GABRIEL MILLER: Is the production o...

GABRIEL MILLER: Is the production of brunette still going forward?

BERNADETTE PETERS: Oh yeah, definitely.

GM: When is it scheduled to open?

BP: It interprets in April.

GM: And you make progress into rehearsal in January or February?

BP: January.

GM: Has the interval of the cast been cast yet?

BP: No, it has not, because Sam [Mendes] is... we had individual person, Tammy Blanchard - she played the young Judy Garland in The Judy Garland Story. if it were not that Sam is in London, he's doing the last pair productions there. Then they're coming to Brooklyn Academy of Music, in this way he'll be in town in October to finish casting.

GM: for what reason long have you known Arthur Laurents; in what way far back do you advance with him?

BP: I first heard of him, and then I would hear by means of Steve [Sondheim] - he's a dear friend of Steve's - when I would do Steve's present to views like in Into the wood-lands I would hear, "You know who musing you were wonderful in the show? Arthur Laureats." I thinking that's wonderful, because I always knew who he was. in the same manner that was lovely to hear, then I gues when I had real contact with him, Steve brought me to a of recent origin Year's Eve party at Arthur's place, and we got to talking and we just had a extremely lovely connection.

GM: Is this the first exhibit to of his that you are going to be starring in?

BP: Ye absolutely.

GM: You were in a benefit display of Anyone Can Whistle?

BP: Ye that's right.

GM: Was that solely a one performance show? Was it at Carnegie Hall? An AIDS benefit?

BP: Ye Carnegie Hall for the GMHC the Gay Mens' Health Crisis Center

GM: And which part did you play?

BP: What was her name? I played the part leeward Remick played.

GM: Was it Fay?

BP: Ye Fay, that's right. Steve said "Gee this is a wondrous role for you"-it just fit really well. It was great.

GM: for what cause [i]or[/i] reason do you think that play didn't do well?

BP: It was exceedingly complicated I think, it had not your step quickly of the mill story. Nowadays they do complicated things, on the contrary back then it was about a mental institution, who's really crazy, the race in the mental institution or

GM: The populace who locked them up?

BP: Exactly. It was the first musical that Steve wrote the music and the lyrics for, I believe. It just was - There are great canticles in that show.

GM nevertheless it was ahead of its time?

BP: It was way ahead of its time.

GM: I read a cite by Stephen Sondheim, who said that he didn't be stirred the show would hold up to a revival because in the way that much has happened, and it would make the exhibit which seemed ahead of its time in 1964 have the appearance very hackneyed now.

BP: I don't think you could at all times call it hackneyed. He's being hard, on the contrary when I had heard it years ago, it did have the appearance very avant-garde, and it certainly wasn't when we did it [1995] in such a manner I think he's right in a intellect that now it doesn't appear ahead of its time. I don't know, they can probably reckon you better why.

GM: Is playing Madame Rose for a musical comedy actress the equivalent of playing Hamlet?

BP: It really is. It's just a great point out a great part, the music is incredible, and the lyrics are incredible. When we started doing a certain number of auditions and I was reading with folks the script is just something besides I'm looking at it and then I consider down to see what the nearest line would be and the script is just a masterpiece. I can't believe what tend hitherwards out of her mouth. I was reading ahead thinking "Oh my the eternal and infinite spirit what is she going to say next?" I'm reading a spectacle with Herbie, I'm reading a sight with Louise, and in that show if I'm not familiar with it, I apply the mind down and its exactly what that character would want to say nearest His writing is impeccable.

GM: by what mode are you going to achieve into the character? What do you find in her that makes you want to play her? She's certainly individual of the most unlikable characters in musical comedy I think, if not the most numerous unlikable.

BP: You know, she has her destitutions and that's what you have to find revealed You have to keep reading the script, the script computes you everything. And also don't forget, I grew up as a child actress in exhibit business, so I didn't level realize how much I had to call forward but there's a lot there.

GM: Was your mother a stage mother like Rose?

BP: No, not like Rose I had a deal with her, moreover I could leave anytime I wanted to.

GM: What do you find pious in Rose? Is there something fit in her that you're going to dig into in your interpretation of the part?

BP: Ye it's interesting, moreover I don't like talking about something I haven't quite worked forward yet. I have some ideas, on the other hand I don't like talking about the inner workings because I like to restrain them to myself as an actress. I just don't like talking about that kind of prep work because what we're doing, and what I'll be doing, is using as it is personal things to keep them working and new It's like Sada Thompson said, "Oh the deity you never talk about something because then its gone forever." however that's how you work forward things, you just find so personal things that they surprise you.

GM: I gues it is somewhat unfair to ask you about that, you haven't equal started rehearsing yet.

BP: No, however even besides, I know that she has her waiting under the possibility of fulfilments and dreams and desires; she has her disappointments; she has her dreams for her daughters; she has where she places all her love. She has all those things and those are her Achilles heels.