July 22–29, 1999

theater

Broadway Betty

She’s treated as a diva on her worshipful Web site (www.bettybuckley.com). But in conversation Betty Buckley impresses as a down-to-earth working actress. David Warren, who directed her in Nicky Silver’s off-Broadway play, The Eros Trilogy, concurs: "She’s supposed to be this huge diva but she’s more like a Southern cheerleader."

An admiring fan built the Web site in 1996 after Buckley took over the lead from Glenn Close in Sunset Boulevard. But the Betty cult began with Cats: After toiling in the theater for 20 years, she became an overnight sensation in 1983 singing "Memory" in the American debut of Andrew Lloyd Webber’s feline musical.

Growing up in Fort Worth, TX, in the 1950s, Buckley took piano and dance lessons and sang in children’s choruses. "My voice was my most natural talent," she says. She made her professional debut at age 17 in Fort Worth in the role of Baby June in Gypsy. At 22 she made her Broadway debut as Martha Jefferson in the premiere of 1776. She’s also made a few movies — Carrie and Tender Mercies being the most prominent — and starred in the TV sitcom Eight Is Enough.

"My Philadelphia appearance will be a lot of fun," she predicts. "I love to sing with a big orchestra." Three years ago Buckley appeared at the Merriam in Lloyd Webber’s concert Music of the Night. Next Tuesday, at the Mann, she’ll do two Webber numbers: "Memory" and "As If We Never Said Goodbye." She’ll also sing numbers not normally associated with her, from Pippin, South Pacific and The King and I. And she’ll add non-Broadway songs such as "The Man That Got Away" and "Lush Life."

Just ahead is her first album for her own record company, OK Records, and Tennessee Williams’ Camino Real for Hartford Stage. Some producers are talking about bringing her to Broadway as Mama Rose in Gypsy. Last year she showed what she could do with the role in Millburn, NJ; warm and vulnerable as well as tough and ambitious, she was great in the part.

Once married and divorced, the 52-year-old Buckley lives alone in New York and in hotel rooms. She just finished a six-week road trip, and when she does Camino Real she’ll be staying in Connecticut for two months. She’s comfortable with her nomadic life, and self-confident. Two years ago Buckley started appearing in public with her natural gray hair. Her manager and publicist panicked and told her she needed to color her hair to appear younger. See who won the argument this week at the Mann.

—Steve Cohen

A Broadway Evening with Betty Buckley, Tue., July 27, 8 p.m., Mann Center for the Performing Arts, 52nd Street and Parkside Avenue, 215-893-1999.