May 11, 2023 • 10 mins
Songs for Nobodies is a one-woman powerhouse performance that weaves the music of Judy Garland, Patsy Cline, Billie Holiday, Edith Piaf, and Maria Callas throughout a mosaic of stories told by the everyday women who encountered these musical icons. Featuring the “flat-out spectacular" (Wall Street Journal) Bethany Thomas performing favorites like "Come Rain or Come Shine," "Crazy," and "Ain't Nobody's Business If I Do," Songs for Nobodies celebrates the healing power of song. The performance is at People’s Light from now until May 21st. I speak with Thomas as well as Director Rob Lindley. Use the promo code SONGSBIZ for 25% off the ticket price.
https://www.peopleslight.org/whats-on/20222023-season/songs-for-nobodies/
https://www.peopleslight.org/whats-on/20222023-season/songs-for-nobodies/
Mark as Played
Transcript
Episode Transcript
Available transcripts are automatically generated. Complete accuracy is not guaranteed.
(00:00):
Good morning, and welcome to Insight, a show about empowering our community.
I'm Lorraine Ballard Morral. This morning, I'm excited to bring you an excerpt
of the children's first children's campaign mayoralforum with some of the top candidates questioned
by high school students. But first, the creative team behind the acclaimed production
at Chicago's North Light Theater are reunitingin Malvern to bring you Songs for Nobodies.
(00:25):
It's a one woman powerhouse performance whichweaves the music of Judy Garland,
Patsy Kleine, Billie Holliday, EdithPiaff, and Maria Callas through the mosaic
of stories told by the everyday womenwho encountered these musical icons. Joining us
is the spectacular star of this onewoman show, Bethany Thomas, as well
(00:47):
as its director Rob Linley. Thankyou both for joining us here today.
I'm so excited to be speaking toyou about this play. So I'm going
to start with you, Bethany.You've been getting rave reviews. I've not
had the pleasure yet of seeing theplay, but I plan to. But
you have to go through an incrediblevariety of performers. I mean, you
(01:08):
can't get two more diametrically opposed peoplethan Patsy Klein and maybe Judy Garland or
Edith Poff tell us, how doyou approach being able to embody all these
very disparate, amazing performers The firsttime I even did it, It's really
just been about trying to figure outlike the energy that they're giving, and
(01:32):
like figuring out the essence, likewhat am I getting from them? What
makes Judy's voiceter, like her deliveryor just anything that she does, the
way that she moves, like whatis interesting? What does my body kind
of already like do in that,like how does it feel? Let me
and then kind of take it fromthere, and trying to just match their
(01:53):
energies and what they're giving to theaudiences. It's also just a lot of
research and watching videos and listening torecordings and just trying to find how their
energies live in my body. Iguess, you know, like I don't
look like anybody. They all looksuper different, they all sound super different.
It's really just been about all right, what's the mood, what's their
(02:15):
posture? How can I sink backinto this? How can I snap into
her it's becoming more and more natural, which is awesome. It's never at
the whole moment, that's for sure, no doubt, Rob Liley, You've
had the opportunity to direct this.And what's kind of cool is that I
understand that you and Bethany were friendsfor a long time and then you found
(02:37):
out, Oh yeah, I'm goingto be directing my friend, So that
musn't been pretty cool, right,It's the best pleasure in the world.
I tell the story often that whenthey approached me with this show, they
were describing what it was and Isaid, oh, yeah, songs for
nobody's and they said, what,no, No, nobody knows this show.
How do you know this? Isaid, Oh, my friend did
(02:58):
it in Milwaukee and said, oh, you know Bethany And I was like,
oh yeah, she's been one ofmy best friends over twenty years.
So that we just it's sometimes challengingto work with a good friend, but
for the most part, it's purejoy and we know each other's interpersonal wirings
pretty well, so we know whento dig deeper. We also know when
(03:20):
to be like, hey, let'stake a break, or should we just
go grab dinner, you know,and make sure that we bring out the
best in each other. Well.The play is entitled Songs for Nobodies,
and although these iconic performers are featured, the story is told by everyday women,
and I want that encounter these icons, Rob and Bethany how does that
(03:44):
work in the structure of the play. I mean, obviously there's the performances
where you get to perform these amazingwomen, but also it's the ones that
we don't know about. These areeveryday people. Tell us more about that
structure and how that works. Westart out like our first person that we
meet, her name's b Appleton.She is a restroom attendant, you know,
(04:08):
like the plaza Athne on sixty thirdStreet. I'll just go through my
whole scripture. They all have justlike ah, like all right, let
me invite you in. You don'tknow who they're talking to. But it's
like I'm addressing the room right away. As soon as the light comes up,
It's like I'm talking to you.We're in a conversation. I have
(04:29):
something that I need to get across. And all the women are very different,
but Rob helped me out with somewords. Now, the structure of
it is that they're they're you knowfive women who you might not regard if
you walk down the street and sawthem, a bathroom attendant, a usher
at a venue, a librarian,a nanny, a reporter, And so
(04:50):
it becomes this fun structure where aplay sets up these wonderful musical performances.
