<http://schema.org/articleBody>
"When one thinks of Betty Buckley, Little Red Riding Hood doesn\u2019t immediately spring to mind. The sophisticated Broadway star and nightclub chanteuse has won legions of fans as an eminent interpreter of the American songbook, torch ballads of &amp;nbsp;loss and longing such as \u201CMemory\u201D which catapulted her to a Tony Award as the original Grizabella in \u201CCats.\u201D But a leitmotif of her new nightclub act, \u201CThe Other Woman: The Vixens of Broadway\u201D \u2014 which begins a month-long run at Feinstein\u2019s at the Regency today \u2014 is the unusual twists and turns that one\u2019s path from innocence to enlightenment can take. And that is pointedly encapsulated in the song, \u201CI Know Things Now,\u201D which Little Red Riding Hood sings in Stephen Sondheim\u2019s \u201CInto the Woods.\u201D Buckley wasn\u2019t at first sure that she could pull it off. \u201CI thought nobody\u2019s going to get me as Little Red Riding Hood,\u201D she said. \u201CBut the song\u2019s such a metaphor for a woman coming into her own, for her emergence from youthful naivete to maturity but retaining her joy as she discovers what love is really about.\u201D Her new club act coincides with the release of a new CD, \u201CAh, Men! The Boys of Broadway\u201D on the Palmetto label, in which she looks at love from the male perspective. She sings such songs as \u201CMaria\u201D in order to express, as she puts it, \u201CThis is the way a woman thinks a man should speak to a woman.\u201D In town from her ranch outside Fort Worth, Texas,&amp;nbsp;Buckley spoke candidly to ARTINFO about her own journey from a rigid '50s morality through the sexual revolution of the '60s to an amused, if rueful, acceptance that being a woman of a certain age has some unexpected rewards.Some of the songs you\u2019re singing like \u201CWhen You\u2019re Good to Mama\u201D from \u201CChicago\u201D or \u201CI\u2019m Just A Girl Who Can\u2019t Say No\u201D from \u201COklahoma!\u201D are the province of the \u201Csecond banana,\u201D the supporting act in a Broadway show. What made you choose those?For me, those ladies have supplied some of the most show-stopping moments in theater history. When I went to see \u201CMame,\u201D I loved Angela Lansbury and Bea Arthur, but the character who made the biggest impression on me was Gooch [the timid nanny who learns to live large]. Her song was memorable and hilarious. And even Grizabella is on for a total of 13 minutes and has just that one song, \u201CMemory.\u201D But these are songs that just kill, like \u201CThe Miller\u2019s Son\u201D from \u201CA Little Night Music.\u201DThe humor in those songs are something of a switch for you, aren\u2019t they?Well, maybe. My favorite songs are the darkly beautiful and psychologically layered ones.&amp;nbsp; But I do appreciate the lighthearted nature of these other songs, and I\u2019m pretty lighthearted girl these days.What\u2019s made you that way?Living on my ranch in Texas surrounded by horses and dogs for one. That big change. Plus getting older. We\u2019re really messed up in our culture about aging. It\u2019s a great thing. Sure there are levels of difficulties -- let\u2019s face it, my body can\u2019t do some of the things I\u2019d like it to -- but there are levels of difficulty in all age groups. The teenage years are fraught. Having to prove yourself and navigating the complexity of love and passion. The potential of getting older is that you don\u2019t have to prove yourself. You get to the point where you go, \u201CHey, there\u2019s not that much time life.\u201D Let\u2019s enjoy it.&amp;nbsp; You can\u2019t afford to be a drama queen!Is this what you meant about a song like \u201CI Know Things Now\u201D having special resonance?Exactly! I love the awareness that comes with experience. And that\u2019s true of a lot of these second leads in Broadway shows. They are in some kind of sexual dilemma that they either solve or they don\u2019t or they\u2019re in the midst of trying to figure it out. And that\u2019s always fascinating and entertaining.&amp;nbsp; Singing these songs has caused me to think a lot of my own past and reflect on my own experiences.What comes to mind?Well \u201CI\u2019m Just A Girl Who Can\u2019t Say No.\u201D I was raised to be this prim, proper virginal girl who had to get married before having intimacy with a man. My father said that the sum total of my value was as a wife and mother, and my virginity was a priceless commodity which could not be lost.&amp;nbsp; And I learned that the rules he handed down to me had no basis in real life.&amp;nbsp; And when I came to New York and met my first lover -- not my first love but my first lover -- and the guy turned out to be what he was, then there was a betrayal and a very different experience from what I\u2019d been raised to think would be my path. And that was confusing. Like poor Little Red Riding Hood.Were you glad to have lived through the sexual revolution?I\u2019m incredibly grateful to have been a child of the '60s. I\u2019ve been thinking a lot about that lately, given this whole political scene. This notion of trying to take us back to the dark ages in our thinking and perceptions is just crazy. Unless you\u2019ve lived in the dark ages you don\u2019t realize how important it is that we stay in the light.What were some of the cons?Well, I feel privileged to exercise my right to experience life on my own open terms as opposed to the narrow code which my father was intent upon. On the other hand, having had that experience, the one thing that I\u2019m not entirely sure was the best in the world, but it\u2019s just the way I am, and that is, I\u2019m not going to settle.&amp;nbsp; I haven\u2019t thus far and I see no reason to.You were married once, right?Yeah. In my twenties. To a great guy. Peter Flood.&amp;nbsp; I think of him when I sing \u201CIn A Very Unusual Way\u201D from \u201CNine.\u201D&amp;nbsp; He\u2019s still one of my best friends, but we really weren\u2019t ready to marry.&amp;nbsp; We had family situations that we thought we had to honor\u2026.my father\u2019s ultimatums. But the marriage set us on our respective paths. I discovered myself and thought I\u2019d get married again down the road.&amp;nbsp; But I never was. Never met the guy who made me want to be married. Peter re-married, had a lovely daughter, divorced, and re-married again to a wonderful woman.If you had a daughter what would want her to know as she embarked on her own path?I would try to teach her what I know by singing all these songs to her. &amp;nbsp;There is such wisdom, a&amp;nbsp; hard-earned wisdom, in these songs.&amp;nbsp;[content:advertisement-center]"^^<http://www.w3.org/2001/XMLSchema#string>
<http://www.blouinartinfo.com/news/story/829930/broadway-star-betty-buckley-on-hard-earned-wisdom-and-singing>