entertainer of the lot, and she did it all—burlesque, vaudeville, clubs, Broadway, radio, TV, and movies, although not as many movies as she might have liked. And musically, she had the greatest composers writing for her, people like Jack Yellen, Brooks Shelton, and Cole Porter. She also sang the songs of George and Ira Gershwin and Irving Berlin.
"She wasn't necessarily the best singer, but she had the greatest impact—sociopolitically," McNight continues. "She was one of the first to come out and say, 'If your husband is cheating, you go do the same.' And 'Don't let the same dog bite you twice,' and 'Life begins at 40.' Yes, there was a lot of bravado. She let it be known that she had a different man each night [she was also married three times]. I'm sure she screwed them all, but went home alone."
And it is precisely that sense of vulnerability beneath the brassy mask that McNight hopes she captures in her show that bowed Off-Broadway at the York Theatre Company May 8, and has just had its run extended through June 30.
"Red Hot Mama," an intermingling of memoir and music, is set on a nightclub stage where McNight, sporting Tucker's high-camp costumes and belting out Sophie's signature songs ("Some of These Days," "After You've Gone"), patters with the audience and band members (the latter are seated on stage behind her), and recalls her life.
The songs give birth to the memories, sometimes vice versa, and are always reflections of her bold and frequently comic off-color and/or sentimental views. At various points throughout the 90-minute piece, the songs' lyrics are projected onto a large screen wall, so that audiences can sing along with Sophie. And they do, happily.
"I think one of the reasons for Sophie's ongoing appeal is that she rose out of poverty to become one of the most sophisticated entertainers, as well as one of the richest and most successful," notes McNight. "She was independent at an early age, came out of the school of hard knocks, and when she died, she had two years of solid bookings ahead of her."
She was also bigger than life (not unlike Merman and West) and had great charm and charisma, with sexual suggestiveness aplenty, McNight points out. "Offstage, Sophie swore like a sailor and smoked heavily. To be liberated in those days meant that a woman had to behave like a [stereotypical] man."
With the possible exception of Madonna, there seem to be few flamboyant female personalities on the cultural scene today, says McNight. In fact, she suggests that that absence may be one of the reasons so many actress-singers are turning to such legends as springboards for exposure and, hopefully, career advancement.
"I believe I have a real onstage personality in my own person," says McNight, "but the producers don't seem to want that. They want shows with themes if we're singing in our own persons. I'm not interested in themes."
Sophie comes with a built-in audience and allows McNight an acting-singing opportunity, along with the chance to reinvent an era on stage where secrets, naughtiness, and raised eyebrows had application.
Impersonation or Interpretation?
So what's McNight up to in her Sophie spin? Is it impersonation or interpretation?
She has indeed captured Tucker's husky, staccato rhythm, and the more than slightly affected speaking style. "The speech helps me channel Sophie, her frankness and honesty. But, of course, I'm doing an interpretation—emphasizing her loneliness," McNight maintains.
"And I've done my research, reading everything about her that I could get my hands on and interviewing people who knew her, including one of her many hairdressers. The biggest challenge was to be patient, let Sophie come to me. There was always the danger that I'd be so impatient [to nail her down], I'd sell her short."
McNight is no novice to either cabaret or Broadway; she made her Broadway debut in 1989 in "Starmites," earning a Tony Award nomination for Best Leading Actress in a Musical and the Theatre World Award for Outstanding Broadway Debut. Her regional credits include appearances at the Pasadena Playhouse and the Peninsula Civic Light Opera.
McNight has produced six solo recordings, with such titles as "Songs to Offend Almost Everyone" and "The Sophie Tucker Songbook." The latter was "Red Hot Mama" 's original title when it premiered in 1996 at New York's Rainbow & Stars as part of an ASCAP Sunday night showcase. Since that time, it has appeared in various incarnations at venues across the country.
Life on the road—the emptiness and the difficulty in forming a steady relationship—is a part of Tucker's life that McNight relates to, she remarks. "And then there's the constant performing. Sophie was in burlesque and vaudeville as a very young woman, and I was a child performer for the Elks, the Eagles, the Lions, and"—she now assumes Sophie's gravelly tone—"the occasional 'odd fellow.' I played the piano, flute, took social dancing, tap, toe, and hula-hoop lessons. I had hula-hoop lessons for six years, for God's sake."
McNight is one tough cookie, declaring without apology: "I won't define myself as one thing as opposed to another. As long as the checks don't bounce, I'll do almost anything for dough. I like to work. Idle hands are the devil's tools, especially when you are an only child. That's why I had all those lessons. 'Keep that girl busy. She'll get in trouble for sure.' "
A Mailman's Daughter
The stage-struck daughter of a mailman, McNight majored in theatre at San Francisco State College, where she ultimately earned her master's degree in directing; she worked as a director for many years before deciding to give performing a shot. "I figured why should I give everyone else my trade secrets."
Still it wasn't easy.
"I couldn't get acting parts, so I started singing. After I realized I had a voice, I began to take singing lessons. I've done a lot of musical theatre work, but I'd love to do the classics—restoration comedy, especially. It's got a lot of shtick and I love that. I've thought of doing standup comedy, and I do many impersonations, including Mae West and Bette Davis."
McNight cut her artistic teeth on drag queens—"the wit and wisdom of Charles Pierce and Craig Russell." Not coincidentally, the characters she is drawn to playing, she concedes, could easily be drag-queen creations. On some level, she continues, Sophie Tucker may well have been the original drag queen.
McNight is big on playing it big on and offstage, she insists.
"Whenever I've auditioned for a TV show, I'm told 'tone it down, tone it down. You're too big.' And when I do that, [when I] have no facial or vocal expression—in other words, when I'm not me at all—that's when they say, 'Now you sound natural.' I'd love to be on a TV show, an edgy sitcom like 'The Job' or 'Bernie Mac.' I'd love to be a regular on 'Law & Order.' Incidentally, I played a uniformed cop twice on [the now defunct] 'Silk Stalkings.' "
At the moment, McNight's thoughts are focused on "Red Hot Mama," hopeful that, along with having a hell of a good time, audiences realize "that Sophie Tucker was the first lady of show business." She reports that there is no shortage of feedback from audience members, especially among the elderly, for whom Sophie Tucker summons feelings of nostalgia.
"Whenever I sing 'Yiddishe Momme' and 'The Man I Love,' there's always that long pause after the songs are over. But the best response is when someone catches my eye and tells me to sing one song or another, as if I really am Sophie Tucker. And I play with the audience. I love that improvisational aspect of the show. I might say something like [abruptly imitating Tucker], 'If you're good, I'll do it for you later.' "