Send in the Oscar Winner! Catherine Zeta-Jones on Making Music on Broadway

At a time when marquees are overflowing with Hollywood names, Catherine Zeta-Jones may be one of just a few movie stars who could stroll into the first-ever Rialto revival of Stephen Sondheim masterpiece A Little Night Music without drawing a peep from the Broadway purist peanut gallery. As witnessed in her Oscar-winning turn in the big-screen adaptation of Chicago, Zeta-Jones is more than just an actress big enough to guarantee box-office numbers—she's a stage veteran who was starring in the London production of 42nd Street while most kids her age were obsessing over who to ask to prom. After leaving theater in the early '90s for a U.K. television career, the actress landed in film, breaking out in The Mask of Zorro en route to hit flicks such as Traffic (alongside future hubby Michael Douglas) and Entrapment. Now, after nearly two decades away, the 40-year-old mother of two (son Dylan, 9, and daughter Carys, 6) is returning to her roots, starring alongside five-time Tony Award winner Angela Lansbury in Trevor Nunn's West End transfer of Night Music. Zeta-Jones plays Desiree Armfeldt, an aging actress caught in web of romantic entanglements during a weekend in the country. (Sondheim once called the melancholic show "whipped cream with knives.") We caught up with her just before previews began for a laid-back talk about her board-trotting background and why this Night Music wooed her to Broadway.

It seems you've tackled everything but Broadway. Are you nervous about returning to the stage, or is this par for the course?
I'm always nervous! If I'm not nervous, I get worried. But I think I speak for the whole cast when I say we're ready to get the show in front of audiences. You're sitting there in tech going, "OK, how many more times can we laugh at the same jokes we've been hearing for a month? Let's get on with it!"

You're making your Broadway debut, but you're a theater pro from way back.
It started in Annie, when I was nine. They went all over the country looking for kids for this production which went on at Swansea Grand Theatre in my hometown in Wales. Later I played Tallulah in Bugsy Malone, directed by Micky Dolenz at Her Majesty's Theatre on the West End. I left school at 15 to do the national tour of The Pajama Game, then jumped at 16 into the chorus for 42nd Street and was the second understudy to Peggy Sawyer.

And you did, in fact, get to go on, when both the star and the understudy got sick?
I did—and [mega-producer] David Merrick was in the audience the night I went on, if you can believe it! Finally I went on to the National Opera's production of Kurt Weill's Street Scene, then hung up the theater shoes and went over to television and film.

Was it a difficult decision to leave school, or were you happy to be working so young?
It was hard. I loved school. My headmaster is still one of my best friends—he spoke at my wedding. I was never going to be a brain surgeon, but I was smart enough to catch up whenever I did leave for [a semester] to work. When I left at 15 it was always under the auspices of, "If this doesn't work out, you'll immediately come home and go to college."

What would you have done if it didn't work out?
I wanted to be a lawyer! Honestly, to me that was the next best thing to being an actor.

Was there ever a point when it looked like acting wouldn't work out?
No, which is nice. My brother and sister said to me, "You know, Cath, you're lucky because you always knew what you wanted to do." They are both very talented, bright people with successful careers, but because they needed time to figure out what they would do with their lives, they started later. I can't remember a time when I didn't want to act, and in that way I'm lucky to have had a head start. Like anyone you hit low times and wonder if you're barking up a big, bad, wrong tree. But I never lost my love for what I did, and never had to turn to law.

What were those early years like, learning the ropes as a teenager on the West End?
I couldn't believe how much money I was able to spend, even on my limited salary. I was the baby of the cast during 42nd Street, and they became my family and support system during those formative years. I'd come home after the show and dial one of them, let the phone ring three times and then hang up, which was the signal that I got home OK. I was literally brought up in [the theater], now that I think about it, and it is sort of wild to be back.

