NEW YORK (AP) — Fran Drescher recently turned a corner in her life. She's gotten a new pet, a new man and a new job — on Broadway.
The
Emmy Award-nominated former star of "The Nanny" is making her Broadway
debut Tuesday as the wicked stepmother in "Rodgers & Hammerstein's
Cinderella," a step she knows is outside her comfort zone.
"People
should always push themselves to feel the butterflies in the stomach,
to get nervous, to learn something you didn't know before," the
56-year-old says.
Drescher
takes over from Tony Award-winner Harriet Harris on Tuesday night for a
10-week engagement through April 13 at the Broadway Theatre. Cinderella
is also switching, from Tony-nominated Laura Osnes to "Call Me Maybe"
Canadian pop star Carly Rae Jepsen.
"Canadians
are such sweet people, aren't they? They have no edge," the nasally
voiced Drescher jokes before a full day of fittings, choreography and
rehearsals. Her phone has been blowing up with excited texts and emails
from friends about her next move.
She might be nervous but Drescher — a survivor of uterine cancer — puts it in perspective.
"I'm
a victim of a violent crime — I was raped at gunpoint. I'm a cancer
survivor. I went through a very painful divorce. Life hands you blows.
No one leaves this planet unscathed. But, as they say, that which
doesn't kill us makes us strong," she says. "No one's going to die if I
flub a line. I'll try my best, I'll give my all and I'll do it with
great love and passion."
Drescher
on Broadway shouldn't be such an unusual concept: A native of New York,
her parents took her often to see shows and she recalls "Godspell"
changing her life. She likes to see as many shows as she can and caught
"August: Osage County" three times and "Jersey Boys" twice.
She
made her stage debut at The Pasadena Playhouse in Ronald Ribman's "Rug
Merchants of Chaos." She was in Neil LaBute's "Some Girl(s)," ''The
Exonerated" and Nora Ephron's "Love, Loss, and What I Wore"
off-Broadway. She also was in a 2008 production of "Camelot" at Lincoln
Center with the New York Philharmonic.
Her
love of the stage is even embedded in her most famous work, "The
Nanny." She and the show's creators decided to make Nanny Fine's boss,
Mr. Sheffield, a theater producer. "We wanted to support Broadway," she
says. "If we were going to plant Miss Fine in New York, somehow Broadway
should be threaded through that."
The
traditional fairy tale she's about to enter has been given a makeover
by Douglas Carter Beane, who has turned the musical into a charming,
witty story updated for a new generation.
Drescher
promises to make the part of the stepmother her own, modeling her on
Cruella De Vil from "101 Dalmatians" and Miranda Priestly from "The
Devil Wears Prada."
"My
version of the wicked stepmother is going to be very self-absorbed, very
confident, very much a diva in her own mind, very glamorous and
beautiful," she says.
Tony-winning
producer Robyn Goodman has been impressed by what she's seen of
Drescher. "She's going to bring sexiness and a kind of humor that's
different than anything else on the stage," Goodman says. "She makes me
laugh. She just makes me laugh."
Drescher
is coming off a rough personal and professional patch, but things are
looking up. Last year, her beloved Pomeranian dog Esther died and her
sitcom "Happily Divorced" was canceled.
But she met a man — V.A.
Shiva Ayyadurai, an MIT lecturer who claims to have invented email in
1978. She introduced him to her parents over Christmas, and they
celebrated his 50th birthday with an Italian holiday.
"For
each of us, I think it's our first truly adult, mature relationship
where we're not trying to fill each other's voids," she says. Drescher's
heart also swelled when she fell in love with a new Pomeranian, Samson.
"Here
I am in New York, doing the Broadway play, with a boyfriend that I
love, and a little dog that fills my heart with joy and laughter. So the
new chapter has begun."