So and then in the over allarc of these, because it's really been
ten characters Bethany's playing, you startseeing that there's not really any such thing
as a nobody, and that theseiconic women are changed by the everyday people
(05:13):
they encounter, and the everyday peoplethey encounters. Lives are lifted up by
these women that we hold so highas quote unquote stars, especially in this
day and age. I think it'sa piece that challenges us all to see
each other and to spend some timeconnecting with one another. And then you
get these amazing, iconic musical performancesas kind of the bonus. Even though
(05:36):
that's probably what you came for.There's just this really lovely message of the
millions of possibilities that each of ushave within us that sounds fascinating, And
I think that it also speaks tothe role that celebrities, how they figure
into our lives. I may notever meet Beyonce, However, if I
(06:00):
happen to have met her in thebathroom, that would have been a totally
earth shattering experience. But also Ithink it also really does reflect on the
nature of what celebrity is or whatwhether you directly encounter somebody or you don't
but simply know them because of howthey impact you, because of their genius
(06:23):
and the idea of happiness. Ontop of that, a lot of celebrities
or stars we place on a pedestalbecause if we think, oh, they
have it all, and then maybewhat the exchange is that you realize maybe
your life, as ordinary and routineas it is, as a little bit
more happiness, because a lot ofour celebrities, especially the women that we
(06:45):
tribute in this, didn't have theeasiest go of it all or lives ended
tragically soon. Yeah, A Bethany, I have to say big props to
anyone who does a one person showbecause you're it's just you, right,
and you're it's just all about youon that stage and having to jump from
(07:06):
character to character. What's your processinside that allows you to be able to
to to manissest all these different peopleand at the end of the day go
on to do it again. Youknow that just seems like, oh my
gosh, I'm I struggle to justbe me right, so tell people,
(07:29):
oh my god, here, well, you know, it's a nice little
break from yourself for a while.That's always nice. It's a lot,
I mean, for me, oncethe words are back in my brain,
it's it's always, it's just it'sintention. It's a lot of Okay,
now we're in another thing. Ithink if anybody tried it and had to
(07:53):
rehearse it for many times, Ithink anybody would figure it out. Like
it just you lift out of something, you get right back into something else.
The voices that I'm doing might notsound super different from each other.
It's really just like what does thisperson want? What does this person want?
Where's this person in the world rightnow? Okay, now I'm this
other person. I think I getwhat you're saying. You got specific praise,
(08:16):
and I'm going to quote it said, you'd imagine it would be impossible
for a single singer to do justiceto such a disparate group of musical artists,
not this one that was praise foryou. Bethany Thomas and you get
to sing some iconic songs come Rainor Shine Crazy, ain't nobody's business.
These are spectacular songs that were signaturesongs for all these various artists that you
(08:37):
get to recreate, and they're notit's not like a simple quiet ballad.
I mean, you're these are belters. These are all very passionate songs sung
and performed by some very passionate performers. So kudos to you for that's true.
It's a lot of fun anything aboutthese ladies, Like, you know,
(08:58):
we've got an excellent band and awesomearrangements by our music director and stuff,
and it's funny because you just reallyhave to do the most balls out
version every time, you know.It's like, I know, Judy probably
had a lot of nights were itwas not coming out that way. And
you can listen to Patsy client liverecordings and those keys are much lower than
(09:22):
the recorded version. So it's funto try to play around, like what
if Billy had like a real timegetting to this place, which is not
going to sound perfect every time,but nope, that's what you have to
give them. So it is itis interesting like just coming in and be
like, well, I've got togive like their best performance right now,
each one of the songs with theshow stoppers. So usually in a musical
(09:46):
you have two show stoppers. Bethanysings like twelve shows each one of them
bring the house down eleven o'clock numbers. Yeah, there's no easy reason a
little short ballad anywhere in the show. Yeah. Well, like Strange Fruit
is nice and quieter, but itis heart wrenching. Is lacking challenge?
