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Arcadia Weekly Aug 04, 2015
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– Courtesy Photo
A Night With Janis Joplin Extended Through August 23
By Terry Miller
The Pasadena Playhouse (Sheldon Epps, Artistic Director) has extended, by popular demand, A Night With Janis Joplin, which will now play through August 23. Beacon Media said of the production, “Truly amazing … a DO-NOT-MISS play!” The production stars Mary Bridget Davies, following her Tony Award-nominated Broadway run. Pasadena native Kacee Clanton, also from the Broadway production of A Night With Janis Joplin, alternates the role of Janis Joplin with Davies.
The legendary Janis Jopin died in 1970. She lives on as an icon and through countless portrayals of the Queen of Rock and Roll all over the world. However, none are more striking and professional than Mary Bridget Davies’ performance – she is Janis Joplin at the Pasadena Playhouse, which has now extended the play’s run by popular demand to Aug. 23. She gives the audience a show of a lifetime, and then some. You really can feel Janis’ presence.
Like Joplin, Davies battled bad skin and bullies at school. Davies’ big break came at 21, when she reached out to Sam Andrew, whose Big Brother and the Holding Company — Joplin’s old band — was coming to Ohio.
“I wrote him and said, ‘You’re playing close to my hometown. I’m a singer, and I’d love to meet you.’ He wrote back and said, ‘Sure!’”
She showed up at the club and, after she met the band, Andrews asked Davies if she’d like to get up and sing “Me and Bobby McGee” with them. Yes, she would. A flurry of gigs followed, with Big Brother and other bands.
About a year or so later, Davies and her mother came to New York to see the off-Broadway “Love, Janis” at the Village Gate. “My mom turned to me and said, ‘Could you do that?’ I said, ‘Certainly!’ But there was no way I could have played Janis when I was 22. I just didn’t have enough life experience.”
Pasadena Independent had the occasion to interview the wonderfully eclectic, eccentric, sharp and gifted blues singer Mary Bridget Davies last Friday:
PI: Opening night Wednesday last was phenomenal. We understand that the show’s been extended almost to the end of August – that says a heck of a lot about the professional show you’ve created. Has that put any additional pressure on you/your voice?
MBD: No! [laughs] My soul – I really think I was born too late – my soul was born in the 1940s. My singing is a gift; I really feel I’m a conduit. This is a strenuous gig, but I can handle it! Six shows a week is tough, but the so am I. And, on the weekends Kacee Clanton is Janis, so I get a break.
PI: What were your main influences, musically?
MBD: Stevie Wonder and Gladys Knight – Gladys’ voice just kills me.
PI: How did you research the role of playing Janis, initially?
MBD: Osmosis – I always loved Janis. I am a very happy 36-year-old woman with a fiancée who is very grounded – that helps me with my performance and keeps me grounded. Then I auditioned and got the part.
PI: Without being too personal, can you draw any parallels between your life and that of Janis Joplin?
MBD: Completely. Actually we are distantly related … I told Michael [Janis Joplin’s brother] about the heritage and the Grant family connection we all share. There has to be a connection. I was told once that I had a “spirit guide” by a guy who convinced me to do an aura photo [a sort of Polaroid] in Sedona, Arizona. It was $10, so I said, why the hell not! He told me (I was 20 at the time) that I was the hippy-trippy chick that I was … that my favorite color was orange (he was right!) He also said I feel things in deep my gut. Right again! He asked me what I liked to do and I said I was a singer. He immediately said this “spirit guide” is a woman and a singer. Wow! I know she’s with me.
PI: What do YOU do to prepare for the intense, energetic sets? We spoke with Kacee [Clanton] and she said she does some pretty strenuous exercises and warm-up vocals.
MBD: It’s a gift, I think. I don’t really warm up or rehearse. I just go out there and give it everything I’ve got, under the hot lights and heavy costumes that don’t breathe … velvet! But I just get my raspy voice in check and I just feel the spirit. I was a blues singer first and always a dancer. Be careful what you wish for! I’m a very happy girl and the part is physically and emotionally challenging, but I’m so happy to be doing this at this time in my life. Michael [Janis Joplin’s brother] gave me the greatest compliment of all: he said, “I’m so glad YOU got the part to play my sister.”
PI: Your performance left us with absolutely raw hands last Wednesday. Your timing, together with the amazing band members’, seems like you’ve played together for decades; but that is not so, right!?
MBD: We’ve only been together for a couple of weeks. They are terrific to work with. The guitar player [Steven Gregory] and I have fun on stage too. I lost one of my shoes recently and it ended un traveling with one of the many mic stands on stage..The drummer [Jamey Tate] had a good laugh about that.
PI: Ball and Chain was perhaps the highlight for me. It gives me shivers to think of last Wednesday’s show and how you connected with the audience as if you WERE Janis. The audience went wild!
MBD: Yes; that song is very strong. It is about suffering. I’ve suffered. You have to have suffered to sing the blues. It’s all about the silence between the notes. And it’s all about my heart; I was so in the moment I didn’t even see the audience’s reaction that night. Music is a universal language … every tour is different but the response in Europe seems bigger. My favorite song in the show is “Maybe.”
PI: Have you worked with Randy Johnson before this gig?
MBD: This is the first time I worked with Randy. When I put on that costume every night, I become Janis … I really do. At times I cry and sing at the same time – that’s tough to do! Last night, there were three young women were in the front row, dressed as … well … Janis, of course. It was really funny, but off-putting. I know they came to see Janis, not me … but seeing three young women in shades and decked out was really kinda strange, when I’m Janis for the night. But I have, like Janis, a wry/dry wit not unlike W.C. Fields, so it helps me get through.
PI: What’s next for Mary Bridget Davies after this extended gig?
MBD: I’m working on a new album. Then, a bit of a break. To do justice to Janice I have to be plugged in. It is cathartic. To sing the blues you have to have suffered – Janis suffered, I suffered …
A Night with Janis Joplin will play until Aug. 23 at the Pasadena Playhouse, 39 S. El Molino Ave., Pasadena, California 91101. Show nights and times are Tuesdays, Wednesdays, and Thursdays at 8 p.m., Saturdays at 4 p.m. and 8 p.m., and Sundays at 2 p.m. and 7 p.m. Tickets are $55-$150, and can be purchased at www.pasadenaplayhouse.com, by calling (626) 356-7529, or in person at the box office.
