Theatre News

Mullally Reveals Karen Musical Plans at WOS Q&A

| London's West End |

17 February 2010

Theatregoers at our sell-out Whatsonstage.com Outing to Megan Mullally’s West End debut with her band Supreme Music Program were treated to an exclusive post-show Q&A with the Will & Grace star, who shared insights into her music influences, theatrical ambitions and plans – not least a hoped-for London season – for Karen: The Musical, in which she’ll reprise her performance as the martini-swilling Karen Walker from the hit American sitcom.

After last night’s first public performance, Megan Mullally & Supreme Music Program give seven more performances only, until this Sunday 21 February 2010, at the West End’s Vaudeville Theatre. The run marks the first time Mullally and the band have played outside of the US.

Mullally rose to stardom as Karen in Will & Grace, a role that won her two Emmy Awards and three Screen Actors Guild Awards. Her Broadway credits to date include Grease, How to Succeed in Business Without Really Trying and the Mel Brooks musical Young Frankenstein.

Last night’s discussion took place in the theatre immediately after the performance and was chaired by Whatsonstage.com editorial director Terri Paddock. For more photos and feedback, visit our Outings Blog and for details of upcoming events, click here. A podcast will be published here shortly. In the meantime, edited highlights follow …

On choosing songs for Supreme Music Program
I pick all the songs myself and it’s a sort of ephemeral set of criteria. It just has to be a song that moves me in some way or strikes a chord. A lot of them have tended to be story songs. But now we’re starting to add some songs that aren’t as much story-oriented as they are a certain vibe or feeling that’s missing. In the past when we’ve played we’ve had a lot of slow sad songs and a couple of ballads and there was a big imbalance. Once the songs are picked, we all collaborate on the sound. Sometimes I’ll have definite idea of the mood I want to create and sometimes not, but every song should be its own world – that’s the goal.

On writing her own music

I wrote some song years ago and Greg and I have talked about writing some stuff. But it’s really just a question of time, having the time to do it. I know a little guitar but I want to get better at guitar so I’m not just standing there like a douche. It looks so much cooler when you’ve got a guitar.

On plans for another CD

We will put out another CD. It’s just a question of acquiring enough new songs that we think are good enough to record. There’s always a process – on my computer on my ITunes I have a file and whenever I hear a song that I think is a possibility I put it in that file. This time, when we came around to start choosing songs for this show, I had 300 songs in there. It took me six days to go through it all!

On her favourite career experience
I just did a little play at a small 99-seat theatre in Los Angeles called The Receptionist. It was just something that me and a director friend, along with someone we’ve worked with a lot in the past, put together. It’s a play that was Off-Broadway in 2007. I think that was my very favourite experience. It was something we did under the radar. I played a character that was very different from myself and from Karen – Karen would throw up if she met this woman that I played. I just cherished it because I think any time you get to work on something where it can really come from the heart it’s very special, no matter what your profession is.

On British theatre
I’d love to do something here. Years ago I was offered that revival of Guys and Dolls with Ewan McGregor but I couldn’t do it, it was during Will & Grace and it was a year commitment and I couldn’t get away. It seems like that would have been fun. I just want to say that almost all of the great theatre we’ve seen on Broadway over the last couple of years have been British imports. That really fantastic production of The Norman Conquests, directed by Matthew Warchus with six amazing British actors, and Brief Encounter. Both were really beautiful – I almost said ‘spot on’! That’s bad, I’m like a parrot!

On Karen: The Musical

Five or so years ago I was having a massage and I had my face in the cradle and my eyes sprang open and I thought Karen: The Musical. It seems to me that it would be really funny to see Karen singing. I also think that, since there are no standards and practices, you’d have so much leeway to do a lot of really silly, stupid things, I mean that in the good way … I want it to be just, the stupidest thing you’ve ever seen. That’s my goal.

It’s not a Broadway show. I want to do it in LA for a limited run because there’s no understudy and mummy gets tired. So a limited run in LA first, then we could do it in NY for a period and then we could do it here. I’m not doing it to be a Broadway show. I’m doing it to be a show that can travel anywhere that people like the character of Karen. It’s going to be Karen and Beverley Leslie together. Leslie Jordan, who played Beverly Leslie, has quite a lot of stage experience. He’s very good on stage so it’s going to be the two of us.

On being typecast as Karen Walker

During Will & Grace, I would get offered roles in animated films and they would say “it’s nothing like Karen, don’t worry” and I’d get there and it would be written exactly like Karen and so I would just say, sorry no. But not really so much since (the series finished in 2006). Every once in a while something will come along, but I think people for the most part have more imagination than that. It’s weird because I consider myself a character actress. Karen is just one character out of many that I’ve played – but I played it for so long, it’s the only way that people really know me. In my mind, it just seems like one character.