(10:11):
Sure? Yeah? Well, Songsfor Nobody's playing at People's Light through May
twenty first. For more information,you can go to People's Light dot org.
Rob Linley, director and Bethany Thomasthe star. We'll have songs for
Somebody. Thank you for joining ustoday, Thank you for having us,
thank you for having us. We'llhave more insight after these messages.
Good morning, and welcome to Insight, a show about empowering our community.
I'm Lorraine Ballard Morral. This morning, I'm excited to bring you an excerpt
of the children's first children's campaign mayoralforum with some of the top candidates questioned
by high school students. But first, the creative team behind the acclaimed production
at Chicago's North Light Theater are reunitingin Malvern to bring you Songs for Nobodies.
(00:25):
It's a one woman powerhouse performance whichweaves the music of Judy Garland,
Patsy Kleine, Billie Holliday, EdithPiaff, and Maria Callas through the mosaic
of stories told by the everyday womenwho encountered these musical icons. Joining us
is the spectacular star of this onewoman show, Bethany Thomas, as well
(00:47):
as its director Rob Linley. Thankyou both for joining us here today.
I'm so excited to be speaking toyou about this play. So I'm going
to start with you, Bethany.You've been getting rave reviews. I've not
had the pleasure yet of seeing theplay, but I plan to. But
you have to go through an incrediblevariety of performers. I mean, you
(01:08):
can't get two more diametrically opposed peoplethan Patsy Klein and maybe Judy Garland or
Edith Poff tell us, how doyou approach being able to embody all these
very disparate, amazing performers The firsttime I even did it, It's really
just been about trying to figure outlike the energy that they're giving, and
(01:32):
like figuring out the essence, likewhat am I getting from them? What
makes Judy's voiceter, like her deliveryor just anything that she does, the
way that she moves, like whatis interesting? What does my body kind
of already like do in that,like how does it feel? Let me
and then kind of take it fromthere, and trying to just match their
(01:53):
energies and what they're giving to theaudiences. It's also just a lot of
research and watching videos and listening torecordings and just trying to find how their
energies live in my body. Iguess, you know, like I don't
look like anybody. They all looksuper different, they all sound super different.
It's really just been about all right, what's the mood, what's their
(02:15):
posture? How can I sink backinto this? How can I snap into
her it's becoming more and more natural, which is awesome. It's never at
the whole moment, that's for sure, no doubt, Rob Liley, You've
had the opportunity to direct this.And what's kind of cool is that I
understand that you and Bethany were friendsfor a long time and then you found
(02:37):
out, Oh yeah, I'm goingto be directing my friend, So that
musn't been pretty cool, right,It's the best pleasure in the world.
I tell the story often that whenthey approached me with this show, they
were describing what it was and Isaid, oh, yeah, songs for
nobody's and they said, what,no, No, nobody knows this show.
How do you know this? Isaid, Oh, my friend did
(02:58):
it in Milwaukee and said, oh, you know Bethany And I was like,
oh yeah, she's been one ofmy best friends over twenty years.
So that we just it's sometimes challengingto work with a good friend, but
for the most part, it's purejoy and we know each other's interpersonal wirings
pretty well, so we know whento dig deeper. We also know when
(03:20):
to be like, hey, let'stake a break, or should we just
go grab dinner, you know,and make sure that we bring out the
best in each other. Well.The play is entitled Songs for Nobodies,
and although these iconic performers are featured, the story is told by everyday women,
and I want that encounter these icons, Rob and Bethany how does that
(03:44):
work in the structure of the play. I mean, obviously there's the performances
where you get to perform these amazingwomen, but also it's the ones that
we don't know about. These areeveryday people. Tell us more about that
structure and how that works. Westart out like our first person that we
meet, her name's b Appleton.She is a restroom attendant, you know,
(04:08):
like the plaza Athne on sixty thirdStreet. I'll just go through my
whole scripture. They all have justlike ah, like all right, let
me invite you in. You don'tknow who they're talking to. But it's
like I'm addressing the room right away. As soon as the light comes up,
It's like I'm talking to you.We're in a conversation. I have
(04:29):
something that I need to get across. And all the women are very different,
but Rob helped me out with somewords. Now, the structure of
it is that they're they're you knowfive women who you might not regard if
you walk down the street and sawthem, a bathroom attendant, a usher
at a venue, a librarian,a nanny, a reporter, And so
(04:50):
it becomes this fun structure where aplay sets up these wonderful musical performances.
