By Kilian Melloy
Longtime star of the Boston theater scene Kathy St. George cemented her status as a stage icon last month with the Elliot Norton Prize for Sustained Excellence — an award that seems both overdue and inevitable, given her prolific career and multiple talents as a singer, dancer, and instrumentalist, as well as a gifted actor in both comedic and dramatic roles.
Among her career-defining roles, St. George appeared on Broadway in a revival of “Fiddler on the Roof” (a musical she revisited last year in a production at the North Shore Music Theatre), starred in various local and touring productions of “Menopause The Musical,” featured in classics like “Gypsy” (at the Lyric Stage Company), “Mame” (at Greater Boston Stage Company, back when it was still known as Stoneham Theatre), and “Showboat” (at the Shubert Theatre in Boston), and — as she proudly points out, a framed playbill on display behind her — no fewer than four musical shows about Judy Garland. More recently, she starred in the SpeakEasy Stage Company’s production of “A Man of No Importance” under the direction of Paul Daigneault in his final production for the company in his longtime capacity as SpeakEasy’s Founding Artistic Director.
Indeed, St. George does so much on Boston area stages — and does it so well — that in practically every other interview this correspondent does with Boston theater people, the sentence “I’m doing a show right now with Kathy St. George” figures into the discussion — a fact that, when she hears it, St. George greets with a disbelieving giggle of, “No!”
Bright, cheerful, and still excited from her win, Kathy St. George chatted about the award, her dazzling body of work, and how a momentous decision early in her career made all the difference.
Kilian Melloy: This is not the first time you’ve been acknowledged by the Boston Theater Critics Association and the Elliot Norton Awards. Congratulations!
Kathy St. George: Thank you. I’m so delighted, and I’m still over the moon.
Kilian Melloy: You’ve done so much so well — “Shear Madness,” “I Love You, You’re Perfect, Now Change,” and, of course, “Menopause, the Musical.”
Kathy St. George: Those were my three long runs. “Shear Madness,” I did for several years at the Charles. “I Love You, You’re Perfect” I did off-Broadway, and then Boston for almost two years, and then our national tour. And then “Menopause, the Musical” was my day gig for many years, off and on. And it was great, because it was the kind of a show that you could go off and do other things and then come back and join a “Menopause” tour.
Kilian Melloy: With so much going on, do you ever hit a wall and say, “I need a vacation!”?
Kathy St. George: I’m on vacation right now, ’til the end of July. I’m loving it. In fact, this morning I went to a painting class, and here’s my little painting. [Shows a small canvas: Seashore setting, blue sky with billowing white clouds, blue sea and white sand] So, that’s what I’m doing when I’m not in a show and the weather is nice.
Kilian Melloy: You were once a schoolteacher. How similar is being on stage in front of an audience to being at the front of a classroom, dealing with a room full of students?
Kathy St. George: I think it’s about love, telling stories, and communicating. I did teach second grade for five years right out of college, and I loved every minute. I had a piano in my room, and I loved putting on plays with my students, mostly big musicals. I did “You’re A Good Man. Charlie Brown,” I wrote a play called “I Love New York,” and we did hits from all my favorite Broadway shows.
I’m still in touch with some of my students. Now they’re in their 50s, and I had them when they were seven and eight years old, and some of them still come to my shows. Evidently, several of my students have become teachers. That warms my heart. Oh, my lord.
I remember when I resigned from my teaching job, I’d gotten the offer to do “Fiddler” on Broadway, and I had just gotten my master’s, and I was all set to live out my life teaching elementary school. But how could I pass up a Broadway show? I went to the superintendent and said, “Oh, I’m giving up my tenure. I’m giving up all my security.” He said, “Go for it. Why not?” Fear is the thing that holds us back. I saw myself teaching for 40 years, and to give that up and move to New York the very next day took a great amount of faith and optimism.
Kilian Melloy: But you ended up coming back to Boston.
Kathy St. George: I lived in New York for 12 years, and I enjoyed it, and I’m grateful for the shows I did there, but — this sounds so cliché — there was no place like home. I had this dear friend, Arnie Cox, who was an actor, and I used to say to him, “I want to be home. I want to be near my family and my friends.” And he used to say to me, “Kathy, mine your diamonds in your own backyard.” When I moved home, that’s when I first got “Shear Madness” and started doing my Judy Garland-type shows. Making a career here has been a blessing. Frankly, I can’t believe I’m still doing it, but if I get offers… [Singing] “I’m just a girl who can’t say no!” As long as I can still sing and dance and memorize lines, why would I stop? It’s just too joyful.
Kilian Melloy: Did doing those musicals in your classroom help you as an actor when it came to, for example, doing “Drowsy Chaperone” at the Lyric? They do so many big, ambitious musicals in that space.
Kathy St. George: They really do. I love working at the Lyric because I love the intimacy of connecting with the audience. I’m going to be doing the show there in the fall, “Our Town,” which is truly one of my favorite plays.
Kilian Melloy: All of this speaks to your ability as a performer to do so many things — sing, dance, act, play instruments.
Kathy St. George: I started out years ago doing serious plays like “The Miracle Worker,” “The Effect of Gamma Rays on Man in the Moon Marigolds,” serious plays. I loved the drama of it all. But once I got cast in “Fiddler,” that went to the top of my resume, and so everybody’s like, “Oh, she does musicals.” But the truth is, I love doing [straight] plays and dramas just as much; I just have mostly been hired to do musicals. So, that’s why doing “Our Town” is such a thrill for me.
Kilian Melloy: Maybe more than musicals, you’re known for comedies.
Kathy St. George: You’re right. The comedies were a wonderful training ground. “Sheer Madness” was terrifying because they take questions from the audience, and the audience would decide the ending, and we had to memorize all these different possible scenarios of who the murderer would be. Doing that show was a valuable training ground for learning how to be quick on your feet, having these different responses to get a laugh.
Also, I’ve had wonderful directors and teachers along the way. The late, great Larry Coen, who directed “The Divine Sister” at SpeakEasy, taught me so much about timing.
Kilian Melloy: You bring up an interesting point, because so much has changed in the Boston theater scene in recent years. Paul Dagneault just stepped down as artistic director at SpeakEasy, replaced by the brilliant Dawn Simmons, which is great, but you feel the eras change, don’t you?
Kathy St. George: You do. And when Spiro [Veloudos, Founding Artistic Director of the Lyric Stage Company] passed away? Oh, that was such a loss. But now we have Courtney O’Connor, who’s brilliant. When New Rep closed…
Kilian Melloy: That one hurt.
Kathy St. George: I only did maybe four shows there, but yes, seeing these theaters come and go… Speaking of Paul Daigneault, I love that man. I’ve done so many shows with him, and he was a blessing. The blast that we had doing “A Man of No Importance!” When he offered it to me, he told me it was going to be his final show at SpeakEasy. He said, “You know, I’m gonna probably have you tap dance. You’re probably gonna have a tap solo, and you’re going to have to play the accordion.” I said, “Paul, I’ve never played the accordion. I’ve never even held one! I play the piano. That’s very different.” He said, “Don’t worry about it.” He had such confidence in me. Thank God I didn’t have to do tap dance and play the accordion at the same time. Now, that would have been a challenge!
Kilian Melloy: What will you be doing once your summer vacation is over?
Kathy St. George: My next show will be “Grease” at North Shore Music Theater. What a great show! I’ve never done it. I’m going to play Miss Lynch, the old lady schoolteacher, and I don’t have to wear heels anymore. I’ll wear flat shoes. It’s come to that.
