INTERVIEW: Badia Farha brings ‘Broadway Bounty Hunter’ to Barrington
Broadway Bounty Hunter, the new musical from Joe Iconis, Lance Rubin and Jason Sweettooth Williams, recently premiered at Barrington Stage Company in downtown Pittsfield, Massachusetts. The show, heavily influenced by 1970s exploitation flicks, stars Annie Golden as a bounty hunter trying to stop a South American drug lord.
Badia Farha, an alumna of off-Broadway’s Sistas: The Musical and the national tours of Little Shop of Horrors and Rent, plays Sienna and Madam in the new musical. For the actress, the chance to be in the show is quite fitting because she’s been friends with Iconis and Williams for a number of years.
“Basically they came to me with a song and said, ‘Hey, sing this song,’” Farha said recently in a phone interview. “And it was ‘Woman of a Certain Age,’ and I sang the song. And they loved it, and then they told me that they had written a piece of theater for Annie Golden. And they wanted me to be a part of it and sing the song, and I love anything that Joe Iconis does. So immediately I said, ‘Yes.’”
Farha called Broadway Bounty Hunter a lot of fun, and her role as Sienna, the head of the bounty hunters who runs the day-to-day operations, is a central part to the plot. “So at first she doesn’t really like Annie because there’s someone new coming into her space that she doesn’t know,” Farha said. “She doesn’t trust that she has what it takes to be a bounty hunter. And by the end of the show, that kind of turns around.”
The music and lyrics, written by Iconis, is pure 1970s. There is some R&B and funk, plus many references to exploitation movies of the era. The book is by Iconis, Rubin and Williams. “The music is ‘70s, funk, blaxploitation movies, kind like if you were to think about Shaft and Foxy Brown, Superfly, that Curtis Mayfield kind of R&B, ‘70s, funk, groove,” she said. “You hear the guitar with the wah-wahs, and the bass and the arrangements that our music director Joel Waggoner came up with. I mean the music is incredible. It’s really something that is not being done right now. You really do not hear that. With R&B-funk kind of being my thing, it’s right up my alley.”
Farha said that audiences at Barrington Stage Company, where the musical plays through Sept. 4, have been coming to the theater not knowing what to expect with the show. However, by the time intermission hits, they are screaming with laughter and enjoying the songs. By the end of the show, there’s usually a standing ovation. “At first, they’re really kind of perplexed on what it is they’re coming to see because they don’t quite get it,” Farha said. “Once the show starts, they’re like, ‘Oh, OK. This is what we’re coming to see. OK.’”
Barrington Stage Company is a legendary institution in the Berkshires of western Massachusetts. They routinely produce cutting-edge and memorable theater, including dramas, musicals and comedy. Farha said the company is a great place to work, and the staff members have been welcoming during her time in Broadway Bounty Hunter.
But she hopes the journey doesn’t end there. The hope, at least for Farha, is that the show extends beyond Barrington.
“I am hoping and praying that this show continues on because, as I said earlier, there’s nothing being done like this,” she said. “There’s nothing in this vein. There’s nothing being done like this, and everyone who comes to see it loves it, enjoys it, and I think there is a place for it right now in theater. I’m hoping, crossing my fingers, that there is a life to this show. I believe that there is, and I think everyone involved and everyone who sees it believes that there is a life to the show. That’s the hope that it will continue on. It’s really something that people need to see. I mean this piece of theater that Joe, Jason and Lance wrote is really, really something special. I cannot even stress that enough. I just want everybody to see it. I want everybody to get a chance to experience it. Not only doing the show is fun, but watching the show is fun.”
Farha has been involved in singing and dancing her entire life, and because of her aunt and uncle’s support and encouragement, she applied and was accepted to New York University. That college experience, where she met Iconis, shaped her as a performer.
“It’s completely changed my life,” she said. “I went into NYU in the master’s program. I met Joe at NYU, and I never let go. I knew he was special from the very first time I met him, and I never let go. It’s completely changed my life. By the time I graduated, I already had a job lined up going into theater, and I’ve been kind of working in theater ever since.”
In addition to her theater jobs, which include roles in The Wiz, Sister Act and Dreamgirls, Farha has branched off into film and television work as well. She was a background singer on America’s Got Talent and earned roles in A Gifted Man (CBS), All My Children (ABC) and Who’s Wedding Is it Anyway (Style Network). Her concerts have been seen at 54 Below, the midtown Manhattan cabaret venue, and she also paid tribute to Alan Menken at Lincoln Center.
Farha is a busy performer who has found a new home in western Massachusetts for the next few weeks. “I always leave my options open,” she said. “I always say that it’s like the game of jacks. I throw it up in the air, and I see what I catch.”
By John Soltes / Publisher / John@HollywoodSoapbox.com
Badia Farha continues in Broadway Bounty Hunter at Barrington Stage Company through Sept. 4. Click here for more information on the new musical. Click here for more information on Badia Farha’s career.