So and then in the over allarc of these, because it's really been
ten characters Bethany's playing, you startseeing that there's not really any such thing
as a nobody, and that theseiconic women are changed by the everyday people
(05:13):
they encounter, and the everyday peoplethey encounters. Lives are lifted up by
these women that we hold so highas quote unquote stars, especially in this
day and age. I think it'sa piece that challenges us all to see
each other and to spend some timeconnecting with one another. And then you
get these amazing, iconic musical performancesas kind of the bonus. Even though
(05:36):
that's probably what you came for.There's just this really lovely message of the
millions of possibilities that each of ushave within us that sounds fascinating, And
I think that it also speaks tothe role that celebrities, how they figure
into our lives. I may notever meet Beyonce, However, if I
(06:00):
happen to have met her in thebathroom, that would have been a totally
earth shattering experience. But also Ithink it also really does reflect on the
nature of what celebrity is or whatwhether you directly encounter somebody or you don't
but simply know them because of howthey impact you, because of their genius
(06:23):
and the idea of happiness. Ontop of that, a lot of celebrities
or stars we place on a pedestalbecause if we think, oh, they
have it all, and then maybewhat the exchange is that you realize maybe
your life, as ordinary and routineas it is, as a little bit
more happiness, because a lot ofour celebrities, especially the women that we
(06:45):
tribute in this, didn't have theeasiest go of it all or lives ended
tragically soon. Yeah, A Bethany, I have to say big props to
anyone who does a one person showbecause you're it's just you, right,
and you're it's just all about youon that stage and having to jump from
(07:06):
character to character. What's your processinside that allows you to be able to
to to manissest all these different peopleand at the end of the day go
on to do it again. Youknow that just seems like, oh my
gosh, I'm I struggle to justbe me right, so tell people,
(07:29):
oh my god, here, well, you know, it's a nice little
break from yourself for a while.That's always nice. It's a lot,
I mean, for me, oncethe words are back in my brain,
it's it's always, it's just it'sintention. It's a lot of Okay,
now we're in another thing. Ithink if anybody tried it and had to
(07:53):
rehearse it for many times, Ithink anybody would figure it out. Like
it just you lift out of something, you get right back into something else.
The voices that I'm doing might notsound super different from each other.
It's really just like what does thisperson want? What does this person want?
Where's this person in the world rightnow? Okay, now I'm this
other person. I think I getwhat you're saying. You got specific praise,
(08:16):
and I'm going to quote it said, you'd imagine it would be impossible
for a single singer to do justiceto such a disparate group of musical artists,
not this one that was praise foryou. Bethany Thomas and you get
to sing some iconic songs come Rainor Shine Crazy, ain't nobody's business.
These are spectacular songs that were signaturesongs for all these various artists that you
(08:37):
get to recreate, and they're notit's not like a simple quiet ballad.
I mean, you're these are belters. These are all very passionate songs sung
and performed by some very passionate performers. So kudos to you for that's true.
It's a lot of fun anything aboutthese ladies, Like, you know,
(08:58):
we've got an excellent band and awesomearrangements by our music director and stuff,
and it's funny because you just reallyhave to do the most balls out
version every time, you know.It's like, I know, Judy probably
had a lot of nights were itwas not coming out that way. And
you can listen to Patsy client liverecordings and those keys are much lower than
(09:22):
the recorded version. So it's funto try to play around, like what
if Billy had like a real timegetting to this place, which is not
going to sound perfect every time,but nope, that's what you have to
give them. So it is itis interesting like just coming in and be
like, well, I've got togive like their best performance right now,
each one of the songs with theshow stoppers. So usually in a musical
(09:46):
you have two show stoppers. Bethanysings like twelve shows each one of them
bring the house down eleven o'clock numbers. Yeah, there's no easy reason a
little short ballad anywhere in the show. Yeah. Well, like Strange Fruit
is nice and quieter, but itis heart wrenching. Is lacking challenge?
(10:11):
Sure? Yeah? Well, Songsfor Nobody's playing at People's Light through May
twenty first. For more information,you can go to People's Light dot org.
Rob Linley, director and Bethany Thomasthe star. We'll have songs for
Somebody. Thank you for joining ustoday, Thank you for having us,
thank you for having us. We'llhave more insight after these messages.
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