INTERVIEW: Broadway star Sheryl Lee Ralph to raise money for HIV/AIDS awareness

Sheryl Lee Ralph, starring as Madame Morrible in Broadway’s Wicked through Saturday, July 29, will not be taking much of a break after her nine-month run in the successful musical. In fact, the next night, on July 30, she heads to New York City’s Metropolitan Room for the latest incarnation of her Diva concerts, which help raise money for HIV/AIDS awareness.

Ralph, an original cast member of Dreamgirls, founded The DIVA Foundation in 1990 as her answer to the HIV/AIDS epidemic that was greatly impacting her friends. The “DIVA” part of her foundation stands for “Divinely Inspired Victoriously Aware,” and she promises to bring this unique inspiration to the Metropolitan Room stage.

Here’s what she said the audience should expect: “To have a wonderful time, to enjoy themselves, to be enlightened, to be entertained and uplifted.”

Up until now, The DIVA Foundation benefits have been held in Los Angeles, but her friends convinced her to offer a show in the Big Apple. And there are also plans in place to bring the benefit to London, Paris, Tokyo, San Francisco, Seattle and Las Vegas.

Ralph still remembers those early days when The DIVA Foundation was but a mere idea. “As an original company member of Dreamgirls on Broadway, it was the best time of my life, and then right at the best time came the worst,” she said. “And the worst was when your friends just started dropping dead. They just got sick, and they died. It was horrible. It was really horrible. … I think it’s one of the worst times in my life, one of the worst times in America. It was a time when people stood by and let other people suffer and die. It was just not right, and the little church girl in me was like, well, wait, we can do better than this. We’re not supposed to do this. This isn’t what we said we were going to do when other people needed us, and that’s how I started it.”

There was a time when Ralph considered ending her concerts on behalf of The DIVA Foundation. She wasn’t sure if folks were paying attention anymore to the important issue of HIV/AIDS. She didn’t know who was listening.

Then, on a most auspicious morning, she picked up The New York Times Magazine on her way out of her apartment. The image that stared back at her changed her life.

“I turned that magazine over,” she said. “It was as if God was saying to me, ‘I don’t know what time you think it is, but now is the time to really get to work.’ And it was a picture of a lone black man on the cover, and it said, ‘This is AIDS in America.’ And I was like, whoa. … It was a story of devastation in America. It was a story of race in America. It was a story of sickness in America. It was a story of help denied in America, and I was like damn, damn, it’s time, it’s time, it’s time. And the time is not over.”

Ralph finds that many people don’t want to talk about the painful realities and health concerns of HIV/AIDS, so for her concert, she focuses on the positive. She said the evening will be a lot of fun, a night to remember friends and raise them up.

NO REST FOR THE WICKED

Ralph is about to finish her nine-month run in Wicked. Her character of Madame Morrible is one of the audience favorites, and the singer said the engagement has been the “best time.”

“The only thing that bothers me is that enough people don’t know that I’m there, that I’m doing it,” she said. “Wicked is such a machine. Wicked is going to run no matter what, so there’s not a whole lot of need to do press, to let people know certain things, to do new outreach because it’s going to sell out. It has the people who love it, and now people who are coming saying, ‘I had no idea that you were here.’ And I’m like, oh my God, but I am having the best time.”

One night it’s Madame Morrible, and the other night it’s A Diva Simply Singing!

“My friends are like, golly, don’t you believe in taking a break?” she said. “I’m like, there’s no rest for the Wicked. … I had so many friends they were just like you are not leaving this city without doing something. You’ve got to do an act. You’ve got to do something. You have to, and I was like, no, I don’t. They were like, oh, yes, you do. And then they were like, you’ve never done Divas in New York. You’ve never done it. You’ve got to do it.”

One person who will join Ralph on stage at the Metropolitan Room is her dresser from Wicked. She would often hear the dresser singing beautifully backstage and eventually convinced her to make an appearance at the benefit. Ralph’s son will also join his mother on stage.

“So there’ll be a surprise guest or two,” she said. “I’m trying to track down a friend or two from Dreamgirls and see if I can get them back up on stage. Who knows. We’ll see.”

By John Soltes / Publisher / John@HollywoodSoapbox.com

Sheryl Lee Ralph will present A Diva Simply Singing! Sunday, July 30 at 7 p.m. at the Metropolitan Room in New York City. The concert is a benefit for The DIVA Foundation. Click here for more information and tickets.