ANDY DRACHENBERG: What was your first reaction hearing about The Gershwins’ PORGY AND BESS revival?
NIKKI RENEE DANIELS: I’ve been singing “Summertime” since I was about 14. It was one of the first songs I ever learned as a real singer. My friend from middle school came to the show and said “I can’t believe I am seeing you do this on Broadway!” The song has always been special to me. I did it at New York City Opera in 2002, which is one of the first things I did when I moved to the city so the piece is really special to me, and seeing Audra (who’s everything to someone like me) was attached to this piece was amazing…
AD: How familiar were you with the piece going into it?
NRD: Before I did the opera I didn’t really know that much about it. I kind of knew what most people know: the famous songs… ask me if I knew “The Strawberry Woman,” and I had no idea. I knew the hits, but I didn’t really know the story or until I did the opera. At NYCO, most of the people had done it before, so we learned the music really fast and just kind of tossed it up, but I never really delved into the story and what the characters were all about.
AD: What are the strengths of this revival production of The Gershwins’ PORGY AND BESS ?
NRD: This production has so much of a focus on the story – and it’s such a tragic and a beautiful story. This production has brought out every possible color in that and brought that to the forefront. It’s also one of the most talented groups of people I have ever been with in a show. The voices are unlike anything else I have ever heard. This is my ninth Broadway show and I am blown away every night by what I hear. Not just from Audra and Norm, who are amazing, but from The Crab Man, from The Strawberry Woman, and from every single person who steps forward.
AD: What was the experience like working on the show in Boston before it came to Broadway?
NRD:
I love getting to be a part of something from the ground up. Diane is such a great collaborator, and Suzan-Lori and Diedre were all so open to our ideas. They were willing to collaborate with us as a cast and find what line was best, how the singing was best, and in what key and what octave.
When I came into it, I was the girl who sang “Summertime.” So, I was asking ‘How can you use that to describe what’s going on at that particular moment?’ And that moment is very different from my last moment in the show… t was nice to have that out of town trial prior to coming to Broadway to really get our footing.
When we came to Broadway, we came in starting from a place of knowing who everyone is and not trying to figure things out and make things up on the spot. It has a richness that you don’t have when you rehearse a show for just five weeks. We have really just been building on what was in Boston.
AD: Tell us a little bit about your getting to know who your character, Clara, is.
NRD: What I really wanted to bring forth with Clara is the complete love she has for her husband and her baby. She will do anything for them. It is kind of like me as a newlywed. There is one line Jake says, “How’s that boy going to get his college education if y’all don’t work hard and make money?” For these people, in this community, and in this financial stead, for them to really believe that his son is going to college is amazing to me. My dad was the first person in his family to go to college, so I can relate to that.
My grandmother was actually born about ten years after when Clara would have been born, so just talking to her, she would tell me “We used to pick cotton, and if we were too young to pick we would bring water to the people who were picking the cotton.” You think of picking cotton as something they did in slavery time, not my grandmother’s life. The show takes place in 1937, which is the time my Grandma grew up. I also read the source material — the novel and the play — to build up who she is. I’ve found a lot of connections to her in that.
AD: Your last performances in New York City include: Anything Goes, Promises, Promises, and then Les Miserbales with Norm Lewis. How does it feel to be coming back?
NRD: I feel like The Revival Queen! I loved Les Miserables, and I danced more than I think I’ve ever danced before with Promises, Promises. But The Gershwins’ PORGY AND BESS is so special to me. Like I said, I had been singing “Summertime” forever and I did it at City Opera. It is the most beautiful score I have ever heard. Everyone says that about whatever show they are in, but this show is truly a masterpiece. Just to be in something like this now, working with this cast, at this time, is just dream come true.
I can’t imagine not seeing these people every day. This cast is such a special group of people. The hearts and personalities that are in this group, from the top down, are amazing. Diane is great! Suzan-Lori sits backstage and is knitting a hat in the stage management office. It is really just like a family and it shows on stage. It’s Catfish Row. We are Team Porgy. It has been an amazing familial experience as well as an artistic one.
AD: What are you hoping people who come to this show walk away with?
NRD: I hope they leave this production thinking: what an amazing story, what a great cast, what an amazing score! I have never seen anything like it and I really do think it is very unique compared to the other things that are on Broadway right now.
Nikki Renee Daniels (Clara)Broadway: Les Miserablés, Nine, Aida, Little Shop of Horrors, The Look of Love, Promises, Promises, Anything Goes and Lestat. New York City Opera- Porgy and Bess. Regional credits include Ray Charles Live! (Della B.) at Pasadena Playhouse, Anything Goes (Hope) at Williamstown Theatre Festival, Beauty and the Beast (Belle) at Sacramento Music Circus, Ragtime(Sarah) at North Shore Music Theatre and Dorian(Celia) at the Denver Center. Film/Television: The Other Woman and “Chappelle’s Show”. Nikki has performed as a soloist with the San Francisco Symphony Orchestra, the Cincinnati Pops, Ottawa Symphony Orchestra and at Carnegie Hall.