Entertainment Weekly
September 19, 1997pages 20-21
The One That They Want
behind the scenesby Mike Flaherty
Lucy Lawless, TV's fearless Warrior Princess, conquers Broadway with her sexy take on Grease's Rizzo.
I think Rizzo is a less evolved form of Xena," says Lucy Lawless, who, while on hiatus from her role as TV's tough-talking, leather-clad butt kicker, is playing the tough-talking, leatherclad vixen in Broadway's Grease! Lawless landed the role after one of the show's producers caught her impromptu rendition of "I'm an Old Cowhand" on The Rosie O'Donnell Show. "Lucy brings with her an aura," says Grease! producer Barry Weissler. "Before she even walks on stage, we're already wondering what the Warrior Princess is going to act like as Rizzo." One-upping her predecessors (including O'Donnell and Brooke Shields), Lawless adds sexuality and menace to the role, slaying audiences‹made up largely of Xenaphiles‹like so many rampaging Visigoths. Allowing EW a glimpse of her backstage lair, the New Zealander, who'll be going medieval on Sandra Dee through Oct. 19, discusses her battle plan for the Great White Way.
We Go Together "From what I hear - and, of course, I haven't seen anyone else's performance - this is the sexiest, girliest kind of Rizzo they've had," says the 29-year-old Lawless, engaging the masses in front of New York's Eugene O'Neill Theatre. "I mean, she's tough, but she's definitely all girl."
'Grease Paint' "Every morning I wake up feeling like I've been run over by a truck," says Lawless, getting glossed up by makeup artist Justen Brosnan for one of her performances (she handjives her way through eight a week). "It feels like Groundhog Day: 'You mean I have to do the same script over again?' "
Beauty School Wig-Out "To become a proficient Broadway actor, you have to go through a baptism by fire, so it's nerve-racking," says Lawless, with hairslylists David Lawrence (right) and Ron Mack She uses her preshow primp time to review notes on the previous night's performance. "lt's getting easier," she states. "One day we're going to be a well-oiled machine."
Look At Me, I'm... Lawless, with Lawrence and wardrobe person Karin Eckert, takes the stage with the gutsiness of her TV alter ego. "There's no safety net, and I love that. My maxim is 'Risk all.' I want to get to the end of my life and just go, 'I knocked the [bastard] off,' which is what Sir Edmund Hillary said when he climbed Everest. There's no more time to be afraid. I won't be young long."
Hopelessly Devoted "God, they're warm," says Lawless of her Broadway boosters. "This seems to be a Xena town, and I'm loving it." And they're loving her. "Initially, I went just because she's the Warrior Princess, but afterwards [I thought] she's a great performer," says Erica Sherman, 22. As for Lawless, she's not ruling out an even grander dramatic turn someday (Ibsen's Hedda Gabler is a personal fave), but for now she's basking in the limited-run limelight. "I'm having the time of my life."
from table of contents
XENA GARRISON: Lucy Lawless is forging a stronghold on Broadway in Grease!
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