INTERVIEW: Bonnie Milligan is ‘Head Over Heels’ in love with Broadway
Photo: Head Over Heels, the new Broadway musical, stars Bonnie Milligan as Pamela. Photo courtesy of Joan Marcus / Provided by BBB with permission.
NEW YORK — The vibe at the Hudson Theatre on Broadway is definitely one of humor, beauty, inclusiveness and pure fun. On a nightly basis, the dedicated cast of Broadway veterans and rookies bring to life the new musical Head Over Heels, based on The Countess of Pembroke’s Arcadia by Philip Sidney and using the songbook of The Go-Go’s.
All of the hits are present and accounted for, including “Our Lips Are Sealed,” “We Got the Beat” and “Vacation.” The show is also make history with the casting of Peppermint (RuPaul’s Drag Race), the first transgender woman to create a principal role on Broadway.
The musical focuses on a royal family — king, queen, princesses, etc. — as they try to salvage their kingdom. Along the way, they seek advice from an oracle (Peppermint) and fall in and out of love.
The show is unique in that the songs are rocking modern tunes, but the book by Jeff Whitty is a fun amalgamation of old-sounding English prose and modern-day, tongue-in-cheek humor (he works off an adaptation by James Magruder). Michael Mayer keeps the plot moving steadily along, and Spencer Liff’s choreography has the royal family shaking to the Go-Go beats.
At the center of the narrative is Bonnie Milligan’s character of Pamela. She’s the daughter of the king and queen, and very much into herself. Her self-centeredness, however, doesn’t stay put for long; throughout the show, she changes her perspective on her family, her world and her love of a woman who has been close at hand for years.
Milligan, who is making her Broadway debut, is the only cast member to have been with the show since its early days.
“I did the original reading four years ago in the city, and I actually got initially attached because I was performing at the Flea Theater off-off-Broadway,” Milligan said in a recent phone interview. ” I was in a couple productions that Ed Iskandar was directing, and he is friends with Jeff Whitty, who came to the shows and as I found out later actually wrote the part with me in mind. So when they did the first reading, Ed directed it, and they asked me to do that. And then I went out to the Oregon Shakespeare Festival a year later with Ed and Jeff.”
Milligan said she was excited to take on the role of Pamela because she had never seen anything like this musical before. Plus, it has transformed her professional life. She started this journey with no agent and no Equity card, and now the role has brought her to the bright lights of Midtown Manhattan.
Her first preview performance of the show at the Hudson Theatre was a memorable experience.
“I was crying all day because it’s my Broadway debut,” she said. “It’s something I wanted for a really long time, and everybody you talk to just said, ‘Just be present. Don’t shut down. Really take it all in.’ … I think what I was most overwhelmed by was the outpouring of love, of everybody in my life, even people I barely knew messaging me, and family and friends, of course, calling and texting. It was overwhelming how much love I rediscovered that I have in my life. There’s so much love, and stepping on that stage for the first time, my heart was racing. The audience was amazing, so they were really loud and boisterous and really supportive. We were sold out, and my heart was just pounding. I think after the first number [‘We Got the Beat’], I went off stage quickly. My first number [‘Beautiful’] is pretty quickly right after that, and I was just looking at a mirror, barely breathing. ‘You’ve got to breathe. You’ve got to breathe because you have a number coming up.’ But then once I got back on stage, it was good. I just started to tear up, but it was magical.”
Before taking on the role of Pamela, Milligan was a casual fan of the Go-Go’s catalog. She loved their big hits, like “Vacation,” “Our Lips Are Sealed” and “Head Over Heels,” but hadn’t take a deep dive into their rarities.
“I hadn’t ever really taken time to listen to full albums or anything,” she said. “I really kind of learned from movie soundtracks because it was a little bit before my time, but going [through] the process of learning these other songs of theirs and buying those albums, I’m in awe of them. They’re amazing — huge fan now.”
Being in a show that pushes boundaries and celebrates inclusivity has not been lost on Milligan. She loves that Head Over Heels has welcomed everyone to the Hudson Theatre and cherished diversity on stage and in the audience.
“Peppermint’s role really has shifted,” Milligan said. “She’s brought so much to it since she joined just this year in this production. She’s been amazing, and we’re really learning what this will mean to a lot of people because we are pushing a lot of boundaries that have never been pushed before. Some people are like, ‘Well, that’s not very safe.’ I remember somebody said that. I’m like, ‘What? Safe? Are you kidding me? This is exciting and beautiful and thrilling to be a part of letting people feel seen that have never felt represented on a Broadway stage before.’ That’s been the overwhelming feeling at the stage door. … I knew it was going to be exciting and special, but nothing could prepare me for all the individuals we’ve met at the stage door who, with tears in their eyes, say, ‘You don’t know what this means to me.’ And it’s beautiful. It really is.”
By John Soltes / Publisher / John@HollywoodSoapbox.com
Bonnie Milligan is currently performing in Head Over Heels at the Hudson Theatre on Broadway. Click here for more information and tickets.
