INTERVIEW: Judy McLane returns to her OCC-winning role in ‘Romeo & Bernadette’

Photo: Judy McLane stars in the new musical Romeo & Bernadette, now playing at Theater 555. Photo courtesy of the artist / Provided by Richard Hillman PR with permission.

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It has been quite the journey for acclaimed actor Judy McLane and the show Romeo & Bernadette, now playing at Theater 555 in Midtown Manhattan. McLane, known for her work in Mamma Mia! on Broadway, plays Camille Penza, a so-called “mob wife” stuck in the middle of two warring families in this updated version of Shakespeare’s Romeo & Juliet. As the tag line says, this is a musical tale of Verona and Brooklyn.

“I met Justin [Ross Cohen], the director, years ago,” McLane said in a recent phone interview. “I did a movie that has become this strange cult thing … called Were the World Mine. It’s an independent film, and he came to an opening that was in Florida. And I met him there, and he said, ‘You’re perfect for this role, but I’m investigating.’ That was years ago, and so I got to do the reading of it at Amas [Musical Theatre] years later. He called me, and he said, ‘I remember you from this meeting.’ So I did it at Amas, the reading, and that’s how the journey began.”

Cohen and the company, which includes Nikita Burshteyn, Anna Kostakis and Carlos Lopez, are working off a book and lyrics by Mark Saltzman, who worked extensively on the Muppets and Sesame Street. He wrote the long-running revue A, My Name Is Alice, and his other credits include everything from The Adventures of Milo and Otis to the musical The Tin Pan Alley.

“Mark Saltzman is so clever,” McLane said. “He’s a seven-time Emmy-Award-winning writer, but he’s very clever and witty. He makes it very easy to be funny. The characters are very well written, and I love character-driven comedy. … Camille is a mom and mob wife, one of the dons of the family. I think she’s an escape artist, for the most part. She is in this crazy world of the mob, and she uses the finer things in life to escape. Great food and cooking and classical music is her escape to get away from the reality that she’s living in. It’s kind of wonderful because I studied as a classical singer, so it’s kind of fun to go back and revisit that. She’s definitely gotten herself in the situation of this family and tries to make the best of it like seeing all the good things in the world.”

McLane’s portrayal of Camille was met with acclaim a few years ago when Romeo & Bernadette first opened before the pandemic. The actor actually won the Outer Critics Circle award for the production, but then COVID-19 had other plans. The theater industry shut down, and the show’s fate was thrown into a tailspin.

“What’s interesting is during the pandemic, we all stayed in such close contact with each other,” McLane said. “When you say famiglia, we really have become that — just a beautiful, beautiful group of people, talented and funny and so much heart between the musicians and the creatives and the cast. It’s been such a positive backstage, which has been really lovely. Everything is really, really positive. That’s been a nice journey. It’s easier sometimes also when you’re in a comedy. You’re doing something that makes everyone feel good when there’s laughter around. It makes it a lot easier with audiences laughing every night. We feed off that, which is great.”

There was a time when McLane was unsure about Romeo & Bernadette having a further life in New York City. As she said, off-Broadway productions struggle mightily, especially compared to Broadway productions.

“Broadway gets a lot of press, but the off-Broadway world does a lot of amazing things,” she said. “So we were all a bit nervous. … I think Eric [Krebs], the producer, was very sure that he wanted to bring it back in some capacity, but when he bought the Theater 555, I think then we all thought, OK, this is going to have a life hopefully afterward. I think it’s interesting because that’s what we need right now. The world needs comedy. We all need to have some good laughs and go out and remember that we had a life before the pandemic. I was nervous. I thought, well, I love it, I love the character, and I love the show. I think the show definitely has its place as a rom-com kind of thing to lighten people’s hearts, so I think it has a place. We just need to find our audience.”

By John Soltes / Publisher / John@HollywoodSoapbox.com

Romeo & Bernadette, featuring Judy McLane, continues at Theater 555. Click here for more information and tickets.