Are you finding there are parts of the theater experience you'd forgotten about?
Mainly I'd just forgotten how much I love it The camaraderie of being backstage and spending time with other actors. I'd tried to [keep up with theater] by doing charity work [on stage]. I even sang live at the Oscars [for Chicago] when I was just about to give birth. God, what was I thinking about when I said yes to that? [Laughs.] I had forgotten about the schedule. Getting back into that routine takes some adjusting. I'm up at 6AM with my children every morning, so going through the day, doing two shows and getting home at midnight will be a challenge, but I don't mind it. I will figure it out.

If you loved the theater, why did you end up leaving for so long?
When I was starting out, I wanted to work on my acting more. I was labeled very early a "musical comedy actress," and that had a certain inflection that didn't translate to my getting to do Shakespeare at the National Theatre. So, at the time, I thought I'd leave musical theater altogether and just do straight acting. Screen work was one way to do that.

At what point did you feel that you were being taken seriously as an actress?
I think that feeling came over time. Being pigeonholed is something we all deal with, but especially in television, which is what I switched to. I had a very successful TV series [The Darling Buds of May], which featured me as this sort of curvaceous ingenue. I was no longer that musical comedy girl, but I suddenly became "the buxom country girl." So be careful what you wish for! I do remember noticing when the media side of [success] kicked in, to that point where I couldn't ride the train anymore [without being recognized]. When Steven Spielberg called me up for a job, or when Steven Soderbergh called me to do Traffic, moments like those gradually began to make me feel I was being taken seriously.

Sondheim himself called you for this show, correct?
[Director] Trevor Nunn and Stephen called me about 20 minutes apart while I was on the course hitting golf balls. If you'd told me 20 years ago that either of them would be ringing me to do this, I'd have said you were crazy.

There was obviously buzz during Chicago about you and Broadway being a match. Did you consider it then?
There was a lot of interest, but it's taken me a long time to find the show I'm doing right now. They've asked me to do many high-kicking musicals, and I of course respect the community I was born into, but I didn't want to do what was expected.

What makes this the right show to make your debut with?
It's A Little Night Music, directed by Trevor Nunn with a score by Stephen Sondheim! This is an almost Chekhovian play that happens to have the most wonderful music. I always wanted to create roles, not take over. This is the first revival of A Little Night Music since 1973, and I feel that with the way Trevor has directed it and the amount of time that's passed since it was last seen, this is like getting to create that role, and that is a thrill. Desiree is also predominantly an acting role, with the additional beauty of the score. I get one really amazing song ["Send in the Clowns"], but even that is more about acting. In working with [Sondheim] I've discovered he wrote it to be spoken more than sung.

Have you and Sondheim been working together on that song?
He hasn't been there for rehearsals, but he was right there for the sitzprobe [musical dress rehearsal], which was amazing. I mean, to have Sondheim right there, doing The New York Times crossword puzzle? It was too much. And of course there's Trevor, who is a genius, but not in an intimidating way. When someone is literally a walking encyclopedia but never once makes you feel stupid, you know they're very smart.

From an acting standpoint, how challenging is this role for you?
This is one of these shows where you can dig and dig right to the core of the earth, and you still won't get to the bottom of the play, because there's so many aspects that you can find as a performer to work with. I think, physically, joining a family of Broadway veterans was challenging, because I wanted to be hands-on and collaborative but able to keep up. Fortunately I've been taken in with open arms.

Spoken or sung, "Send in the Clowns" is one of those songs that makes people just bawl. What song brings you to tears?
Oh, that's too hard, there are so many [pauses]. "Moon River." Breakfast at Tiffany's is one of my favorite films of all time, and "Moon River" is one of my favorite songs. Put them together, and I'm lost.

Any mishaps from early in your stage career you'd like to avoid as you return to the stage?
My top fell off during 42nd Street! God, it was like a spoof, with me just holding everything in place and dancing anyway. I thought I'd get told off if I ran offstage, so I just kept going. Would I do that now? I'm not so sure.

So if your top falls off during "Send in the Clowns"...
Oh, I'm gone, dear. I'm in the car and I'm gone!

See Catherine Zeta-Jones in A Little Night Music at the Walter Kerr Theatre.