Career Q&A with Betty Buckley. Moderated by Richard Ridge, Broadway World.
Betty Buckley, who has been called “The Voice of Broadway,” is one of theater’s most respected and legendary leading ladies. She is an actress/singer whose career spans theater, film, television and concert halls around the world. She most recently was inducted into the Theater Hall of Fame for 2012.
Betty Buckley won a Tony Award for her performance as Grizabella, the Glamour Cat, in Andrew Lloyd Webber’s CATS. She received her second Tony Award nomination for Best Actress in a musical for her performance as Hesione in TRIUMPH OF LOVE, and an Olivier Award nomination for her critically acclaimed interpretation of Norma Desmond in the London production of Andrew Lloyd Webber’s SUNSET BOULEVARD, which she repeated to more rave reviews on Broadway.
Her other Broadway credits include 1776, PIPPIN, SONG AND DANCE, THE MYSTERY OF EDWIN DROOD and CARRIE. Off-Broadway credits include the world premiere of Horton Foote’s THE OLD FRIENDS for which she received a Drama Desk Nomination in 2014, WHITE’S LIES, Lincoln Center’s ELEGIES, the original NYSF production of EDWIN DROOD, THE EROS TRILOGY, JUNO SWANS and GETTING MY ACT TOGETHER AND TAKING IT ON THE ROAD. Regional credits include THE PERFECTIONSIT, GYPSY, THREEPENNY OPERA, CAMINO REAL, BUFFALO GAL, ARSENIC AND OLD LACE and THE OLD FRIENDS. She starred in the London production of DEAR WORLD in 2013 and PROMISES, PROMISES.
She co-starred in M. Night Shyamalan’s THE HAPPENING released in June 2008. Other films include her debut in Brian de Palma’s screen version of Stephen King’s CARRIE, Bruce Beresford’s TENDER MERCIES, Roman Polanski’s FRANTIC, Woody Allen’s ANOTHER WOMAN and Lawrence Kasden’s WYATT EARP.
On television, Buckley appeared in THE PACIFIC for HBO and on the Kennedy Center Honors in 2006 and 1983. She also starred for three seasons in the HBO series OZ and as Abby Bradford in the hit series EIGHT IS ENOUGH. She has appeared as a guest star in numerous television series, miniseries and films for television including EVERGREEN, ROSES FOR THE RICH, the CBS series WITHOUT A TRACE, LAW & ORDER: SVU for NBC, ABC Family’s PRETTY LITTLE LIARS and HBO’s GETTING ON.
Buckley has recorded 16 CD’s, among them BOOTLEG: BOARDMIXES FROM THE ROAD, QUINTESSENCE and BETTY BUCKLEY 1967 and the Grammy Nominated STARS AND THE MOON, BETTY BUCKLEY LIVE AT THE DONMAR. Her CD “Ah, Men! The Boys of Broadway” was released by Palmetto Records in August 2012. The CD GHOSTLIGHT produced by T Bone Burnett will be released in Fall 2014 also on Palmetto Records.
She received her second Grammy Nomination for the audio book THE DIARIES OF ADAM AND EVE. For over forty years Ms. Buckley has been a teacher of scene study and song interpretation, giving workshops in Manhattan and various universities and performing arts conservatories around the country. She has been a faculty member in the theatre department of the University of Texas at Arlington, the T. Schreiber Studio in New York City and currently teaches at The Modern Art Museum of Fort Worth, TX.
In April of 2009, Ms. Buckley received the Texas Medal of Arts Award for Theater and was inducted into the Texas Film Hall of Fame in 2007.